CONSUMER WATCH
Some products claim a wondrous range of benefits.
Prescription: healthy skepticism.
By David Colker,
March 16, 2008
In the olden days, peddlers of
miracle cure-alls traveled from village to village in donkey carts.
Now they use late-night cable TV commercials.
"You need to discover the ancient Japanese secret to
perfect health!" declares the perky announcer for Kinoki
foot pads, a product that treats diabetes, arthritis, backaches, cellulite,
high blood pressure, insomnia, headaches, fatigue and mood changes, according
to the commercial.
All you have to do is place the pads on the bottom of your feet before going to
bed and the product "naturally draws toxins out of your body as you
sleep," the announcer proclaims.
Physician Peter Pressman can vouch for the fact that Kinoki
can bring about a mood change. He wasn't feeling cheerful recently at 3 a.m.
after a series of pages from a hospital nurse.
"I was sitting on the sofa with a bowl of Haagen-Dazs, watching
television," Pressman said, "and on came this Kinoki
thing.
"I have to confess that I started giggling uncontrollably."
Kinoki also has become an object of mirth on the Web,
where posters point out inconsistencies. For example, although the commercial
speaks of the product's age-old Japanese origins -- while showing a smiling,
kimono-clad woman -- the official Kinoki website says
the product is based on ancient knowledge from
Well, they're both in
But aside from the entertainment value of commercials with wild claims and
leaden acting, cure-alls are no laughing matter to Pressman, who has spoken out
against them, or to the Federal Trade Commission.
"Usually they list a dozen or so diseases treated by the product,"
said Richard Cleland, assistant director of the division of advertising
practices at the agency.
"But the diseases don't have a common, root connection. It's hard to
figure out how such a product could cure them all."
Xacta 3000 Inc., a
Cleland was familiar with the Kinoki advertisements
but declined to discuss the product's specific claim. The agency never reveals
whether advertisements are under investigation, he said.
Xacta 3000's lawyer didn't respond to requests for
interviews with company executives.
According to court documents in a recent trademark lawsuit filed by the
company, Xacta 3000 has been selling detoxification
foot pads under the Kinoki name for at least two
years. No sales figures were included in the filing.
Cure-alls can be big moneymakers. This year, a federal appeals court in
The ads for the bracelet declared that it emitted "q-rays" and
enhanced the flow of "bio-energy."
The court decision in the case called these claims "blather."
Cleland said it was common for cure-alls to claim some sort of scientific
backing.
"They know that if you have a reasonable amount of skepticism, you will
say, 'No way that can work,' " he said.
"They have to convince you there is a way, and frequently they do that by
making it sound scientific."
The Kinoki TV ads include a before-and-after
"Lab Results" graphic that shows the product eliminating harmful
substances from the body.
But there is no identification of the laboratory. It also doesn't help that
alcohol is misspelled as "alchohol" on the
chart.
On one corner of the screen, during the ad, the words "FDA
Registered" appear. But Rita Chappelle, a
spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, said the agency had no
listing for Kinoki among its registered
nonprescription products.
Animation in the ad shows toxins flowing downward through a tree. The announcer
explains: "Just like a tree draws energy in and toxins down its trunk, Kinoki foot pads work the same way."
Pressman wasn't impressed.
"The biological leap from a rodent model to a human is so large," he
said, "that to liken a plant to human beings
shouldn't even be dignified by discussion."
Pressman said he wasn't closed-minded when it came to alternatives to
mainstream medicine. He has taught classes on the topic at USC.
Some of these non-Western treatments, he said, "are grounded in
honest-to-God science, like acupuncture, which has tremendous value."
But he cautioned that products purporting to be cure-alls should be looked upon
with a heavy dose of skepticism, even though he finds the notion alluring.
"I would love to have that sort of sweeping power at my command,"
Pressman said. "It would make my work a hell of a lot easier."
david.colker@latimes.com