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Stars warned on spruiking beauty drink
July 03, 2011
DOCTORS are warning celebrities spruiking an anti-ageing collagen drink that the product is a sham.
Dannii Minogue, Sonia Kruger and Kylie Gillies, all Channel 7 stars, tweeted about the drink last week, despite Gillies admitting she had not tried it.
They were introduced to the product, Taut, by a Seven make-up artist, Fotini Hatzis.
The drink, which contains shark cartilage, was launched at an event last week attended by Gillies and other Seven stars. Kruger and Minogue were no-shows. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said there was no evidence to back its skin-smoothing claims.
"To suggest that taking collagen peptides by the stomach is anti-ageing is a crock of ****," the AMA's Dr Saxon Smith said.
The Australian College of Dermatologists' Dr Phillip Artemi said the product's claims were "bordering on the absurd" and could be dangerous.
"We really don't know how someone's stomach and gastrointestinal system is going to react to this. It's not to be recommended," he said.
Despite Taut being marketed as an anti-ageing product in Asia and described as "age defying" on its official website, Ms Hatzis, who is the drink's ambassador, said the company had no plans to promote the product in the same fashion in Australia.
"We actually haven't been claiming it's an anti-ageing product. We're not going to do that here," she said.
Ms Hatzis also downplayed concerns it could be harmful.
"Due to the fact it's got seafood, (people are advised) to ask their doctor," she said.
Minogue tweeted twice about the drink and spoke about it on an online video.
Kruger tweeted Minogue: "How amazing is Taut".
Gillies tweeted that she was "planning on bathing in the stuff".
Kruger's manager Mark Klemens said she was given the product by a friend and is no longer using it.
"She's been given it by someone she knows and isn't using it anymore and, of course, had no knowledge of any concerns," he said. A Seven publicist said Gillies attended the launch to support Ms Hatzis, adding: "She hasn't used the product."
Minogue's manager declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for the Australian distributor said it would not be marketed as anti-ageing in Australia because of regulations and the shark used in the product was not an endangered