Angie Bullock wanted to lose weight for her wedding, so she purchased what she thought was personalized help from social media influencer Brittany Dawn Davis.
The $92 plan promised a diet and cardio workout tailored to Bullock’s needs, plus weekly check-ins with Davis to discuss adjustments, Bullock told “Inside Edition” in 2019.
But the plan turned out to be generic — the same program that Davis had given other women, Bullock said. Feeling duped, Bullock wrote to Davis but was ignored and eventually blocked from Davis’s social media accounts, she said.
Bullock eventually recovered her $92, but only after numerous women spoke out with similar complaints and Davis was forced to respond to what some customers called a “scam.”
Now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Davis and her business, alleging the Fort Worth-based influencer engaged in “deceptive acts” by misleading “thousands of consumers with the promise of personalized nutritional guidance and individualized fitness coaching.” It further alleges that Davis sold weight-loss plans to people who told her they had eating disorders.
The lawsuit seeks to bar Davis from selling personalized exercise and nutrition advice and demands between $250,000 and $1 million in penalties and fees.
Davis did not respond to an interview request from The Washington Post. But in February 2019, after complaints about her business practices mounted, Davis issued an apology on her YouTube channel and spoke on “Good Morning America.”
“I jumped into an industry that had no instruction manual,” she said in the 2019 broadcast. “I’m basically going through uncharted territory, and I’m doing the best that I can to the best of my ability.”
Davis has more than 954,000 followers on TikTok and 465,000 on Instagram. Following her apology to customers, Davis switched her focus from fitness to Christianity, according to her social media profiles.
When Davis began selling the nutrition and fitness plans in 2014, she used her social media channels to post photos of herself in workout clothes and share fitness and nutrition tips, including “Starbucks Hacks” and “body positive and inspirational quotes,” according to the lawsuit.
She used another website to sell nutrition and fitness plans ranging from $45 to $300, according to the lawsuit. The plans were packaged as “bikini competition” or “bridal” plans, according to the lawsuit, and almost all of them came with a special feature: individualized attention from Davis herself, in which she would personalize diets and workouts based on a customer’s needs — and adjust them after one-on-one consultations.
According to the lawsuit, Davis advertised herself as “your coach, your confidant, your biggest supporter & friend,” who was there to “push you, mold you, and to help you find that person that you’ve always wanted to become.”
But customers soon found out Davis rarely, if ever, lived up to that claim, according to the lawsuit. Davis allegedly stopped responding to some clients who had purchased the individualized plans, and many barely heard from her. To specific questions about their fitness regimens, Davis would allegedly respond with generic statements such as: “THAT’S MY GIRL! You’re killing it!” or “you’ve got this babe!”
For some clients, the effects were harmful, especially in cases in which Davis offered blanket nutrition plans to clients with varying needs, the lawsuit says. One client weighing 200 pounds allegedly passed out from a lack of nutrition after following the plan provided by Davis.
The lawsuit also cites statements from former clients who said they saw Davis as someone who could help them with their eating disorders. One said she chose Davis specifically because the influencer advertised herself as an “eating disorder soldier,” the lawsuit states.
In a request another client sent to Davis, according to the lawsuit, the person wrote: “I truly need guidance, help, the right information and support right now. I currently have an eating disorder, horrible body image views … I am underweight for my height.”
“Great! Welcome to the #teambrittanydawn family,” Davis allegedly responded. She later provided the customer with a weight-loss plan, according to the lawsuit.
Davis’s customers started to band together in a Facebook group called “Brittany Dawn Fitness Complaints,” which grew to some 4,600 members by February 2019, “Inside Edition” reported. Davis said in her apology that she would refund customers who felt wronged.
Since that apology, Davis has rebranded herself as a Christianity influencer, and she now offers retreats — “a gospel centered day with other God-fearing women” — at a cost of $125, according to her website.
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