How to spot Quackery
Very clever summary of how to spot quackery. In the cosmetic industry, you can find examples of people selling products using all of these methods.
Here is a list of their Red Flags of Quackery. If you see them in a cosmetic ad, it might be quackery.
1. Testimonials
2. Helps your body
3. Celebrity Doctor
4. Ancient Wisdom
5. Secret/Conspiracy
6. Buy my book
7. Miracle ingredient
8. Non-MD Doctor
9. Natural
10. Quantum
11. Toxins
12. Energy
13. Magnets
14. Hostility to criticism
15. Western Medicine
Perhaps in a future post, I’ll list examples of cosmetic products sold using these red flags. Some of these apply more to health products but lots of cosmetic products are marketed using these quacky techniques.
Why?
Unfortunately, they often work.
