What celebrity endorsement has duped you this year?

Question

Celebrities are generally known for having little in the way of grey matter, so it's no surprise that they are easily duped into believing stuff such as alternative medicine. Has their worthless endorsement of a fake treatment such as homeopathy, "power bands", eating charcoal or "detox" encouraged YOU to try any of these too?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/dec/29/celebrity-endorsements-trashed-annual-list

Or do you take your medical advice from highly educated, trained and qualified professionals accredited and registered with your government?

Answer 1

Dave, I confess. I have purchased 24 Placebo Bands on the endorsement of Richard Saunders (Australian Skeptics). Mind you I have given most of them away to raise awareness of the scam that is ‘energy bands’ – and it has worked in Australia at least where Power Balance bands have been forced off the market while they make ludicrous claims about embedded frequencies and human energy fields.



The Placebo Bands are also intended to raise awareness of the importance of critical thinking, and to be wary of celebrity endorsements. So many celebrities have fallen for the energy band scam it’s appalling. And looking at energy band sales – millions – it goes to show the power of celebrity endorsement. Dodgy manufacturers know full well that they can sucker sports stars, actors and models into pushing bogus products, just by using a little pseudoscience, and their fans lap it up. I know a person who suffers muscular dystrophy - she spent $45 of her small pension on a Power Band, only to find it does NOTHING.



It was skeptical activism in Australia that forced the authorities to act on the energy band scam, some may say what’s the harm in them; well for one they promote credulity – people who fall for something as lame as the energy band scam are just as likely to fall for life threatening scams such as cancer quackery or other alternative medicine bollix like homeopathy. Just look at the harm celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carey have caused with their anti-vaccination lies. People simply must think more skeptically and not take anyone's word on face value. They at least should look at the science first.



Theresa is missing the point and presenting a fallacious argument. You made it clear from the start that you were generalising about celebrities. You are not presenting an argument from authority because you are not arguing anything, merely asking who has been conned by a celebrity endorsement – or who prefers to take health advice from properly qualified and registered health professionals. Her IQ argument is a strawman and thus irrelevant. Surely she can see the danger in taking homeopathy instead of malaria vaccines when travelling abroad, as endorsed by Julia Sawalha in your article. This can KILL.



I applaud SAS and you Dave for your activism in raising the celebrity endorsement issue here.



PS: @thenoseknows - water and sugar pills does not represent a 'complete medical system'. Will you please stop the lying about this, and stay on topic?

Answer 2

A celebrity endorsement makes me not buy something even if I was already going to buy it.

Answer 3

Strangely enough, not a one.



Maybe if Dawkins endorsed a particular video game I might be swayed but that's about it.

Answer 4

I don't know, I think I could be persuaded by Alex Reid's argument. All I'd have to do then is to persuade the girl-friend that it really IS high in protean and minerals and we all live happily ever after.

Answer 5

Then why do we have celebrity endorsements for major pharmaceuticals? All we need to do is turn on the TV, listen to the radio or flip through a magazine and we can find a celeb being paid big bucks for their endorsement of some drug. So its ok for us to follow when they endorse medication but not ok if they endorse alt med. Hypocrite.



SO the same celebs that you are bashing for alt med, why is it ok if they get PAID to endorse mainstream med?



Your question is fail. Your point is fail. And any edit to your question to reply to this answer is also fail. I got a whole bag of shush right.

Answer 6

They're paid to promote products. I don't give into that for one second.

Answer 7

I take no notice of any advertisement, whether done by a celebrity or a chimpanzee.

Answer 8

None.

All the celebrity endorsements I've seen were for pharmaceuticals. Like Sally Field shilling Boniva, a dangerous osteoporosis drug that will actually predispose women to bone fractures, jaw deterioration and other fun conditions they can do without.

Homeopathy is a complete medical system. It's a regulated health profession in many parts of the world. Professional associations regulate membership and training elsewhere. Homeopaths are highly educated, trained and qualified professionals. Only some silly skeppie would claim otherwise.

Answer 9

Since I don't watch TV or read the newspapers/magazines, none. Even a sportsperson advertising sports equipment doesn't convince me of anything. Nor does wannabe intellectuals presenting trivial media articles in the guise of asking a question, minus anything resembling an individual thought or opinion.



"Celebrities are generally known for having little in the way of grey matter". Such a gross and inaccurate generalisation is indicative of your reading and viewing material. Sharon Stone, for example, has an IQ that puts the majority of doctors to shame.



Isn't this one of the arguments that you bag ... an appeal to authority? You really do tie yourself up in knots with these arguments that you just mimic. A lot of the people that you and others bag fall into that category - "highly educated, trained and qualified professionals accredited and registered with your government". In fact, far more non-medical people than medical fall into that category.



A waste of 5 points!



EDIT: Oh dear, pulling teeth is a piece of cake compared to the monumentous task of getting you to see the hole you have dug yourself. You are saying we should all listen to doctors just because they have a perceived authority. And some of them are dumb as dog crap, don't even have the equivalent common sense about health as the average mother. Passing exams isn't the same as being effective at what you do. IQ is a very basic measure, and fails to incorporate the majority of human success factors.



One of the professed doctors in this forum, in response to a question about how to cure a toothache, gave the advice to have it pulled out, despite the well-known medical facts that toothache isn't always related to problems with teeth, and that there are a range of possibilities and solutions for the toothache. Then, when the ignorance or laziness of the answer was pointed out, responded "whatever". That is not someone to whom people should be trusting their health.



You made a gross generalisation about celebrities' grey matter that is as ill-considered and ignorant as any generalisation about race, colour or creed.



I'm not the one to be embarassed.

Answer 10

i'm not impressed by prominence, especially if it's wrapped up in a white clinic jacket with an m.d. after the name.