Valerie Bertinelli is a big, fat liar, a new suit says.
Weight Watchers Interna tional filed suit yesterday against Jenny Craig, claiming the weight-loss company touted fake scientific research that allegedly proves it trims the fat faster in ads featuring the former “One Day at a Time” star.
The TV ads were timed to appear when people make New Year’s resolutions to reduce their bulk, and featured Bertinelli announcing that she had “big news.”
The ads show the actress-turned-pitchwoman “clad in a lab coat and surrounded by ‘scientists’ ” when she claims that a “major clinical trial” found that “Jenny Craig clients lost, on average, over twice as much weight as those on the largest weight-loss program!”
The ads also claim “we’re talking about a major clinical trial here, run by some serious lab geeks.”
The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, said that’s an obvious — and false — reference to Weight Watchers, whose famous pitchwomen include actress Jenny McCarthy. She has claimed to have lost more than 75 pounds on the plan.
Furthermore, Weight Watchers said the studies Jenny Craig is boasting about were conducted 10 years apart and can’t be used to make a real comparison. “The Jenny Craig statements are false,” the suit said. “Jenny Craig did not conduct ‘a major clinical trial’ comparing its product with the Weight Watchers program.”
Weight Watchers CEO David Kirchhoff said the Craig campaign “is clearly unsupported by fact or science.”
In addition to the TV ads, the claims of twice as much weight loss are carried in Jenny Craig print ads and on its Web site, the suit said.
Weight Watchers asked in the suit that Jenny Craig stop the ad campaign and run new ads admitting it lied.
Jenny Craig released a statement claiming the company made clear in its advertising and Web site that it was citing separate studies conducted under similar conditions.
This is the latest legal tussle between the weight-loss giants. In September, Weight Watchers sued Jenny Craig’s parent company, Swiss-based Nestle, for allegedly abusing its rivals’ trademarks, claiming they were improperly used on packages of their food products. With Post Wire Services