If you've been to a mall in America over the past year or so, you've undoubtedly seen Power Balance wristbands being sold at a kiosk. If not, they're little rubber bands with holograms on them that are supposed to do all kinds of wizardy things. I don't use "wizardy" as a joke. They basically advertise this stuff like it's magic.
Here's a description from Amazon.com:
POWER BALANCE bracelets contain two Mylar Hologram's which are embedded with frequencies that react with your body's electro-magnetic field. When the static POWER BALANCE Hologram comes in contact with your body's energy field, it begins to resonate in accordance with each individual's biological energy system, creating a harmonic loop that optimizes your energy field, maintains maximum energy flow while it clears the pathways so the electro-chemical exchange functions like the well-tuned generator it was designed to be, resulting in immediate improved balance, increased core strength, greater flexibility, increased range of motion and overall well-being.
If all of that nonsense sounds like a steaming pile of horse turds to you. Well, it is. And Power Balance has been forced to admit it thanks to a class-action lawsuit filed in California earlier this year. All of those claims listed on Amazon? Aside from the fact that it's obviously a huge list of absurd lies, is missing any evidence to back it up.
The cost of telling the public that their hologram, when contacting your body's energy field, will turn you into a Superman-Hulk Hogan-Ninja-Pirate hybrid? A cool $57 million dollars. Enough that Power Balance is expected to file for bankruptcy and close.
I always laugh at the outrage over these sorts of things. I'd like to think that 95% of the people that get suckered into these sorts of products go in assuming it's all a pile of rubbish, but figure 'why not? If it works, great! If not, I think the hologram looks nifty on my wrist.' While the remaining 5% are looking for something to clear the pathways of their electro-chemical exchange.
The reason we bring this to your attention at Ted's Army is because one of their spokespeople just happened to be everyone's favorite second baseman Dustin Pedroia. They actually assembled an impressive stable of athletes to hock their bands, including Shaq, Derrick Rose, Drew Brees, Matt Stafford and Matt Kemp (among others). Hopefully those guys got paid up front.
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