Posted on May 6th, 2009 by Craig Maltby, Editor
Fraud Alert – This is not an ABC News story
As someone who is a professional communicator and who has been working for a number of years within the legitimate end of the nutritional supplement industry, it torks me when I see sales efforts that are trying to manipulate me and others.
See the clip below. Does it remotely look at all like an ABC News health feature? I’m sure many people might think so. But I don’t. The company–makers of a drink with “limu moui” — spliced a little intro from ABC News into a promotional video of a so-called immune health product. When attempting to go to the corporate web page associated with this “news story,” a message appeared that said the site had moved or was no longer existing. But after a bit of digging, I found the company at a different site: The Limu Company.
Notice how they portray their paid advertisements in magazines as “press” stories. And they continue to refer to ABC–as well as Fox, CBS and NBC–saying all the big networks have jumped on this story.
I’ve posted a message on the Yahoo site hosting the video that I will pass this along to ABC to at least try to provide a chance for them to give it a look. In fact, I think I’ll turn it in to the Council for Responsible Nutrition as well, who may have a more direct line to the news dept. at ABC. If we are to benefit from innovative, science-based, compliance-minded supplementation products, marketing practices like this have to change.
