It is the year 2014, also known as the year everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, goes to the gym. This upward growth in the fitness consciousness of the average person has been happening for the last ten or so years, but has accelerated even more over the last two. Some people will suggest that it is due to the current day knowledge of the risks of being unhealthy, but I ponder that there is a different cause. I believe that the increase in gym-goers is directly in collation with the increase in the (false) advertising within the multi-billion dollar supplement industry.
Let me clarify, I am not about to go on a rant bashing supplements; moreover I am going to explain the false advertising and its effects on an average gym-goer.
First off, this rant will not apply to all supplement companies and products; most of them don’t false advertise and provide benefits to your health. I am referring to the supplements that prey on the nongym-goers, and turn them into gym-goers. The main difference between people that go to the gym and people that don’t is quite obvious, but important; a gym-goer is usually stronger and in better overall shape. However, it requires a lot of hard work and time commitment to get to that point, something a lot of people won’t/can’t do. This is where the false advertising comes in. Everywhere you look, TV, magazines, even Youtube, there are claims of a product “getting you ripped quick,” or “drop 10 pounds in 10 days.” This is music to a wannabe fit person’s ears. Even though in reality these products will be very expensive, and have fabricated claims (aka they don’t do what they say they do), people will buy them . Most people who aren’t fit, aren’t because they don’t want to put the work in. They want to look fit without going the amount of time it should normally take.
One of the biggest indicators that supplement could be fabricating their claims that they put on their label is a message, “product (or claim) not approved by FDA.” The FDA, Food and Drug Administration, approves anything that is true, so you should wonder why a product would put a claim that isn’t backed by the FDA on their label. An additional indicator is if it isn’t made by a reputable brand. The supplement industry is very competitive and dominated mostly by Optimum Nutrition, Universal Nutrition, Cellucor, Dymatize and a few others, therefore any brand trying to get some major sales might be willing to put a claim out there that isn’t true and risk bad publicity instead of having no publicity.
Overall, you can’t hate on the supplement industry for the common fabrication of results/effects of their products. It is a consumer’s responsibility to research any product they buy to check it’s legitimacy. In the marketing industry, there’s no reason not to take advantage of lazy people who are looking for an easy way to get fit, instead of putting the hard work in.
John Tisevich
Isenberg Marketing 