Chemists Corner
Cosmetic Industry

How to spot Quackery

Perry Romanowski5 min read
skepticism
Advertisement

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

Advertisement

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.

Learn more: This topic is covered in depth in our The Cosmetic Industry: A Complete Guide.

Advertisement
Filed under:Cosmetic IndustryskepticismMore Cosmetic Industry articles →

Comments are read-only. Join the discussion on the Chemists Corner Forum.