1. Results May Vary
Ashton Phillips / Nathan Gathright / Tiffany Burlingame / Shely Vargas / Estar Kanyua

2. Product Summary:
• Hydroxycut products are popular dietary supplements
used for weight loss.
• Hydroxycut was linked to cases of liver damage.
• Other than the health risk, Hydroxycut products have
been linked to numerous false advertising campaigns.

3. Situation Summary:
• The company that markets the product claims that
“the supplement will help you lose unwanted body fat
and make you look ripped and lean.”
• On May 1, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) issued a warning after they
noticed that some Hydroxycut products were being
linked to liver damage and had been the cause of one
reported death.

4. The Issues:
• This case teaches consumers about harmful products,
false claims. They provide the information to analyze
products and advertising more effectively.
• According to the Principles and Practices for
Advertising Ethics, “Advertising, Public Relations,
and Marketing Communications professionals have
an obligation to exercise the highest personal ethics
in the creation and dissemination of commercial
information to consumers.”

5. • The ethical issue is that Hydroxycut continually
pushed false advertising in order to gain profits.
Instead of simply advertising its product, they showed
unrealistic results, which over-glorified Hydroxycut in
order to push more units verses considering the
consumer’s best interest.

6. The problem:
• The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act
of 1994 (DSHEA) restricted the ability of the FDA
to regulate dietary supplements. The FDA plays no
role in ensuring that a dietary supplement works as
advertised. The FDA can only do something after a
product proves to be harmful.
• The Federal Trade Commission ( FTC) is responsible
for preventing unfair, deceptive, anticompetitive
business practices in the marketplace.

7. • The FDA issued a warning against the use of
Hydroxycut after it received 23 reports of serious
health problems.
• It’s Hydroxycut’s responsibility to ensure that its
product testing is conducted ethically, and that the
results are communicated properly.

8. Utilitarianism:
• Hydroxycut perpetuated a warped perspective on
body image. No one particular brand is responsible
for the unhealthy body image often found in our
culture, but companies should act responsibly when
addressing this topic in media. An ethical position
for Hydroxycut’s advertising would cause greater
happiness among more people and be for any
organization.

9. Communitarianism:
• If the manufacturer of Hydroxycut valued its
community of consumers, testing of ingredients to
insure safety would have been a prominent concern,
as well as creating advertisements that didn’t mislead
the consumer by giving them false information.

10. Moral Relativism:
• Moral relativism implies that if everybody else is doing
it, we might as well too. Under the theory of moral
relativism, the manufacturers of Hydroxycut practiced
ethical decision-making because their advertisements
and infomercials are as ludicrous as the other
weight-loss supplement ads.

11. Future Recommendations:
• Consumers need to be aware that the FDA doesn’t
regulate dietary supplements.
• Hydroxycut needs to advertise honestly without
promoting an unhealthy body image.

12. The End