Now I am not in the business of naming names, marginalising any particular companies nor dragging anyone in particular through the mud. That’s not what I am about. However recently I did learn of a company that, as a result of negligence on the part of its distributors, has come under the microscope of authorities. I wanted to write about this and explain how what we say and represent our products is so utterly critical.
I won’t say that my company has escaped this either. Around 10 years’ ago, a Doctor lodged a formal complaint to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Consumer Affairs and the Australian Medical Authority due to a distributor basically claiming that our products cure cancer. Luckily, we escaped with a warning which the company then passed very loudly onto all of us about how careful we have to be with our language. I’ve seen it in the past – companies do get shut down because of ignorance and unprofessionalism.
Again, I won’t name this company, however I have learned that it is currently under investigation and in some degree of hot water due to misrepresentations it has made not only verbally but publicly on social media as to its weight loss products. A visual was published of a female – a fairly what I would call normal healthy size 14 woman – and then a second photo next to it of supposedly the same woman but probably a size 10 with six pack abs. The tag line mentioned that this was the same lady after 30 days. Now not only is this incredibly dangerous, it targets the vulnerable, it’s clearly fraudulent as it is just not possible to look like that after 30 days (it takes many months of 6 hours a day of training to get six pack abs – ask any of us that have achieved it with hard work and not just swallowing some pills and a shake) and it’s just plain misleading. Even I cautioned the person who posted this picture (as it came up in my feed) that their recklessness was irreconcilable.
Those who have known me for any amount of time know that I stand for professionalism, ethics, integrity, credibility and honesty in our industry. When people do post this stuff, it doesn’t only damage themselves and their company – it quite literally tears apart all of the hard work the rest of us have laid foundations for. It makes us all look like amateurs and I have to say it makes me mad.
Now I’m going to stop here because otherwise I will turn this into a bit of a rant. What I do want to communicate to you is to always be very, very conscious of what you say, how you say it and to who. A lot of us work with products that are targeted towards people’s health and there is still many left sadly in the medical fraternity that would have us stopped. And they don’t need much encouraging to try and do exactly that. Don’t give them any fodder. Conduct your business ethically, professionally, honestly and with integrity and credibility. You will become known for that and develop trust which build relationships which builds empires. It’s just not necessary to make false and misleading claims – they will always be found out. Make sure when conducting your business, you act as though you are an Ambassador for not only your company but our entire industry. We all thank you in advance for keeping our way of life safe.
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