Controversial health influencers have recently started facing lawsuits over their deceptive marketing claims.
The Liver King, whose real name is Brian Johnson, became famous for his controversial raw meat-based diet. In his YouTube videos, some of which have garnered millions of views, he eats raw organs and advocates for an “ancestral lifestyle.”
Johnson is also seemingly effortlessly ripped, which is what inspired some of his 290,000+ subscribers to follow his diet in the hopes of obtaining his physique.
However, in December 2022, Johnson posted a video to his channel titled “Liver King Confession… I Lied.” In the video, he reveals that he was taking $11,000 of steroids per month to maintain his physical condition.
Soon after, he was hit with a lawsuit for $25 million dollars that alleges he used deceptive marketing practices to sell his Ancestral Supplements. According to Johnson, the supplements have generated more than $100 million in sales a year.
Although the lawsuit was discontinued several months after being filed in New York, Johnson is only one of several health influencers who are being sued for deceptive marketing practices.
Dietitian and influencer Tanya Zuckerbrot and her company F-Factor were also sued in New York in October 2022. Customers of her celebrity-backed diet plan alleged that the high-fiber powders and supplements caused “intestinal blockages requiring emergency surgery, debilitating gastric pain, disordered eating, severe allergic reactions, and other serious and permanent injuries,” according to Bloomberg.
Although the company has touted celebrity clients such as Olivia Culpo, Megyn Kelly and Katie Couric, consumers of the diet took to social media to express their concerns in the lead-up to the lawsuit.
Zuckerbrot’s attorney, Scott Haworth, told Bloomberg that several claims in the suit had “been proven false as evidenced by third-party toxicology testing,” and that plaintiffs haven’t “provided a single medical record or evidence of injury.”
Yet another influencer facing immense legal backlash is Texas-based fitness influencer Brittany Dawn Davis, who is being sued for allegedly not delivering personalized fitness and nutrition plans.
Plaintiffs in that suit claim that Davis, who has nearly 500,000 Instagram followers and about 490,000 YouTube subscribers, charged customers anywhere from $92 to $300 for tailored workout and diet plans. She also allegedly failed to provide one-on-one coaching as promised.
After several months of delayed court dates, Davis agreed to pay $400,000 to settle.
As more and more companies turn to influencer marketing (and influencers turn into companies), the Federal Trade Commission has struggled to regulate the $21 billion industry.
This past June, the FTC updated the Endorsement Ad Guidelines to reflect common influencer marketing practices — the policy’s first update in 10 years.
The new guidelines require a “clear and conspicuous” endorsement disclosure as one that is “difficult to miss (i.e., easily noticeable) and easily understandable by ordinary consumers.” Additionally, it gives guidance on editing comments that function as consumer reviews, and it says that every party involved in a marketing campaign can be held accountable for breaches, including influencers and content creators.
Despite this most recent FTC update, concerns about regulation, health and misinformation are rampant. However, certified doctors and health experts are advising consumers to be conscious of the content they consume.
“You can’t rely on the number of likes that a person has or number of followers as being an indicator of the quality of their advice,” Cedric Bryant, the president of the American Council on Exercise, told the New York Times back in May. “Even if a person has fitness credentials, if they don’t also have proper training in nutrition, I would tread carefully. Make sure they’re staying in their lane.”