A scandal has just broken here in Canada about Power Bars. i will post
it when i find the details as it was a radio news item. Meanwhile chew
on this:

SHERRI DAY NEW YORK TIMES

Oprah Winfrey has talked about weight loss, hers and everyone else'sfor
years. Her protege Dr. Phil has found a way to make money from it.

Dr. Phillip McGraw, whose syndicated talk show, Dr. Phil, is second
only to Winfrey's in popularity, began his second season this fall with
an ambitious multimedia assault on obesity.

Following the example of Winfrey's continuing series of programs, like
her popular book club, he has invited 13 overweight participants to
spend a year sweating off pounds and regaining self-confidence under
his tough-love tutelage, with many more viewers charting their own
progress on the Dr. Phil Web site, http://www.drphil.com.

An accompanying book, The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys To
Weight Loss Freedom, has been at the top of the best-seller lists, and
he is promoting his system in a series on weight loss on NBC's Today
program.

But another part of his campaign has taken him far from Winfrey's
playbook and led to some criticism. Under a licensing deal with CSA
Nutraceuticals, a start-up in Irving, Texas, McGraw is lending his name
and image to a line of nutritional supplements, including vitamin
packets, power bars and meal-replacement drinks that began quietly
appearing in U.S. stores like Wal-Mart, Walgreen and Target during the
summer under the brand name Shape Up.

Of course, celebrity licensing and endorsement deals have long been a
mainstay of consumer marketing, but few talk show hosts have so closely
associated the products they endorse with the content of their
television programs. McGraw's licensing deal with Shape Up crosses
another barrier, one that has been regarded as sacred: Unlike books or
videos, the products can directly affect viewers' health. And because
McGraw carries the honorific "doctor", though he is a clinical
psychologist and not a physician, his critics say that consumers are
more likely to trust his recommendations.

"As soon as we heard the prospect of him going into the nutritional
food category, it was kind of like `What?'" said Sid Good, the
president of Good Marketing, a consumer products consultant in
Cleveland. "It's always different when you step into the medical field.
There are a different set of assumptions that we make as consumers in
terms of what our expectations are and the appropriateness of who's
giving us the advice.''

The licensing question is amplified because McGraw's success is built
to a large degree on his personal appeal and credibility, far more so
than most daytime talk show hosts (viewers might hesitate before buying
a health product endorsed by Jerry Springer, for example).

In an interview, McGraw said he did not consider the endorsement deal a
commercial venture, adding that his proceeds would go to a charitable
foundation but also that he would not allow public reaction to dictate
his decisions.

"I think it's a good product," he said, "and I'm doing it for a really
good reason and purpose, although if I was doing it for a commercial as
a brand extension of my own  I wouldn't apologize for that either."