Note to self: when a one-page ad in a magazine has 12 daggers—those are those “†” symbols that lead you to some teeny-tiny footnote disclaimer—pause to ponder what the ad is really telling you.
It’s important as now that we’re in flu season, we’re seeing more and more homeopathic ‘remedy’ ads popping up with questionable claims and the telling footnote or two.
The 12-dagger ad above is actually a recent ad for Fastin, “the world’s most advanced weight loss aid ever developed!†” (there’s that dagger!). The ad appeared in Self magazine. And yes, it has 12—no joke, twelve—daggers in it, all leading to the footnote below. Don’t believe it? They’re all circled on the actual ad above.
Just about everything but where to buy Fastin has a dagger leading you to the disclaimer (the disclaimer is reprinted below.
In fact, even the doctor’s statement has the disclaimer. And there’s another tip-off to something potentially askew: try to locate some quick background info on Dr. Mark Wright. You can’t. Oh sure, he has his own website, but try to find him on doctor rating sites like RealSelf.com, Vitals.com, Avvo.com, or HealthGrades.com. He’s not there. He’s also not showing up as
The FDA and FTC are finally taking action against people selling "homeopathic hcg" as a miracle diet, but the sellers of Rx hcg for weight loss – the Simeons protocol, which is considered refuted by science – are not yet being shut down. Miracle diet scams are, in other words, a dime a dozen and for every one that gets shut down another handful or more will take their place. Dieting seems to be one of the most fertile areas for peddlers of quackery.