TrimSpa set to move on without Anna Nicole Smith; ads to feature other customers

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ Officials from the weight-loss supplement company whose ads featured the late Anna Nicole Smith said Saturday future ads will focus on ordinary people. <br/><br/>In a statement issued

Saturday, February 10th 2007, 3:01 pm

By: News On 6

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ 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.