GSK Offers Weight Loss Hotline, Web Site To Help “Make This Year Different”

GlaxoSmithKline offered a program, sponsored by its alli OTC weight-loss drug, during the first week of this year to educate consumers about proven weight-loss strategies and to warn about ineffective products.

The "Make This Year Different" campaign, offered Jan. 4-7, provided free advice from registered dieticians and pharmacists, Isha Williams, GSK Consumer Healthcare senior brand manager for weight control products, told "The Tan Sheet."

"The gist of it is that people do have a lot of misunderstandings about different options that are available to them for weight loss, particularly around over-the-counter weight loss supplements, and it stresses the need for people to have access to expert guidance and expert help to understand the differences between options available to them for weight loss," Williams said.

Information was made available via a toll-free telephone line and online. Messages and videos recorded by health care professionals will be available on a toll-free hotline, 866-551-DIFFERENT, and Web site (www.MakeThisYearDifferent.com) through Jan. 31, she said.

The event is "really an opportunity for overweight adults who are seeking to lose weight in January, which is a key season for dieting, to consult for free with registered dieticians and pharmacists to get answers to questions they have about weight loss and to get some guidance on what are safe and effective strategies to lose weight," Williams added.

According to results of a survey conducted in November by Harris Interactive, 52 percent of U.S. adults plan to make a serious weight loss attempt in 2008.

While 73 percent of the survey participants agreed receiving outside help from a health care professional would aid in their weight loss attempts, only 13 percent said they would actually seek advice, Williams observed.

"So, 'Make This Year Different' is just offering a service to those overweight consumers by giving them free access to registered dieticians and registered pharmacists," she said.

Williams added the survey also revealed misconceptions about some weight-loss products, "particularly over-the-counter weight loss supplement and herbal remedies."

"A large percentage of adults believe those products are proven safe and effective, or believe that the FDA has reviewed them when it really has not."

Dietician and GSK consultant Rebecca Reeves said registered dieticians and pharmacists will provide diet and wellness tips - such as what types of foods to purchase at grocery stores, how to keep food journals and monitor physical activity with a pedometer - as well as information about OTC weight-loss products and drug interactions.

"I think what's really important this time of year is understanding the difference between credible nutrition information and a fad," said Reeves, past president of the American Dietetic Association and managing director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

"There's so much misinformation in the marketplace now regarding how people should lose weight and people spend billions of dollars on weight loss products and programs which have no efficacy to them," she added. "There are no safety facts about them."

Williams said GSK plans to promote the campaign through activities such as making experts available to TV news programs and through radio and print interviews, as well as online banners for the Web site.

"Make This Year Different" is not an alli-branded campaign.

While GSK launched new advertising for alli with the tagline "This Time It's Going To Be Different" on Jan. 1, the main thrust of the campaign will come after the sponsored event ends, Williams said.

Previous alli advertising emphasized the drug's status as currently the only FDA-approved OTC weight-loss product. GSK also emphasizes alli requires commitment to a healthy lifestyle and is not a "quick fix" or a "fad" diet (¹ (Also see "Alli Message Challenges Cultural Bias, Mistrust Of Health Care Services" - Pink Sheet, 19 Nov, 2007.), p. 13).

- Jessica Lake ([email protected])