Power Balance bracelets exposed as a sham

[panzerfaust]

Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Oz)



The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ordered Power Balance Australia to refund all customers who feel they were misled by the supposed benefits of Power Balance bracelets.

The wristbands were touted as providing better balance, strength and flexibility by working with the wearer's "natural energy field"...

...But ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said in a statement: “Power Balance has admitted that there is no credible scientific basis for the claims and therefore no reasonable grounds for making representations about the benefits of the product...

...The bracelets sell for $60 on the company's website.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/fitness/power-balance-bracelets-exposed-as-a-sham-20101223-195u7.html

---

Oddly, Oz managed to clamp down on them, but I bet we still see them advertised on the Tennis Channel.

Considering that Ozland's miracle economic recovery is 'bout the same as ours, am surprised that the imaginative retailer did not get them to wait until after Christmas when sales would help with tax revenues.

They whole episode did make me smile a couple of times though: Both the first time I saw the amazing ad (thinking it the most brazen, ballsy, and amusing scam I had ever seen); and that now it finally takes a government agency to tell people what two milliseconds of thought should have led them to!



Even better, there will be customers who did NOT "feel they were misled" and that they are doing so much better now that their "natural energy field" is rebalanced that they will likely rush out and buy all of these idiot straps that they can before the valued items disappear: Stamped out by the dreaded "Linear Thinking" of the Reality Based.

[Posteritatis]

1. I imagine there'd be some people who take that announcement as proof that they *do* work

"The gummint is suppressing the truth! Just like they do with all the other panaceas everyone secretly knows about but which mysteriously also don't do anything!"

[canetoad]

2. Dammit

I hadn't even heard about these miracle devices and now I'm too late to buy one.

[quakerboy]

19. I am sure there will still be plenty

Check ebay. I picked up a few for a penny, with free shipping, a while back. I was curious to dissect them. Not much there.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. But Relics of the True Cross are still available at 50% off!

Who ever heard of being "Washed in the Crystals of the Lamb"?

:evilgrin:

--d!

[SpiralHawk]

4. Looks like I will have to re-do my 'War on Xmas' shopping list

[JackRiddler]

5. "Exposed" can't be the right word.

Here's an example:

Santa Claus ringing a bell on corner exposed as some guy who lives nearby, not Commander-in-Chief of North Pole factory fortress.

You see what I'm saying?

[Anakin Skywalker]

6. Tennis playas, you are much better off just sticking yourselves with STEROIDS!

[Cirque du So-What]

7. Quackery never dies

Although this 'miracle device' appears completely benign, the $60 price tag could wreak some economic damage. I hope the purveyors of this fraud are sued to hell & back!

[snooper2]

18. at some point people get what they got coming to them..

If somebody wanted to plop down 19.95 for the latest truther book, let'em be scammed...

a sucker's born....

[customerserviceguy]

8. Governments can only go so far

in protecting people from their ignorance. All banning them does is clear the way for the next charlatan out there selling snake oil.

[Botany]

9. but my magic copper bracelet is still good isn't it?

[hatrack]

14. "Magnetic Copper"! Wow!

:rofl:

[notadmblnd]

10. Oh, the mood ring of the new century

I guess it will go the way of the pet rock now?:shrug:

[Vinca]

11. It's amazing how gullible some people can be.

[sharesunited]

12. I feel so cheated now. And suddenly dizzy.

[hatrack]

13. No! I can't BELIEVE it!!!!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Ian David]

15. From the scientific journal, "Scientific Review Of The Obvious." n/t

[DCKit]

16. Shocking. How could they? Yawn. nt

[Roy Rolling]

17. Hmmmm....

My mood ring says I am not happy with this.

[slackmaster]

20. WWGPS?

[hobbit709]

21. The statement about candy, birth and time is still true.

[katnapped]

22. Still flogging I-Renew bracelets on TV

Just saw the commercial this AM.

[Little Star]

23. And water is wet. n/t

[SidDithers]

24. K&R...

love it when the hucksters are exposed.

Sid