Rick Casey: Body Solutions bankruptcy brings few tears for
'victims'
Web Posted : 09/20/2002 12:00 AM
Normally a bankruptcy brings condolences for the creditors.
But it's a different story
with Body Solutions.
How sorry can you feel
for serious business executives who extend millions in credit to a man who says
his product will let you lose weight in your sleep?
The bankruptcy filing of
Mark Nutritionals Inc. — marketers of Body Solutions — listed more
than 500 creditors. Nearly two-thirds were radio stations scattered from the
East Coast to the West.
Their role makes it even harder to feel sorry for them.
If they had simply used
bad business judgment, we might still have a touch of sympathy.
But their role wasn't that of a supplier who provided the wire from which the
widgets were made. They were an integral part of the operation.
They unleashed their professional
hucksters to give personal testimonials and spew dubious "science"
to hawk the "secret formula" to the massive masses.
Radio talk show hosts
all over the country became the modern version of the back-of-the-wagon salesman
who used their velvet voices to peddle Harry Siskind's snake oil.
There are some things
even some radio talent won't do. In San Antonio, KTSA's Brad Messer and Carl
Wiglesworth — and maybe others of whom I'm not aware — declined to
pitch "Dr. Siskind's Miracle Fat Fighting Potion."
But there was no shortage
of those who did.
Radio, incidentally, is
the perfect medium for paid hucksters to give personal testimonials for weight-loss
products.
I've seen some of these
cherubs in person, and let's just say that their credibility was in their voices,
not in their figures.
Some went beyond the call of duty to do more than just prey on the dreams of us overweight people.
Last year when this newspaper ran a thorough and (in my opinion) exceedingly
fair story on the Body Solution business, KTSA's Eliza Sonneland felt the need
to come to the company's defense.
Most humorous was her
argument that our reporters were unleashed on the company because it had not
advertised with the San Antonio Express-News. (Time for a confession: Actually,
she was wrong. We did run some Body Solutions ads, though none of us gave personal
testimonials.)
Sonneland (who, by the
way, is svelte and hawked Body Solutions without claiming to use it) actually
argued that being paid is less compromising than not being paid.
Here's a proposition for
you, Eliza.
Your buddy Harry bought
a corporate sponsorship for a charity golf tournament benefiting the Battered
Women's Shelter.
Siskind and his company
enjoyed the benefits of the sponsorship, the perks and the PR. But he hasn't
paid the bill. The shelter is among the listed creditors.
I know this because of
the good work of Travis Poling, whom you referred to Thursday as a "so-called
business reporter" after he reported the bankruptcy filing — something
a PR firm hired by Body Solutions (and another of the creditors) had disclosed
in a news release.
Instead of casting aspersions
on reporters who aren't selling their services to fast-buck artists, why don't
you take up a collection among your so-called weight-losing colleagues and cover
Harry's bill at the Battered Women's Shelter?
In examining the list
of creditors, one other fact stood out. Not only does it have a lot of radio
stations, but it's lousy with lawyers, poor dears.
The makers of Body Solutions
are being sued all over the country. A judge in Florida told the company Thursday
to quit stalling and set a 21-day deadline to turn over reams of documents —
including scripts given to radio gabbers.
Siskind is also using
lawyers on offense.
Creditors as gullible
as Body Solutions customers may take some hope in a lawsuit the company recently
filed. It seeks $440 million in damages from some Internet search engines for
selling placements so that other companies popped up when the words "Body
Solutions" were entered.
Don't hold your breath.
No such suit has yet been successful.
No, this particular weight-loss
gravy train has been derailed. Why? Simple. They ran out of suckers.
Now only two questions remain.
One: What will Harry Siskind
— who filed personal bankruptcy in New Jersey in 1997 and business bankruptcy
here with a weight-loss cookie company in 1998 — come up with next?
Two: Will he be sitting
courtside again this year at Spurs games?
To leave a message for
Rick Casey, call (210) 250-3544 or e-mail rcasey@express-news.net. His column
appears on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
09/20/2002