Hoodia think ya fooling?

The owners of a controversial Hoodia slimming product have been caught in the act again - advertising the same product under a different name.

After the Advertising Standards Authority imposed strict sanctions on the Cape Town couple who marketed the Hoodia slimming gel and Slendermax line of "slimming products" by using misleading and untrue adverts, the couple merely changed the name and packaging.

In February, Christopher and Jasmine Grindlay were on the receiving end of some of the authority's most severe sanctions.

Their company, Planet Hoodia, was ordered to pay for full-page "adverse publicity" advertisements in 11 magazines after repeatedly flouting the authority's rules.

Well-known medical consumer activist Dr Harris Steinman and Rhodes pharmacology professor Roy Jobson have both been outspoken campaigners against the slimming "miracles" offered by the Grindlays.

Steinman also brought fraud charges against them.

This week, the authority ordered them to withdraw a print ad and promotional website copy.

"The only way to keep advertising products with no proof of efficacy, was to start a 'new' company, and market a 'new' product.

"This would appear to have been a calculated attempt to circumvent existing ASA rulings and sanctions, and appears to show clear intention to disregard them," the authority ruling read.

The Grindlays vowed to revise their website copy but the authority said that was not enough .