The Impact of Celebrity Endorsement of Dietary Products

Today (Wednesday 27 March), Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee City East, led a Member's Debate in the Scottish Parliament on the impact of celebrity endorsed products on social media.

The local MSP commented:

"I was delighted to host the member’s business debate on The impact from celebrity endorsements of diet products.

"It was a great debate with cross party support, with many members talking about their own personal experiences with weight loss products and fad diets. Thank you to all who contributed to the debate.

"As the mum of a 15-year-old daughter, the power of social media and the advertising of these products terrifies me as I know how influenced youngsters are by the people they follow.

"We need stronger regulation and controls over these products to protect those who are vulnerable to their false claims and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) seem willing to take a lead on the issue. I met with them recently and agreed I would collect and compile a dossier of examples of these types of adverts to pass onto the ASA for further investigation. So, if you know of and are worried about any of these adverts please let me know so that we can tackle this together."

ENDS