Sneaky, Rotten, Underhanded, Dirty Tricks Vol II.
A little while ago, I started a series on some of the dirty rotten tricks I’ve seen perpetrated by retailers on a largely unsuspecting and vulnerable audience (if things continue to proceed in the same manner, I suspect this will be a long, and on-going series).
Anyhow, one other MAJOR pet peeve of mine is retailers who name their products as close as legally possible to any number of major prescription weight loss drugs, and advertise them as being available “without a prescription.”
Of course they are available without prescriptions; they are NOT prescription products.
The problem is that some consumers are going to mistake the often-useless herbal preparations for the similarly-named drug. For example, we’re all aware of the weight loss drug phentermine. Some of the “all natural” non prescription weight loss products looking to capitalize on this product’s familiarity are Phenterfein and Phentremine. Another product I recently reviewed (Accomplix), appears to be attempting to capitalize on the growing popularity of the use of the drug Accomplia (Rimonabant) to treat obesity.
It’s just another trick in the retailer’s bag of tricks; naming a product so that it “sounds” like a prescription drug does not make it any more effective.
Don’t be fooled.
