Forensic Shopping Investigation III: 48hr Rapid Detox

I’ve just had a rather turgid form of diarrhea bought on by my latest purchase the 48 Hour Rapid Detox (The fast, easy, delicious detox plan that works in as little as two days). Right now I’m feeling fragile and sore and I can confirm that this product is of course no more than a glorified laxative, and of course a complete scam. I was watching TV when the above ad came on and decided to give it a go.

I rang, spoke to the chap who was completely disinterested in making a sale. He admitted there is no actual office in Australia and he was in a call centre in North Sydney. To his credit he told me the product will have a “mild laxative effect”. Once the purchase was made I was told (once I asked) that the order would take “three weeks to arrive”.

There is no company address, or way to get in touch with anyone but the sales number. The url on the pack http://www.hilifehealth.com.au/ takes you to another sales scam. My credit card has been debited for $159.00 I have stopped the payment, but I have no way of knowing if I'll get that money back. Something tells me I wont. This is despite them assuring me it would be 'free to try".

I wait my three weeks and look what arrives! Three litres of fruit juice, really bad juice made from concentrate with an aggressive laxative added.

Anyway, the juice sat on my desk for a week before I got the courage to drink the stuff. I started drinking it this morning, developed terrible diarrhea, and stopped.

These are the instructions as they appear on the back of the pack “Simply replace your meals with 8hr Rapid Detox for 2 days”. The website is very shiny www.rapiddetox.com.au but of course gives no information.

There are no overt benefits of detox. They vaguely promise that you'll have more energy and lose weight. However, this wont work as:

• anyone who has the ability to not eat for 2 days in order to lose weight wold not be overweight in the first place
• There is no support, counselling line, behavioural component to help the person to lose weight
• Not eating gives you less energy not more.
• As its just a laxative, the person will simply put the weight back on that they would lose if they had of completed the program.

Please don’t believe this stuff. If you want to lose weight then the best method is “eat less and exercise more”. There are also well established programs that offer support to people whilst they embark on that deceptively simple equation.

* Feel free to slightly change the text and insert Shamwow, Proactive, or many other ‘call us now’ infomercial products.

A Day at the Races

Yesterday I went to the races. I (along with most of Melbourne it seemed) was lucky enough to be watching from The Birdcage. There were a number of celebrities there - including Lara Bingle. Now I've commented on Lara's fashion elsewhere, however nothing prepared me for the striking number she was wearing yesterday. As someone said "You could almost see her religion". None-the-less she was very sparky and pleasant. And it was nice of her to pose for a photo with someone so odd looking.

Tortured link to marketing following.

I've written about gambling before - and in particular the concept of variable positive reinforcement. That is rewarding the desired behaviour (in this case gambling) at random times, and with random amounts. It still amazes me that marketers don't use this concept more often. It feels the only time marketers use it is during 'promotions' (something like '1 in every 7 wins'). However, if it's the strongest conditioner of human behavior shouldn't marketers be trying to understand it, and applying it's principles in a slightly more sophisticated way.