The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2011
Nivea sold a cream as a slimming treatment — rubbing it in cost $900K
June 2011: Beiersdorf paid $900K and barred the slimming claims — Nivea My Silhouette! promised applying a skin cream would reduce body size.
Beiersdorf, Inc. · 2011-06
What happened
Nivea My Silhouette! was marketed as more than a moisturizer: regular use of the cream, the ads claimed, would help consumers slim down and significantly reduce their body size. The FTC charged that the claim was unsupported — no competent and reliable scientific evidence showed that applying a topical cream produced measurable slimming.
The June 2011 settlement required Beiersdorf, Inc. to stop claiming Nivea My Silhouette! can reduce body size or produce weight loss without competent scientific evidence, and to pay $900,000. The FTC framed it as one of its ongoing efforts against over-hyped health and appearance claims — the same standard that had just brought down toning-shoe makers.
The case is the boundary line for cosmetics advertising: a moisturizer can claim what a moisturizer does. The moment the promise crosses from appearance to body change — slimming, inches lost — it becomes a health claim that needs clinical substantiation, and the FTC measures the gap between the promise and the evidence.
Why it happened
- The ads promised body-size reduction from a topical cream — a physiological claim with no clinical evidence.
- The claim crossed from cosmetics into health territory, where substantiation standards jump.
- The FTC was mid-sweep on appearance claims: toning shoes had just settled for tens of millions.
The lesson
A cosmetic can promise what a cosmetic does: the moment the claim crosses into changing the body — slimming, weight loss — it becomes a health claim needing clinical proof.
Aftermath
Beiersdorf paid $900K and stopped the slimming claims; Nivea My Silhouette! continued as a skin cream without body-reduction promises. The order remains the FTC's citation for slimming claims in cosmetics.
Sources
- FTC — FTC Settlement Prohibits Marketer from Claiming that Nivea Skin Cream Can Help Consumers Slim Down
- FTC — Beiersdorf, Inc. case page
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