Weight-loss supplement company TrimSpa has devoted its Web site to its late spokeswoman, Anna Nicole Smith, with photos and a message from company CEO and founder Alex Goen.
The company had no immediate comment on the death of its celebrity spokeswoman. Smith, 39, was found dead in a Miami hotel room Thursday.
“Anna Nicole Smith’s grief stricken and tumultuous personal life came to an end,” said the message on the Web site, dated Thursday. “Anna came to our company as a customer, but she departs it as a friend. While life for Anna Nicole was not easy these past few months, she held dear her husband, Howard K. Stern, her daughter, Dannielynn Hope, her most cherished friends, beloved dogs, and finally, her work with TrimSpa.”
“... We pray that she is granted the peace that eluded her more recent days on earth,” the message said.
Goen, the company’s chief executive officer and founder, was out of the country Friday and unavailable for comment. TrimSpa is marketed by Goen Technologies Corp., which is also based in Whippany, N.J.
Smith, who lost a significant amount of weight in recent years, made several commercials and appeared on television promoting TrimSpa’s weight-loss products.
TrimSpa has run into trouble over some of its product claims. Just this month, Smith and TrimSpa were sued in a class-action lawsuit alleging their marketing of a weight-loss pill is false or misleading.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission announced TrimSpa would pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that the company’s weight-loss claims were unsubstantiated.
TrimSpa released a statement following the announcement saying it supported actions to clean up the weight-loss industry, but disputed the federal agency’s allegation that a handful of TrimSpa advertisements that ran in 2003 and 2004 had insufficient substantiation.
TrimSpa also disagreed with any inference that its X32 product has no scientific support.