TrimSpa Post-Anna-Nicole: Is a Company More Than the Spokesperson

The question of whether companies survive their spokemodels is perhaps moot in this situation, but the dilemma TrimSpa finds itself in today is unique in recent times, to say the least:

In the lobby of TrimSpa's headquarters, framed clippings of tabloid newspapers trumpet Anna Nicole Smith's weight loss. Smith is also shown smiling in banner ads featuring photographs before and after her extreme weight loss.

A red van bearing Smith's likeness was parked Friday outside the weight-loss supplement company's office.

With Smith's death Thursday, the company, recently the subject of class lawsuits and a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, has lost its high-profile spokeswoman.

Smith, who lost a significant amount of weight in recent years, made several commercials and appeared on television promoting TrimSpa's weight-loss products. How the privately held company operates without its star spokeswoman, often a tabloid staple, is unclear.

The company had no immediate comment on the death of its celebrity spokeswoman, who was found in a Florida hotel room.

Smith's death poses a problem for TrimSpa, said University of Maryland professor Roland T. Rust, chairman of the marketing department.

"They probably need a complete change of pace, moving away from the celebrity focus, especially the celebrity focus on her," Rust said.

Indeed, apparently, Smith was in violation of her TrimSpa agreement according to the bottles of SlimFast found in her fridge:

TRIMSPA president Alex Goen appeared on Court TV last night to set the record straight on recently released photos of Anna Nicole Smith's fridge. The photos showed that Smith had many Slim-Fast food products in the fridge of her Bahamian home. Many people were shocked to see the products because Anna Nicole Smith was the spokesperson for popular weight loss product TRIMSPA.

Alex Goen appeared on Court TV and let everyone know that Anna Nicole Smith was in violation of her contract with TRIMSPA for having the Slim-Fast products in her home. Goes states, "It would definitely be a violation ... it would definitely be one of those things we would question. We would not want her taking any other weight loss products." Usually when a company finds out an individual has violated their contract, they would take the time to right the situation and launch a media campaign to make things good on their end. Goen is in the unfortunate situation that since Smith has passed away, he must go out and handle the situation on a "we would have" basis.

Anna Nicole Smith has always been a media darling in her own right. When she disappeared for several years to only return to television as a different woman (she was much bigger than she once was) people were shocked. Then TRIMSPA came along and offered her a contract to be their spokesperson. They helped Anna Nicole Smith lose her weight in exchange for her helping promote their product. When Smith appeared on television for the first time in nearly a year, people were shocked by what they had seen. Smith had lost much of her weight and was claiming that TRIMSPA was the cure. This helped launch TRIMSPA as a leader in the weight loss category. Now, their product has come under question.

Consumers are asking why would Smith take Slim-Fast if TRIMSPA really worked. Obviously, this proves that the product is not as wonderful as everyone seems to believe it is. Goen realizes the negative backlash the finding of Slim-Fast will have on its company. This disaster could even lead to the demise of the product as a whole. The next quarter will decide how consumers now feel about the product.

... among other things:

But we do know what was in her refrigerator in the Bahamas thanks to AOL Entertainment website TMZ.Com. The refrigerator, which was inside Anna Nicole's bedroom in the Bahamas, contained Methadone (5 mg per 5 ml), the report details.

The small refrigerator also contained cans of Slimfast-- ironic, since Smith was TRIMSPA's spokesperson. Several bottles of TRIMSPA sat right next to the fridge. In the online report TMZ writes that 'the Methadone is ironic since it appears Smith's son Daniel died from a combination of drugs including Methadone. Law enforcement sources in the Bahamas tell TMZ at least one witness has come forward and said Howard K. Stern supplied Daniel with methadone just before he died and flushed the remaining stash down the toilet. That witness is expected to testify at the coroner's inquest into Daniel's death next month.'

In fact, TrimSpa was planning on phasing Anna Nicole out of the ads as spokesperson:

Officials from the weight-loss supplement company whose ads featured the late Anna Nicole Smith said Saturday future ads will focus on ordinary people.

In a statement issued Saturday night, TrimSpa Chief Executive Officer Alex Goen said that while Smith's dramatic weight loss from the product had "helped to catapult the brand," he said its success "is not simply the result of Anna Nicole Smith."

Smith died suddenly on Thursday at 39. No cause of death has been determined.

The company will now rely on its less-famous customers as spokespeople, people who TrimSpa President Tony Azzizzo described in the statement as "your neighbors, friends, family members."

Azzizzo said the brand "now has thousands of successful weight loss spokespersons, albeit less heralded. Their weight loss experience is no less celebrated for them as Anna's was to the world."

TrimSpa has taken heat for some of their ads in the past. Earlier this month, Smith and TrimSpa were named in a class-action lawsuit alleging their marketing of a weight-loss pill is false or misleading. The Federal Trade Commission also recently announced the company would pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that the company's weight-loss claims were unsubstantiated.

Indeed, CEO Goen confirms to that most reliable of news sources, Access Hollywood, that Anna Nicole was prepared to "share the throne" with others:

"We have an event coming up between the 18th and 25th where we are actually looking for a new face for TrimSpa. Anna Nicole was judging the event and coming to the event," TrimSpa CEO and founder Alex Goen told Access in an interview with correspondent Tim Vincent.

"So she was already going to step down?," Tim asked Goen.

"I wouldn't call it step down. She was going to share the throne," Goen responded.

"She recognized her story was getting old and we needed some fresh stories. We had a lot of stories. The whole weight thing, it was a passion for her. If you know Anna she was a crusader for three things. I mean, one thing was for Daniel and children. The other thing was for animals and the other thing was for people that had a weight challenge. Whether they still had the challenge I mean she could relate to them because she was made fun of for so many years with her weight," Goen continued.

"She used to hug these people. I remember her embracing people and just sharing tears with them for twenty minutes. I don't know exactly what they said to each other but you could tell at times they were tears of joy and at times tears of sorrow. It's a painful, painful challenge that people are faced with when they have a weight issue. It compromises so many parts of our lives' And so she was going to do this event. She was really looking forward to the event."

Howard K. Stern, Anna's partner, did not want Anna to work too hard though.
"One of the frustrations that we had with Howard was that Howard would say, 'OK, she only can work maybe six hours a day or three hours a day. We don't want' she can't work every single day. There's times that she is going to probably break down and you are going to have to understand she is going to need a break.'

"And then I would talk to Anna and Anna would say I want to do the whole entire day of judging. I would say, 'Anna it's a 12-hour day.'

'That's OK, I want to do the whole day. I want to be there for every single event. I want to meet the contestants,'" she'd respond to Goen.

Goen also told Access new information regarding the reported class action lawsuit, prior to Anna's death. He says that there was no lawsuit served.

"First there was said to be a class action lawsuit served on the company.We never had service.We did look at this suit' we got it somehow in the media. This class action box is not checked off so it is not a class action lawsuit. It has to have a check there. It's interesting how they listed Anna Nicole's name first in the suit. It would be like listing any other celebrated customer that lost weight with TrimSpa. I mean she lost weight with TrimSpa," he says.

"She didn't design the product or didn't do all these studies on the product. She was a success story like all these other success stories. I mean when you take a look at it, it looked like a publicity stunt and you know what?' it worked! Unfortunately when Anna Nicole's name is in something it gets attention."

Access Hollywood reached out to Joseph S. Farzam, Esq., who represents the plaintiffs in the TrimSpa lawsuit -- he provided the following statement:

"The lawsuit against Trimspa is brought not just on behalf of the individuals named, but also on behalf of all other consumers who have taken the drugs and have seen no results. I am a certified member of the patent bar and I have a background in science. Through this lawsuit we will challenge Trimspa to provide us with reliable scientific evidence that substantiates their claim that their magic drug causes rapid weight loss. Ultimately a jury in reviewing the scientific evidence will decide if there is any truth to the claim that Trimspa drugs contribut to weight loss. My clients and hundreds of others who have contacted me through e-mails and phone calls believe otherwise. Trimspa agreed to pay the FTC $1.5 million to settle allegations that its marketing is deceptive. If there was scientific proof for Trimspa's claims, would they agree to pay such a large sum or would it defend itself against FTC's allegations?"

As for the state of TrimSpa?

"You know from a company perspective you want to be friendly to the media, you want to be treated well by the media so you want to cooperate whatever you possibly can so we've got, I've got an issue that I have to deal with business wise. My back is against a wall. I'm certainly concerned about whether or not we can make it. I think the odds are right now possibly against us. I mean we are going to give it all we have," Goen says.