Top 5 Fitness Industry Advertising Red Flags

Fitness Top 5 - Mach 2nd, 2009

5.  Exotic Ingredients / Secrets

If it's from Brazil or Asia it Must Work Right ?

Since just about every single tactic has been used to fool people into buying supplements and weight loss products advertisers are now getting creative.

Nobody wants to put in the time in the gym and eat healthy if there is some secret which makes everything easy.  People are getting wise to the old tactics so advertisers are now turning to what people don't know.

Every year there are dozens of new products which come out which are "secrets" from an exotic location.  Since they are not well known they may still be that magic pill that nobody in the country has heard about.

For example Acai berries which are the current supplement craze are little more than a Brazilian blueberry and yet people from all around the world currently think they are the secret that time forgot.

Fat chance, and unless you avoid these top 5 fitness industry advertising red flags you will probably be fat.

The Ultimate Acai Cookbook

4.  Fake Studies with Fake Doctors

"As shown in a Placebo Controlled University Study"

This sounds like a good claim but if you look you will seldom see references to any study.  Why?  Because there was no study!

Supplement ads are famous for having the fake doctor holding a supplement.  Our instincts associate doctors with trust and it lessens our skepticism in the supplement ad.

You should especially watch out the always popular in magazines "Special 4-Page Ad Report" which contains a whole lot of ad, and very little valid report.

Anytime you see Dr. Fake you should pretty much wave the red flag and move on.

Sustainable Fat Loss

3.  FREE Trial !

In the Fitness Industry FREE means Read the small Print !

If you ever wondered why you used to receive 10 AOL discs in the mail in the 90s you should know that it is to trick you!

Many products offer a free trial.  They offer the free trial for 3 primary reasons:

1.  When you try to cancel, they make it really difficult for you to do so.

2.  When you forget to cancel they bill your credit card repeatedly for months.

3.  Their product has an addictive agent (usually caffeine) which will cause your body to crave more.

In any case a free trial should definitely raise a red flag when looking at any fitness product or dietary supplement.

No Catch Here:  Free Exercise Instructional videos

2.  Celebrity Testimonials

Because Celebrities Know You Best

You may have seen Oprah's latest workouts in your favorite issue of Fitness & Fiction magazine or seen her latest interview with her trainer on her show but her past experience has obviously not helped in the long run.

The problem with any personal trainer who works with Oprah is her celebrity.  Celebrity personal trainers most likely specialize in treating, rather than training celebrities to get results.

This makes sense because a paycheck is what puts money on the table and pays rent.

The best help for Oprah in her quest to lose her excess weight is to hire a personal trainer who is not used to training celebrities.  A personal trainer who is able to treat her like one of the millions of average people in the US trying to lose weight.

Oprah needs a personal trainer who is hard on her and does not put up with any super-rich celebrity excuses.  Oprah needs a trainer who is a hardcore down to the bone fitness freak.

Top 5 Celebrity Physiques

1.  Too Good to be True / Fast Results

How Long have you Already Known this ?

Some things in life are fast.  Ferraris, cheetahs, greyhounds, thoroughbreds, NFL running backs are all known to be fast.

On the other hand, some things are known to be slow.  Fat loss is one of those things which happens at a slow rate of 1-2 pounds per week.

The number 1 fitness industry advertising red flag is the combination of products which offer too good to be true claims about the speed of the results.

The only fast thing about fitness industry products which offer fast results is your realization that you just wasted your hard earned money.

Honest Internet Business

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