The Alli Program

Marketed as the "Anti-Obesity Wonder Drug," the Alli program presents an over-the-counter diet pill approved by the FDA. The diet pill is a reduced strength version of the prescription drug Xenical aka Orlistat. The site highly encourages taking Alli along with traditional dieting and exercise.

How Allis is Used
Alli is only intended for use by persons 18 years or older. The recommended use is one tablet three times a day with a meal containing fat. The concept of this pill is to reduce fatty acids absorbed by the body by controlling enzymes in the intestine. These enzymes control the amount of fats absorbed by the body. Alli stresses the importance of not taking the pill in conjunction with non-fat diet.

Side Effects of Alli
Irregular bowel movements (poop) and flatulence (farting)
Unusual oily stool (poop)
Some deficiencies in fat based vitamins
Alli points out that this is usually found in persons using Alli with a high fat diet and that these side effects are harmless.

All information found at http://www.allipills.com/ & http://www.myalli.com/

Medical Experts Conclude:
Research from the Mayo Clinic suggest that Alli does lead to weight loss however, only a few more pounds than dieting and exercising alone. There is little study on the effectiveness of Alli. Most studies were conducted on the prescription drug Xenical. Xenical was found to promote on average 6 lbs more weight loss than dieting and exercising in a one year time frame. So, since Alli is half the prescription strength, it would be viable to say it would promote 3 lbs more weight loss than dieting and exercise alone. Medical experts perception of Alli is that it should be used along with dieting and exercise to promote weight loss.

All information found at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alli/WT00030/NSECTIONGROUP=2

The Analysis
A big marketing strategy that Alli uses (from viewing their website) is advertising the idea that it is the only OTC diet pill approved by the FDA. These comments can be found on numerous sections of the website. The claim is that with Alli, you can loose more than 50% of weight loss than dieting alone. They offer dieting plans to go along with taking the Alli pill.
One thing that I did not find on the site was sources of research. Because there are reviews stating that the results given on the Alli websites are correlate with the prescription strength Orlistat/Xenical, and not the Alli pill itself, this can cause the audience to be mislead. Advertiser also made comments about how HOT the item is and that the items are "flying off the shelves." I thought to myself, "another gimmick to get people to buy."
The focus on the FDA's approval of this OTC diet pill is the main advertising strategy. Because of all the media on the skepticism of the FDA's values, I feel that just because something is FDA approved doesn't make that a safe product. We've heard of people going against the FDA saying that pharmaceutical companies and other big corporate guys are the ones who makes the decisions of what gets approved and not. To my classmates, this is also something we've been discussing in class. Because Alli is endorsed by pharmaceutical companies (makers of Orlistat/Xenical), I don't know what to believe. However, it's nice to be aware of these skepticism.
Another point to make is that, I can't find any evidence based information from the site. There are statements that research has been done however, that research is not provided. The sites that are provided are typically sites that are supported by supporters of Alli as well. It makes me wonder wheter or not these sites are set up for the publics best interest or not. I personally feel that they're all out to make profits.