Stephen Hawking Brain Supplement
Synagen IQ is a genuinely outstanding medicine, according to some corners of the internet. The pill’s creator, a Harvard scientist, believes it has the potential to “benefit everyone on the globe” and “move us to the next stage of evolution.” It provided Donald Trump with the motivation and stamina he needed to win the US presidential election. Stephen Hawking, a theoretical physicist, owes his tremendous intellectual talents to the substance, which can be acquired online for as little as $29.99 a bottle.
Those sections of the internet are incorrect. None of those statements are correct.
Synagen is a nutritional supplement that promotes mental performance. It’s one of several pills sold online that prey on people’s fears about things like memory loss or additional weight in marketing packed with false claims, phoney news articles, and celebrity endorsements.
Stephen Hawking Brain Supplement
The falsehood that the pills can be obtained through a “risk-free trial” may be the largest of all the lies peddled in these advertising. People who fall for the presentations and input their credit card numbers may be unknowingly signing up for recurring payments or large overcharges, according to the US Federal Trade Commission and consumer complaints to the Better Business Bureau.
“These are merely the bait,” says the narrator. The marketing strategies are the true con here, according to Richard Cleland, associate director of the FTC’s division of advertising practises.
“A blizzard of deception”
When Quartz last checked in on Amanda Haughman, she was a Cornell student who had recently been featured in a CNN storey about a magical diet including apple cider vinegar and herbal supplements, according to the website independent-research.com. The commercial was fake, the diet was nonsense, and Amanda was not a real person, according to some study.
At independent-research.com, a few things have changed. Amanda is now referred to as a student at “a University,” rather than Cornell, and the CNN logo at the top of the page has been removed. Amanda’s weight loss is now attributed to a product called Pure Life Garcinia, rather than the TrimGenesis Garcinia supplements that were advertised a few weeks before. Readers can get a free 30-day supply of the medication by clicking on a link at the bottom of the storey. When you click “Get a free sample,” you’ll be taken to the Pure Life Garcinia product page.
It’s difficult to find a real individual at a firm that has been promoted by a phoney. The site displayed a corporate location in Santa Ana, California, as well as a customer service phone number on March 30. When Quartz dialled the number, the operator stated he was selling anti-wrinkle cream and had never heard of Pure Life. An email sent to the stated address was promptly returned.
On March 30, the identical website provided completely different contact information. The firm now claims to be headquartered in Carmel, Indiana. Quartz sent an email with the updated address. No response was received.
A customer care employee at the new phone number stated that she only dealt with Pure Life Garcinia client accounts and provided Quartz with a separate phone number for a business representative who might be able to address queries. That number was ineffective.
On March 31, the site offered a completely other product called Green Garcinia as a “free sample.” Green Garcinia’s website was nearly identical to Pure Life Garcinia’s, with the exception of the contact information, which gave a Tampa, Florida location.
“I’m new, so I don’t know all there is to know about the product,” said Mike, a customer support employee.
He promised to call back with a supervisor who could explain the company’s marketing approach. No one has done so.
A firm called Pure Life Garcinia Cambogia has a Better Business Bureau listing. The firm also offers a product called Pure Life Garcinia, according to a customer service person at the listed phone number, although the company is based in Tampa, not California. Or, for that matter, Indiana. Later, a customer service person confirmed that these are not the same Pure Life advertised in Amanda’s ad, but declined to address any additional inquiries.
The Better Business Bureau has given the firm a F rating, and there have been 23 consumer complaints, with the majority alleging that what they thought was a free trial turned out to be a costly monthly membership that was virtually hard to cancel.
Who is fooled by these sales techniques? Quite a few individuals. According to a recent YouGov poll, 61 percent of respondents in the United States believe advertisements. According to a separate Gallup study, only 32% of people believe the news. This trust is shown in the amount of money invested. Anthony and Staci Dill, the married founders of the now-defunct marketing businesses Direct Alternatives and Original Organics LLC, sold $16 million worth of AF Plus and Final Trim, two claimed weight-loss aids.
Steven Hawkings doesn’t take these pills, and Stephen Hawking doesn’t either
There are several techniques to deceive people with bogus cognitive supplements. According to an ad on the website tmz.rocks (which is unrelated to tmz.com), Donald Trump appeared on the Dr. Oz Show and credited Synagen IQ with his “high vitality.” While both Dr. Oz and Donald Trump have made several clearly incorrect statements in public, none has stated this specific misleading statement.
A Synagen ad on the site socialaffluent.com (since taken down) gathered a virtual flash mob of fake endorsers, including Patriots quarterback Tom Brady; musician Kanye West; Harvard sophomore Ben Lishger (no such person exists); Harvard scientists Dr. Rosenhouse and Dr. Cortigan (no Harvard faculty or staff by either of those names exist); and Harvard scientists Dr. Rosenhouse and Dr. Cortigan (no Harvard faculty or staff by either of those names
actor Denzel Washington; Microsoft founder Bill Gates; and a person described as “Genius Steven Hawkings” under a photo of the physicist Stephen Hawking, though that is not how either “Stephen” or “Hawking” is spelled and “Genius” is not his official job title.
Hawking and journalist Anderson Cooper are the names most often stolen for these ads—the unsuspecting Geico lizards of the dodgy brain medication business, if you will. Synagen IQ, IQ+, BrainPlus IQ, Brainapsyl, Adderin, InteliGEN, and Intellux claim that the author of A Brief History of Time endorsed their product in an interview with CNN presenter Anderson Cooper (though in keeping with the laissez-faire approach to accuracy, some labelled a photo of CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer as Cooper).
The strangely specific claim appears so frequently that the FTC contacted both men’s agents to ensure that no such interviews or endorsements had taken occurred.
They hadn’t done so. InteliGen (formerly Intellex), VitaCSR (Maker of Adderin), and Brainapsyl did not respond to emails. Intellux looks to have closed its doors.
Synagen’s customer care phone line was answered by an automated message. An auto-response to an email to the firm said, “Your request…is being processed by our support staff,” but there was no further response.
No one at BioTrim Labs, the business that makes BrainPlus IQ, could address concerns regarding the product’s marketing, according to a customer support representative. An autoresponse to support@biotrimlabs.com directed us to the company’s contact page, which said to email support@biotrimlabs.com.
Handing over a credit card may start a long and unpleasant struggle for individuals who fall into the sliver-thin Venn intersection of those who respect Stephen Hawking and people who believe Stephen Hawking uses online pills.
“They charge you $84.71 after the 14th day, and you’ll be billed for a second bottle (another $84.71) two weeks later because they’ve put you on a monthly subscription,” a Synagen customer complained to the Better Business Bureau, where the company has a F rating, similar to Pure Life Garcinia Cambogia.
It is far from the only firm facing similar allegations. “I placed an order on-line for $29 and they charged my… credit card for $72 which contained extra goods that I didn’t order,” fumed a customer who bought BrainPlus IQ from BioTrim Labs, which gets a F rating as well. “This Corporation should not be allowed to operate.”
