January 31, 2002

Hollywood 48 Hour Miracle Diet: Lose 10 Lbs in 2 days! This miracle beverage works continuously over a 48 hour period to dissolve your lungs and expunge the byproducts through your urine! "The reason that the Hollywood 48 hour Miracle Diet program has been featured on television, radio, newspapers and over 70 magazines is that IT WORKS!!"

(Sorry, I don't normally feel this kind of thing is worth mentioning, but I saw this on TV and felt like making some noise. 10 pounds in two days. Assuming these are actual pounds off your actual body and not ten pounds you would lose just by going to the bathroom, does this sound like a good idea to anyone?)

Speaking of televised weight loss exploitation schemes, has anyone released a study on these $20 muscle electrocution devices yet? This recent spate of as-seen-on-TV stimulators not only make for some disturbing commercials, but they especially bother me because I'm pretty sure they're a bad idea, but I don't have any reports or numbers to back up that instinct. No doubt electric muscle stimulators have been released before, and this is just a resurgence, but still.

comments...

Robert, January 31, 2002 8:28 AM:

As a rule, anything that is sold on TV will not work, or at least will not work well. The fact is that for anything to be sold in a brick-and-mortar retail outlet, it must be approved by the retailer's "buyers," those folks who actually decide what goes on the shelves. Buyers often reject goods if they think they will result in product returns, or reflect badly on the retailer.



The great thing about selling products on TV, however, is that the manufacturer can connect directly to the consumer. And the consumer can't examine the product before buying. And the product will be difficult to return (meaning a lot of folks won't).



A good rule of thumb -- if it's being sold on TV, it's not a good enough product to be sold anywhere else.

Julie, February 3, 2002 5:00 AM:

Correction -- if it's being sold on TV, it's not a good enough product to be sold anywhere else except Walgreen's. That place is where "As Seen on TV" products go to die.

Ponder, February 3, 2002 12:34 PM:

Electric muscle stimulators have been used successfully for people in comas or otherwise unable to move or flex their muscles. They can provide real benefit in those circumstances. But for healthy people? You can get the muscle benefit in 30 seconds by just tightening your own muscles that it would take the stimulator to do in 10 minutes or more (don't know the actual ratio, but you get the point). So, if you are a pathologically lazy person--and by this, I mean someone who actually enjoys being in a vegetative state-- and, you don't mind lying around strapped up to a stimulator all day long, well...maybe it's a tiny bit better than nothing.

DRV, February 5, 2002 5:36 AM:

There's a psychological component at work here too: "If you're not happy, you can buy something that will make you happy." Most of us already believe that unreflectively, and advertisements like these just up the ante.