Uhhh… what?!
7 Dirty Tricks the Supplement Industry Uses to Sell You Crappy Products!
Supplements are big business. Billions of dollars are spent on them every day, by ordinary consumers like you and I.
And when the stakes are this high, you know the gloves are going to come off, and the game’s gonna get dirty. This article documents a handful of the nasty, underhanded and totally dirty tricks the supplement industry uses to sell you overpriced, under-performing products.
If you enjoy this article (and your blood pressure is still wavering slightly under “stratospheric”), you may want to check out our publication, “Dirty Rotten Tricks! Supplement Company Lies That Cost You Money!” on Amazon.com. It will be the best $3.00 you ever spent.
Ready? Strapped in? Blood pressure meds at hand?
Excellent.
Let’s get started with the tricks…
1. Advertised as “Doctor Recommended.”
This fake doctor highly recommends this article!
While it’s included to reassure you, 9 times out of 10, a doctor recommendation doesn’t mean much of anything.
That’s because these doctors – who often aren’t M.D.s, but anyone who can legally claim the title “doctor” – are paid for their recommendations.
That’s if the retailer hasn’t made the doctor up out of thin air.
It’s cheaper to so so, and there are rarely any consequences since consumers seldom do their due dilligence.
And heck, why bother paying a REAL doctor at all?
It took me about 30 seconds to find people who will pose as doctors while promoting your products or services, and you can hire them for WAYYYY less than the cost of a pizza and a movie.
Crazy, huh?
2. Taking “Creative License” with the Numbers.
This happens a lot with weight loss supplements.
Suppose you have a double blind, placebo controlled study that shows subjects taking Compound X lost 2.5 pounds in 8 weeks, while the placebo group only lost 1/4 (.25) pounds.
Yes, Compound X helps a little bit, but if you’ve got 40 pounds to lose, you’re hardly going to be over-whelmed by it’s fat burning powers.
And that’s where a little bit of creative license makes all the difference.
After all, saying, “a clinical study shows that subjects taking Compound X lost 10 times more weight than those who were not” will perk up your customers’ ears now, won’t it? Or how about, “lose 1000% more weight with Compound X!”.
Technically, both statements are true, since 2.5 pounds is 10 times larger than .25 pounds. But it’s still underhanded, since you never see the real numbers.
Learn 7 dirty tricks the supplement industry uses to sell you crappy products! Click To Tweet3. Features “Patented Ingredients.”
This one gets used a lot! You’ll see all sorts of health products boasting about the fact that they contain patented ingredients.
Why?
Because it’s a common misconception that “patented” means “proven to work.”
It does not.
A patent is a legal instrument only.
It’s a legally recognized grant of property rights over an invention, formula or design.
And get this…
The patent holder is not required to prove their product or process actually works to obtain a patent.
Yeah, no kidding!
4. “Clinically Proven” to Work!
It’s true… the peer reviewed, double blind, placebo controlled study is the gold standard for “proof” in supplement realm.
But the term “clinically proven” can be used in a number of deceptive ways…
1. In order to be “clinically” proven in the context of a scientific study, all that as to happen is that the tested product generate “statistically significant” results.
This does not mean “impressive” results, which would be a perfectly reasonable assumption. It means the results are unlikely to have happened by chance.
Yeah, no shit. In other words, just because something is clinically proven doesn’t mean that it does a lot.
2. Supplement manufacturers will often include ingredients as doses far lower than those proven effective, while still claiming they’re “clinically proven .”
3. The most nefarious way to use this term is just to lie, and say your product is clinically proven when no such proof exists. By the time the authorities have figured out what you’re up to, you’ll have raked in enough cash to pay all the fines they levy against you, and still have enough left over to buy a small Caribbean island.
5. Dressing Up the Label.
My dear Watson, it’s elementary… more is NOT better.
What looks more impressive to you?
A product label with 4 or 5 ingredients? Or one that features 20 or 30 ingredients?
Most people will say the one with the greater number of ingredients.
More stuff equals more value, right?
Not necessarily.
Like pharmaceutical drugs, the herbs, natural compounds, vitamins and nutraceuticals that commonly comprise the supplements we buy need to be present in an effective dose to generate an effect.
A supplement that contains 4 or 5 ingredients is more likely to contain effective dosage of those ingredients than a product that contains many ingredients. In almost every single case, these multi-ingredient formulas have only one purpose – to make you think you’re getting more value from a more advanced product.
Truth is, the vast majority of these ingredients will have no effect at all at the tiny dosage they’re included at, and are only presence to “dress up” the label.
6. Re-Labeling Common Ingredients to Disguise Them
Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name… caffeine!
What would look more cutting edge on a label to you?
1,3,7-trimethyxanthine?
Or 3 7-dihydro-3 7-dimethyl-1h-purine-2 6-dione?
Or caffeine?
Fact is, they’re ALL caffeine.
Disguising common ingredients can make you think you’re getting a product that’s much more scientifically advanced than you think.
7. Testimonials: Regular Folks LOVE Our Products!
This stuff is awesome! Whoo-hoo!
Most people realize that glowing recommendations from “Mike H. from Ohio” or “Susan from Ontario” probably aren’t real, yet there’s no doubt that testimonials, when viewed as credible, can have a dramatic impact on a prospective customer’s view of a product.
And the Internet has made it easy for companies to create the illusion that their products are used by hordes of devoted fans who have obtained incredible results from them.
It’s easy, for instance to hire hundreds of people to leave positive reviews on your product – for just a few nickels each – on places like Microworkers. Fiverr is another popular place to get testimonials for your products – especially authentic looking video testimonials.
If you’re really motivated, create a product review site, where you compare your products against your competitor’s. Load your competitor’s products up with poor reviews, and your own with great ones. Should any authentic reviews for your products show up, post them… but only if they’re positive.
Otherwise delete them.
For your competitors, do the opposite.
Long and short of things, you should never trust any testimonial from anyone for one simple reason…
You can’t authenticate it.
Hungry for More Dirty Tricks?
Our supplement industry dirty tricks expose′, “Dirty, Rotten Tricks! Supplement Company Lies that Cost YOU Money!” is available on Amazon kindle.
Best $3.00 you’ll ever spend… guaranteed!
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