Q-ray gets hit by FTC

[apocalypse]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0609090160sep09,1,2422233.story?coll=chi-business-hed

"An infomercial entrepreneur...should repay at least $22.5 million in ill-gotten gains, a federal judge ruled Friday."

Ahh, it's good to see some common sense for a change.

[Mercutio]

Woo hoo!

I trust they are going to appeal...

[grayman]

At trial, QT Inc. attorney Michael Ficaro argued that the mechanism behind the bracelet was not the issue.

"More than three out of four people got relief from this product," Ficaro told Denlow. "And the other quarter who didn't got their money back. ... How in the world does that violate the [false advertising] act?"

Placebo effect (http://http://skepdic.com/placebo.html).

[They] analyzed 19 clinical trials of antidepressants and concluded that the expectation of improvement, not adjustments in brain chemistry, accounted for 75 percent of the drugs' effectiveness

Highlights mine.

[Kochanski]

Hooray!!!!

There is one sad thing in this, after you read the article, scan down to the google ads, they are full of links to buy the bloody Q-ray. Google ads really have to be the lamest on the face of the earth. I just emailed Google about the stupidity. Now I will do the same for the Chicago Tribune.

Uggghhhh. We get a victory against nonsense and google just messes it up by promoting the stupid thing. :mad:

[Hawkeye]

Another sad thing is that over a million people were stupid and/or desperate enough to buy this crap.
Oh well, at least it's good see the Q-Ray people get busted big time.

[Elizabeth I]

Can I just say, how stupid (or desperate) would you have to be to take a product with a name like "Q-Ray" seriously? Sounds like something out of "Flash Gordon."

[gfunkusarelius]

i've mentioned this before on this forum, but the infomercial on this product were second to none...they hit you with an absolute barrage of testimonials that would make anyone other than a fairly hardened skeptic say "well dang, it must do something because there's no way they could find this many people to endorse the product." when i saw it for the first time a few years ago, i was even interested enough to do some online research. i was very skeptical, but i wasnt visiting a site like this at the time, so i still had a little more faith in things that appeared on TV, but i would say the vast majority of people arent even nearly as skeptical as i was then (skeptical enough to look at the reviews and accept bad ones)

[bjb]

Can I just say, how stupid (or desperate) would you have to be to take a product with a name like "Q-Ray" seriously? Sounds like something out of "Flash Gordon."

The Q-Ray is mentioned in the movie "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians). One of the martians mocks New York city by saying, "Look at all those buildings above ground. Why, we could destroy it with one blast of our Q-ray."

[Lisa Simpson]

Decisions, decisions. Do I email the above link to my Qray-true-believer brother-in-law or do I keep silent and continue mocking him behind his back?

[Alareth]

Decisions, decisions. Do I email the above link to my Qray-true-believer brother-in-law or do I keep silent and continue mocking him behind his back?

Send it to him and then mock him openly

[Kochanski]

Send it to him and then mock him openly

I am with Alareth, but I am betting that like any "true-believer" of any nonsense he will dismiss the court's ruling. He will continue to believe that it works. The fact that it is a placebo effect that could be done with anything that the person believed would work will not sway him from his belief.

[Lisa Simpson]

I doubt he will change his mind too. First off, he's kind of dumb. Second, he loves the "quick fix". Whatever will make him stronger (he's only into weight lifting, no cardio) is what he will do. If a fellow lifter told him eating horse**** would make him stronger, faster, he would eat it. He thinks the Q-Ray increases his muscle strength by reducing post-workout pain/inflammation.

[apocalypse]

If a fellow lifter told him eating horse**** would make him stronger, faster, he would eat it.

This make me think of a quote from Futurama in which Bender gets sick and Amy tells him to take Echinacea or a St. John's wort. To this the professor replies "Or a big fat placebo. It's all the same crap."

[SPQR]

I remember seeing the Q-Ray infomercial for the first time, it must have been 3 minutes long, and thinking, "What the hell is thing supposed to do?!" Everyone of the testimonials was so vague I didn't even know enough about it to be skeptical!

[Lisa Simpson]

I only discussed it once with my BIL. He gave one to his dad (my father-in-law) for his 60th birthday. Aside from the post-workout pain, it was also supposed to cure arthritis and that wonderful, but vague "more energy" stuff. He told my dad-in-law that if it didn't work while on one wrist, he should move it over to the other wrist and then it would work. I'm not quite sure what difference that would make and I didn't want to ruin the bday party by making a scene about it. I will say that my dad-in-law didn't even last a whole day wearing the thing. He saw it for what it is, but he also didn't want to create a scene at his party.

[ponderingturtle]

I remember seeing the Q-Ray infomercial for the first time, it must have been 3 minutes long, and thinking, "What the hell is thing supposed to do?!" Everyone of the testimonials was so vague I didn't even know enough about it to be skeptical!

I know watching the comercial when they where talking about is being specialy ionized I was wondering to what voltage it is supposted to be chaged to.

They should have at least used a term that any high school chemistry student would know that they were spouting crap like saying it was quantum fluxuations or subluxations or something like that

[Ossai]

Lisa Simpson
Decisions, decisions. Do I email the above link to my Qray-true-believer brother-in-law or do I keep silent and continue mocking him behind his back? Mockery is much more satisfying when done openly.


Ossai

[Cuddles]

Q-Ray - apply directly to wallet.
Q-Ray - apply directly to wallet.
Q-Ray - apply directly to wallet.

[Grimoire]

I remember seeing the Q-Ray infomercial for the first time, it must have been 3 minutes long, and thinking, "What the hell is thing supposed to do?!" Everyone of the testimonials was so vague I didn't even know enough about it to be skeptical!

The original Q-Ray commercials weren't so vague. They described, in great detail, how the Q-Ray was a very effective pain killer. Then all the commercials disappeared for some time. They fairly recently re-appeared with the testimonials about how great it is still in, but the actual claims removed. If you don't make a specific medical claim, it isn't considered a medical device.