[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/JCawley09.jpg” caption=”John Cawley, an associate professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University in New York. File photo. “]Advertising claims about weight-loss products that sound too good be true – and most likely are – are rampant in North America. Yet consumers buy into the claims and spend millions in their quest to find a quick fix for shedding excess pounds.

The issue of how deceptive advertising for these products affects consumers' decisions to buy them will be discussed by an American researcher with extensive experience in the economics of obesity at the monthly seminar of McMaster's Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis on Wednesday, March 11.

John Cawley, an associate professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University in New York, will give the seminar entitled The effect of deceptive advertising on consumption: The case of over-the-counter weight loss products.

Cawley will share the results of a research project that measured consumers' exposure to advertising for weight-loss products in magazines and on television, and examined how the ads affected their use of the products. The deceptiveness in the advertising was measured according to explicit Federal Trade Commission guidelines in the U.S. developed specifically for ads for weight-loss products.

Cawley, who is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in the programs on health economics and health care, has served on advisory boards and expert panels relating to obesity for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

His research focuses on various aspects of the economics of obesity, with recent initiatives examining the impact of food advertising on the consumption of specific branded food items by children and youth. He is also evaluating school-based interventions to prevent youth obesity and the impact of financial rewards for weight loss.

The seminar will be held from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in room 1J8 of the Health Sciences Centre. All are welcome to attend.