Gimmick Products Used for Beauty, Body Image, and Weight Loss

       With Instagram celebrities starting their own companies, and with more and more business adapting their marketing strategies to employ social media, it's not really that surprising that there are going to be a couple of products out there that are not so genuine. Combine that with the female perception that their physical appearance has to be flawless and continually improved or else they risk a life of unhappiness, and you get the gimmick products of the beauty world. A gimmick product is one that is primarily designed to attract attention, but with no substantial value. These products will offer something that's desirable to audiences, such as a hair product that will cause your hair length to triple in a week. As long hair is seen as a desirable trait in women, those who want to grow out their hair may fall prey to the marketing trap. Of course, these product claims are completely falsified and have no scientific evidence to support their claims.

Essentially, the gimmick product is a marketing ploy to trick unsuspecting, and naively trusting consumers to spend money on a useless pipe dream. It's bad enough seeing $80 vitamin supplements designed to make you lose 10 pounds in a week, but it's even worse when it's publicly endorsed by celebrities who should really know better. The problem is, they do know better, but they're also using their appearance and widespread popularity to make obscene amounts of money doing very little work.

Fit Tea, BioLips, Mr. Blanc Professional Teeth Whitening, and Waist Trainers, are all examples of specific gimmick products that celebrities endorse on their personal social media*. Generally speaking, these products tend to have a great interest in the external appearance of the buyer; thus, they are seen as solutions to the body image problems by celebrity's followers on Instagram.


       While a number of celebrities actually use these products and believe that they work effectively, in reality, many of these spokespersons do not use these products and they promote them just to get paid for doing so.

Khloe Kardashian, showing off in a Waist Trainer 

We all know that women love to have long and thick hair, and when they see a beautiful picture of Becca Tilley holding “Sugar Bear Hair” vitamins in both of her hand palms, they probably think that they have found the optimal solution for their weak and damaged hair. Becca Tilley encourages her followers to take two Sugar Bear Hair vitamins by ensuring them that “they taste like scooby doo snacks”.

       Another cheap trick used by top influencers in the fitness world is calling "convenient timing". Often we see posts about specific fitness products, claiming to help lose weight in a very little amount of time. While it may seem too good to be true, there are plenty of photo testimonials proving the miracle product for weight loss. Except that there are a number of factors like lighting, time of day, time of last meal, clothing choice, and posture that can drastically change someones appearance in a matter of hours.

References

Levi, A. (2017, January 31). 12 before and after photos that will make you rethink everything you see on social media. Retrieved from http://www.health.com/fitness/body-positive-before-and-after-photos

Brown, K. (2015, July 21). The big bad world of products celebrities promote on instagram. Retrieved from http://jezebel.com/the-big-bad-world-of-products-celebrities-promote-on-in-1710470780

Bautch, H. (2016, July 25). 14 celebrity-endorsed products we would actually buy. Retrieved from https://www.dailybreak.com/break/celebrity-endorsed-products-we-want-to-try-list

Munson, R. (2015, August 17). Coco white: the teeth whitening kit the celebs are loving. Retrieved from http://www.look.co.uk/beauty/coco-white-the-teeth-whitening-kit-the-celebs-are-loving-37635