This site was Highly Commended in the 2009 Millenium Awards. The award citation read:
You take an old trick that scamsters have been doing for eons, dress it up with some pretty design and some sciency sounding words and then get yourself into gymnasiums and convince the sweaty denizens that your magic plastic wrist band can make them stronger and have better balance. Once you have the money rolling in from that (and at $60 each for bangles that probably cost less than a dollar to make it rolls in fast) you convince a television show to give you some free publicity. When that publicity backfires a little and causes some questioning of the product you run away and hide, cutting off all communication with critics because you can't justify the claims you make. The one thing stopping this site from being a candidate for an Anus Maximus Award is that the only damage done to victims is financial and even then $60 is not a great deal of money. Taking it from people without offering anything of benefit in return is naughty, but most people don't die just because someone came along and took their money.
Dear Mr O'Dowd,
Congratulations. Power Balance was Highly Commended in the 2009 Millenium Awards presented by The Millenium Project. The judges tried some of the wristbands on and they unanimously agreed that the bracelets certainly increased the strength of their laughter. The award citation read:
[see above]
Please feel free to publicise your award and display the award logo on your web site. If you wish to collect the physical prize (a tube of haemorrhoid cream and a wire brush applicator) you can do so at your own expense, but please give me sufficient notice so that I can organise the location for the public application of the cream and the accompanying media coverage.
You can see the other award winners at http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/history/2009/2009awards.htm
That old black magic(19/12/2009) It was breathlessly announced in a promotion for the television "current affairs" show Today Tonight that the show was going to feature someone with a special bracelet that "a skeptic could not explain". Here is a transcript of what went to air:
Bracelet claims balance improvement Reporter: Frank Pangallo Broadcast Date: December 15, 2009
It is called a Power Balance Bracelet and whatever some people claim to feel when wearing one defies their belief and logic.
Tom O'Dowd has the Australian rights for the bracelet which sells for around $60.
The secret, he claims, is embedded in the hologram on the band and so-called Mylar technology.
"In the Mylar hologram is a frequency and the frequency as soon as it comes into contact with the electrical field of your body basically works with your body's electrical field that gives you a feeling of wellness," Tom claims.
Tom alleges he can demonstrate straight away that it improves balance, strength and flexibility.
Mylar technology supposedly restores the body's frequency to somewhere near the 7.83 hertz required.
"This will make you the best you can be, it won't turn you into Tiger Woods let's put it that way, but it will make you the best you can be," Tom claims.
Well, this skeptic had an explanation, and here is the letter I sent to Today Tonight:
Immediately following the story tonight about the magic bracelet fraud, I picked up the first object near my hand (my reading glasses) and showed my wife how they are just as effective as the $60 wristband.
It took me about five minutes to learn the tricks of applied kinesiology (pushing arms to test for allergies), and it would take me about as long to learn how to do this evolution of that old scam.
$60 for a wristband! I wish I'd thought of it, but, then, my conscience doesn't let me rob people.
I do a demonstration of applied kinesiology in my stage shows about quackery, and I will add the variations used by this quack as soon as I have five minutes to perfect the techniques.
More about the magic bracelets(9/1/2010) As a follow-up to their story about the fraud of charging $60 for some rubber bands, the television program Today Tonight revisited Power Balance, and this time they were going to test the things, not just promote them. My friend Richard Saunders flew half way across Australia to help with the testing, but I'm afraid that what went to air would not have discouraged the average viewer of the program from trying out the scammy bangles. I was invited to appear on the show but I was too busy that day with real work, and had I gone I would have taken a different approach - I would have demonstrated that the magic effects could be produced by anyone without using the bracelets. This is not a criticism of Richard, because we have different ways of doing things, but the problem with shows like Today Tonight is that they have only a short time allocated to each story, and this means that it is difficult to explain to a scientifically unsophisticated audience why a testing protocol produces meaningful results. (On the same night the program ran a story about a house with oil seeping from the walls. They called in some scientists to test it and then simply ignored what the scientists had to say and went right ahead suggesting a supernatural cause.) A quick and simple debunking gives less latitude for editing than a day's experimenting and might mean more to the viewers.
Following the show, several people I know asked questions on Power Balance's Facebook page (there was no facility for communication with the company on its own web site). Without exception they were all banned from commenting, and finally the page was gutted of all content. I wonder why Power Balance are so shy about asking "How does it work?" questions. Actually, I don't wonder that at all.
Here is the program excerpt, with the official transcript below. You can also see it on the Today Tonight site.
Bracelet claims put to the test Reporter: Frank Pangallo Broadcast Date: December 22, 2009
Is it a mind blowing scientific marvel or merely the mind playing games with reality?
The promoters of the "Power Balance" bracelet claim it can do amazing things to your body when you're wearing one - things that defy logic or science.
Tom O'Dowd, whose company sells the bracelets in Australia for $60 dollars, says the secret to the bracelet is in a hologram.
"It's a frequency that's been embedded in mylar tech in the hologram and that frequency - when it comes in comes within 2 inches of your skin - reacts with electrical field of your body. You are the battery that powers this product," Tom said.
Richard Saunders from the Australian Sceptics Society says that's nonsense.
What is not in dispute is the effect it's had on almost all the people who've tried it, like 80-year-old Joyce Washington.
"I don't know if it gives more energy, but I'm more alert, even round the house I do things thoroughly if I have bracelet on," Joyce said.
Melbourne chiropractor, Dr. Matt Bateman, has tried it on hundreds of his patients, even staking his reputation on it.
"I felt it for myself. There is so much you can fake - I am not faking 500% strength and stability, which is what I felt - I can't fake that," Dr. Bateman said.
Dr. Bateman demonstrated the bracelet on one of Today Tonight's sceptical reporters, Jonathan Creek, with amazing results.
So who to believe? Today Tonight asked Tom to put his claims to a series of tests using six volunteers with Richard Saunders looking on.
Tom carried out his usual balance and strength routine, using a card embedded with the hologram, then with the bracelet. All six reported a positive reaction, but all the volunteers were aware when they came into contact with the hologram and the bracelet.
Richard thinks the positive results might have had more to do with physics or the angles with which Tom was exerting his force.
Next, Today Tonight made a series of blind tests.
Six cards were randomly placed in the pockets of the six volunteers. Only one, the fifth in line, had the card with the hologram. It was up to Tom to detect who had it - he was unable to do so.
The same experiment was repeated using the bracelet. Tom again failed. He also failed a second time when Richard had a hologram hidden in his pocket.
So, is it mind over matter perhaps?
The human brain is a powerful tool and capable of extraordinary things says Professor David Powers. He runs the Artificial intelligence Unit at Flinders University.
"If you tell a person that its going to do something, then show it can find the placebo effect - which means whatever you say they believe it will happen. Sometimes when you have an object that does have an effect, the placebo effect plus a little more, when they have the object if it is stimulating them in some way," he said.
The power of positive thinking - take American Nick Harris. This week he turned superman when he lifted a car off a six year old girl but he's tried to do it again a few times since, without success.
Professor Powers would like to do more research on the placebo effect of the power bracelet, while Richard Saunders and his sceptics maintain it's up there with snake oil.
Power Balance runs away(16/1/2010) The promoters of the Power Balance magic bracelet scam must really be running scared. Last week I mentioned that they had effectively closed their Facebook site by removing all content and blocking any comments. They have now gone a step further. They also had a range of Facebook pages directed at different locations and languages. The largest of these had about 3,500 fans but even this colossal popularity couldn't protect it from a small group of people asking really difficult questions like "Where is the evidence?". Suddenly and without warning the page simply disappeared. Gone. Without a trace left behind.
What the owners of the page didn't realise in their panic to avoid any criticism is that the critics were getting tired anyway, and were not doing as good a job of discrediting the magic bangle as the single remaining spokesperson for the company was. When the best you can do is to produce someone with an obviously fake name who is illiterate and combines an inability to write and spell with a total lack of even the simplest logic then it is probably time to fold up the tents and leave anyway. As an aside, the spokesperson for the Power Bracelet kept referring to it as "PB♥". Perhaps the final straw was my asking whether this meant she was in love with me.
I could be rich!(8/5/2010) Remember the Power Balance bracelets, those $60 rubber bands that you wear on your wrist to make you strong and improve your stability? Well, it looks like I could get myself onto the gravy train if this email from China is any indication. And I really like the purple Comic Sans.
From: "Vivian Liu" Subject: New Model Date: Fri, 07 May 2010 10:48:29 +0800
Dear Manager,
Good day.
This is Vivian from USDAR. We are a professional manufacturer of power balance bracelet. Here we have a new model power balance bracelet. It is so popular in world market recently. Are you interested in it? If yes, please let us know.
Thanks & Best regards, Vivian Liu USDAR(XIAMEN)Industry & Trade Co.,Ltd Website: http://usdar.com Add: NO.688 Banshang She, Heshan Road, Huli District, Xiamen, China
Wishful thinking(19/6/2010) Sometimes I wonder if I am not making myself quite clear when I write things. I have had a bit to say about a heavily-promoted fraud called Power Balance Bracelets, and I didn't think that there could be any doubt about my opinion. Someone didn't quite get the point and sent me this email.
Hi was wondering how do I purchase the power wristband? Can I have an order form sent to my email please, thank you.
I decided not to write back in case I confused matters even further.
Why me?(21/8/2010) You know those $60 rubber bands that crooks tell you will increase your strength and balance? I might have to go into business selling them, because they look even more profitable than being a homeopath writing labels for bottles of water. For some reason I have been receiving emails from a manufacturer offering these things to me wholesale.
Here are some examples. (I apologise for the large images, but that is how the emails were sent to me - great big pictures instead of text.)
The first one - wholesale price of the $60 rubber bands - $1.17.
Number 2 - Lovely necklaces for $1.19 each (including a pretty box)
Number 3 - Even lovelier necklaces (I do like the necklace/bracelet combination for $2.35 - I could sell that for at least $120.)
And do any of these things work? Well, they certainly improve the strength of the retailer's bank balance, so I guess they do have an effect on both strength and balance. What they do for the purchaser is make them feel stronger and more balanced because their wallets will feel easier to pick up and won't pull down on one side of the body as much.
Have I mentioned that selling these things is committing fraud?
Bracelet claims balance improvement
