I'm soooo with you on this! It angers and frustrates me to no end! People spend so much money on hokey magic diet schemes. They would be better off putting that money into going to the gym, eating healthy foods, and actually getting results.
Glad I'm not the only one who gets aggravated with all this. (Oh and I have a "magic" trick for looking younger...losing weight! It's amazing how many years weight loss seems to take off of people I sure can't wait!)
OK -- so we're all in agreement that the ads are horrible! I put them in the same category as the emails asking me to send money to Nigeria because someone is stranded and needs a way to get home. Actually, I do have a friend who claimed that she lost 300 pounds one day -- it happened on the day her divorce became final! Said it was the best weight loss program she'd ever been on.
The diet industry isn't a billion dollar industry because it tells the truth.
Frankly, people don't want the truth. People want to believe in magic.
Look at the success of Paleo. Tell people they can lose weight by eating only lean meat and veggies and they'll say ... "Well DUH! Obviously!" Tell them a wonderful story about how eating the ideal diet for their health because we evolved over hundreds of thousands of years and if you follow this diet you'll magically lose weight and never get sick and an entire industry is born ..."
Agreed! I find those ads/commercials/fat-to-thin women (actresses/models) so annoying. Mainly because I have an extremely gullible side and it wants me to believe "just one may actually work!" Fortunately I also have a logical side that restrains me from trying any of that crap.
There's something else I find particularly annoying that stems from popular media's portrayal of diets. About 2.5 years ago I lost 35ish pounds and was at a healthy weight. Whenever I ran into someone I hadn't seen in a while, I would get, "you look great! How'd you do it?" I always gave the same boring answer of watching what I ate and exercising. Often, I would catch a strange look cross the person's face. I don't know if it was surprise or disappointment or something else. I just found that people never really felt satisfied with the reality of weightloss. They want the gimmicks.
With you on this. Unfortunately we live in a time where everybody wants things to come "easy" to them. Instead of working hard for it, they want it to fall into their laps. I love the commercial for the green tea or whatever it is that's usually on during the day that shows if you drink their tea you will instantly drop 30 pounds! It gets me SO aggravated. Nothing in life is that easy and if it was everybody would be doing it!!! Sad thing is, people invest so much money into these things thinking they will work and they are just making the companies richer.
I use FireFox browser and their ad blocker. It is so nice to have the margins of the page quiet. I especially hated the ads that flash and vibrate.
I am extremely suspicious of all advertizing. I figure if they are spending that kind of money on advertizing, they are over charging for what ever they are selling.
Those ads promising 75lb loss in one week are just preying on low information buyers. The advertizing all says in the small print, "results not typical". Unless, as someone said above, you have a few fat limbs and maybe your head amputated.
I put them in the same category as the emails asking me to send money to Nigeria because someone is stranded and needs a way to get home. Actually, I do have a friend who claimed that she lost 300 pounds one day -- it happened on the day her divorce became final! Said it was the best weight loss program she'd ever been on. 
so true!
