Illegal ad?

[evilsprout]

Sorry if I'm opening any worm cans that have already been opened (I've done a search and can't find any) but are the "Immortality Rings" ads in FT actually legal? That is, we can all put on our Fortean hats of open mindedness, but deep down we all have to admit that the adverts are a thinly disguised load of b*ll*cks to impart hard cash from people in return for a small piece of absolute rubbish. In other words, fraud. (Of course the developers may actually believe this daftness themselves, but that is very very unlikely).

The website advertised is quite humourous, however - http://www.magnetichealer.net/. No mention of Dr Michelucci who's in the print ad, but plenty of big ups for an Alex Chiu, a man who is a self-proclaimed successor to Edison, Tesla and Einstein. His two inventions - his Immortality Device and the amazing sounding "Georgous Pill", a series of medication that will somehow redistribute the bones in your face making you stunning.

These combined devices, will apparently save the world, as people won't breed any more! You see we won't get old and have to pass our genes on, and so there won't be any more children, thus preventing an overpolulation meltdown. And there was me thinking if we were all immortally young and gorgeous, we'd be breeding like bunnies, and producing infinite children that would never die...

And check out some of the people in the testimonial, with their before and after photos (before! Well lit picture in high resolution which shows every pore and blackhead. After! Overexposed, pixelly picture with no defined detail! THE RING MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!).

All very funny of course, but this kind of quackery and flim flam is the sort of crap that ends up in email inboxes, not the pages of high street magazines. And while most of us will laugh at it and gladly take the benefits of their advertising money on the magazine we buy, if two or three gullible readers fall for this fraudulence and buy this tat, then it's two or three more than there should be. Also, who knows what they're actually taking if they take the "Gorgeous Pill"... let's hope it's just sugar pills or vitamins, and nothing more sinister.

 

[evilsprout]

Oh and this quote for the Gorgeous Pill is unforgivable:

This pill is good for regular people or people who have cancer, HIV, herpes, any kind of handicaps, etc. (I cannot legally say that this pill can cure handicaps or cancer, etc. But this pill will give you lots of 'healing feeling' at around the handicapped or cancer infected areas.) Might irritate the stomach if you have ulcer. Consult your doctor if you are pregnant or has food allergy or ulcer. This pill is not a drug, and no medical claim has been made. This pill will not function properly without the Immortality Rings.

Which reads to me: "I cannot legally make any medicinal claims about this product, but staying within the law, I'm strongly hinting this is a good thing for terminally ill people to buy."

Scum.

EDIT - It gets worse. One post on their bulletin board reads (my emphasis):

Dear Dr. Chiu,

Last week I was diagnosed with a tumor of my pancreas. The doctors tell me I have only 114 hours to live because it has spread to my anus and my amygdala. Can the powerring cure me of this inconvienience, or should I use super chi to clean this burden of cells from my digestive entity?

Please give me advise, as time is running our for me!
-------------------------------
ANSWER: At least put on the rings first. Some cancer patients said they were cured after using the rings. The rings might contain the spreading of tumor cells. Then use Chi Flush and Gorgeouspil later.

Another is more circumspect, but still recommends that a desperate terminally ill person buys a piece of expensive tat.

*** URGENT ***
Dear Alex.
Can the Enternal Ring cure Lympho Cancer ??? It is a
extremly urgent.
Thanks !
Paul
------------------------
Hey sorry. I don't dare to say yes. Im not a doctor, so I cannot give medical recommendations like that. I can only recommend that you try the device. Perhaps you will submit your great testimonial for my device soon.

And this one is a bit more explicit

I have cancer and I am going to die. It's really sad to think about this but I must. I need to know if your rings can cure cancer. If they do I will buy them. I have a family and I am only 34 years old. Please help me.
-------------------------------------------------
answer:

Sorry for the late response. I had a security guard who had cancer behind his ears and used my foot braces. He called and reported that the cancer has gotten better. That's all he said. I had a girl in Mexico who's online pen pal sent her a pair of Eternal Life RIngs to cure her lung cancer. The day before she wore the rings, she fainted in a party. She cried and cried on her bed. The day after she has worn the rings during sleep, she was all happy and excited. That's what the pen pal told me. I say you can give it a try. It might just prolong your life if not cure your cancer.

I'll say it another time. Scum. I think FT should be very ashamed of themselves printing these ads if they have any idea of the claims made, or strongly hinted at, on the website.

There's loads of these on the bulletin board, but one more, where they won't even stop someone buying one to bring their dead parents back from the dead. In one marked, simply, "Can you bring back the dead"...

Please help me Alex. I read about your rings and that they affect chi. My parents died on Feb. 17. They always told me how important chi is, and I think their chi was very good and healthy. My question is can the rings put chi back in the body? They haven't been dead long. I know that sometimes peoples spirits don't leave thier body right after they die. So could these rings help pull their chi back. Maybe it would be like the hospital tv shows where people die but they use shockers on their chest so they come back. Please help me if you can. I miss my parents. They were killed in a car wreck but it wasn't thier fault so maybe that didn't hurt their chi.

Answer: Our rings and footbraces were never tested for this type of circumstances, so we can’t say one way or another. We are very sorry about your parents though.

Scum, scum, scum, scum, scum.

EDIT - Sorry, last bit of info for tonight... he has a Wikipedia entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Chiu

 

[Xanatico]

I do hope they at least gave a quick reply to the guy with 114 hours left to live. :?

With all those hints he gives, I´d think he has crossed the line and it should be possible to charge him with fraud.

 

[Graylien]

I doubt anyone who subscribes to the Fortean Times would be gullible enough to send away for the rings (perhaps Nexus readers would though ). Nevertheless, I think the editors are making a big mistake running that advert - not because it's illegal (although it may well be) but because it's embarrassing and it lowers the tone of the publication. I also think it must deter advertisers with more legitimate products to sell from buying space in the magazine. Who would want their advert appearing next to one for "eternal life rings"?

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, I quite liked the vibrating female sex toy adverts - those plastic phallus shaped objects used to make 'her' orgasm every time. Half page affairs just below the bongs and other drug paraphernalia.

 

[Graylien]

So are you claiming that adverts for immortality rings don't actually lower the tone of a publication dedicated to selling bongs and sex toys?

 

[stu neville]

I've passed this one on to TPTB.

We know the mag needs the ad revenue, and I'd agree bongs, puerile post-ironic student T-shirts and sub-Gothic RPG tat are one thing, but this kind of crap is in another league altogether.

 

[Dr_David_Sutton]

I'm pretty sure that we have discussed Mr Immortality, his mysterious ring and his dodgy - but, not, I think, illegal - ad before; but, I do have some good news to update you with.

The chap in question, I'm told, booked a block of issues in which to run the offending advertisement, and this booking has now come to an end.

We had discussed this with the ad team a while back and the consensus was that the ad would not be renewed when the initial booking ran out.

So, hopefully that will be the end of that - although I'm sure something equally crap/offensive is waiting in the wings...

DS

 

[evilsprout]

Huzzah! Thanks for the update Dr S, glad to see sanity prevailed.

I'm sure the ad itself was within the law on reflection (despite the fact it blatently would never do any of the things it claimed it could, supernatural powers are probably a bugger to disprove in court), but the advertised website is very very nasty indeed. Like I say, glad to see FT has made the right decision on this, three cheers etc. 8)

 

[Stormkhan]

But "gorgeous pills" exist, don't they? I mean, Harry Mudd was selling the ladies who used them in the "Mudd's Women" episode of original Star Trek.

While any publication must consider revenue, it should also balance this with taste, good or bad. Morality is a tricky benchmark since it's so variable, depending on personal attitude. The ads do seem to call to a certain 'target group' which, personally, I find insulting in the general.

Still, if there's money in drug apparatus, student-humour t-shirts and highly speculative con-artists then I'm sure the publishers are happy.

 

[Dr_David_Sutton]

Hasn't anyone noticed that over the last few years we've actually been getting some very good ads for 'respectable' products like DVDs, films and games instead of just drugs, dildos and dodgy immortality rings?

The ad team deserve some credit for this; whilst most people in the media love FT, it really takes some work prising money out of their tightly clenched budgets against stiff competition from magazines with readerships made up of, erm, normal people...

And for those readers who dislike the film/game coverage, decent advertising is one benefit we've gained from increasing it.

It would be really nice for us if - once in a blue moon - somebody realised that we are all - the ad team included - making a genuine effort to keep FT afloat on what, in the current climate, are pretty choppy seas!

DS

 

[GNC]

Yes, I'd much rather the FT had ads for DVDs and games than turn into some kind of dodgy medicine show. And I like the film coverage, it's well done and informed enough to be worthwhile without taking over the mag. I must admit I skip the games coverage, but it's just one page.

 

[evilsprout]

Dr S - I understand wholeheartedly that ad space in a mag with such a varied readership must be a blimmin nightmare, and to get the amount you do is remarkable. As much as I roll my eyes at the bongs/shit t-shirts etc, they're a necessary evil, and they've been advertising for years now, so as much as people complain on here someone must respond to them now and again!

And yes, I have noticed a rise in quality ads for DVDs, games etc, and also things like the astronomy optics which I think's a great thing. And why not have film/TV reviews? Even some of the TV tie in covers can work - and the ones I haven't liked have been probably as much down to my personal taste as anything (but please! No more Trek covers! It was the first issue since the "Alien Sex" one I didn't dare read in public! )

My gripe wasn't with FT advertising in general, just this particular offender due to its dubious morals rather than general crapness. Sorry I've opened the floodgates of ad whinging again!

 

[Philo_T]

Bongs and sex toys aside, Alex Chiu is a legitimate[*] topic of Fortean investigation. Which would raise conflict of interest questions if he ever were profiled in FT.



[*]If only in the sense of studying humans and their strange beliefs...

 

[Dr_David_Sutton]

Well, here's a funny thing.

I was just leafing through FT121 (April 1999) in search of a reference when I came across an ad in the classifieds (in the Eternal Life section, of course) for none other than Alex N Chiu and his immortality foot braces and finger rings! ($105 for both as opposed to a mere £45 for the rings in the current ad).

Seems we've had quite a long relationship with Mr Chiu's products without my even being aware of it - and you lot have had at least eight years to moan about this - do try and keep up!

DS

 

[_Lizard23_]

I quite like the bong adverts. Prior to that it was sex lines, that really *is* low rent. At least I do occasionally smoke a bong. I've never yet bought a dvd box set of some US TV series, thankfully.

I've certainly known about Alex Chu for years and it only makes sense I found out about him from FT.

Perhaps we could consider the advertising as an example of 'commercial weirdness' in the wider world and not get too righteously indignant about it as it helps the mag break even ....

 

[evilsprout]

Perhaps we could consider the advertising as an example of 'commercial weirdness' in the wider world and not get too righteously indignant about it as it helps the mag break even ....

Without being too "righteously indignant", I'd like to see you saying that if one of your terminally ill family had spent their final days sending money to shameless snakeoil peddlars they found in an otherwise respectable magazine...

 

[_Lizard23_]

I'm sure it would break my heart, I don't think it would change my opinion that the mag's not to blame.

 

[evilsprout]

I suppose there's some discussion to be had here on where to draw the line when it comes to supernatural or alternative cures. For example, do the shops selling crystals as cures do it as a cynical ploy to exploit the gullible, or because the owners are New Agers who actually believe all that stuff? I'd probably say the latter. Does Dr Chiu believe these cures are real? I can't believe that, but I appreciate there is a fine line here and genuine belief is a hard thing to prove or disprove.

But if Dr Chiu was merely exploiting the vain, gullible and stupid I'd still question the legality of these false claims, but wouldn't be doing so quite so indignantly. But as the website, advertised on the print ad, stongly targets the terminally ill it moves it into another level.

The magazine wouldn't be to blame, of course, but still has a responsibility to vet their adverts for such dodginess. This seems to have been noticed and acted on, and I do believe the FT ad team generally do a great job, and cut them more slack than most people on here! But I cannot agree with Lizard that they should feel free to print stuff like this and absolve themselves of all responsibility.

 

[_Lizard23_]

But I cannot agree with Lizard that they should feel free to print stuff like this and absolve themselves of all responsibility.

I didn't really say that. As you say, it was an iffy ad and they've already decided not to allow any further runs, that seems a fairly responsible attitude to me.

In business ethics is often a luxury and a lot of what happens in the field of forteana is deliberate fraud and exploitation. I don't get overly het up about the adverts in the mag because I don't really pay much attention to them, but I bet there have been psychics and vanity publishers and people peddling utter bollocks 'truths' of all kind in there, all of which can be damaging both emotionally and financially to the vulnerable and the gullible, as indeed could a lot of the paranoid fantasies etc that make up some the actual content, really. One of the things I have always liked about FT is the editorial neutrality, the attitude of 'here's what some people are saying, make your own mind up about it'. I'd simply extend that to the advertising too - 'here's what some people are selling ...'.

I don't quite understand why some people seem so insulted by it. Obviously we are not all magic mushroom munching fake sword weilding rude t-shirt sporting Buffy fanatics, any more than everyone who flicks The Observer magazine on a Sunday morning is a slacks and slip-on wearing garden furniture obsessive who takes a cruise every year.

Having said that, if the immortality thing website is as bad as you say (I've not looked) - and I agree the dying is a market already well-catered for by religion and the pharamaceutical industry and so not in need of any mumbo-jumbo (heh heh) - maybe appearing in a 'otherwise respectable' magazine will draw the attention of the relevant authorities to the operation, which sounds like it would be a good thing.

 

[CodenameThrow]

Can I just add - David, thanks for some very sensible comments!

Also this made me laugh so much I nearly peed myself

The ads do seem to call to a certain 'target group' which, personally, I find insulting in the general.

 

[Philo_T]

Well, here's a funny thing.

I was just leafing through FT121 (April 1999) in search of a reference when I came across an ad in the classifieds (in the Eternal Life section, of course) for none other than Alex N Chiu and his immortality foot braces and finger rings!

Which raises the question why there aren't more classifieds in FT like this or this or this.

Or just your plain run of the mill "thanks to st xxxx for favors granted".

or :
16 3 2 13
5 10 11 8
9 6 7 12
4 15 4 1


In fact, I find it strange that the FT personals aren't more strange.
I know most of FT readers are unemployed liberal arts majors of one ilk or another, but there must some readers who have some disposable gelt.

 

[stu neville]

...I know most of FT readers are unemployed liberal arts majors of one ilk or another, but there must some readers who have some disposable gelt.

Do you mind? I'll have you know many of us are employed liberal arts majors. And I have a monthly disposable income of at least seven pounds. Force to be reckoned with, me.