If you visit My Space, you know what the Pink Patch is. Ads for this weight loss product are emblazoned atop web pages throughout this popular Internet community site. “Get Skinny with Pink!” “Be young and have fun with the body you’ve always dreamed of!”
My daughter and I stumbled across the Pick Patch on Kimya Dawson’s MySpace page last night. (Kimya’s music was featured in the movie Juno, so she’s a favorite among teenage girls.) Almost every 3rd hit on Kimya’s MySpace page will bring the Pink Patch ad back.
According to a 2007 survey, over one third of teens ages 12-19 report My Space as one of their most visited websites. And advertising unregulated diet medication to teenagers is just plain wrong.
What’s in the Pink Patch?
That’s hard to say for sure, since it’s an unregulated product. But these are the ingredients listed on the Patch’s website (though amounts are not listed):
Fucus Vesiculosus, or bladderwrack is a seaweed rich in iodine, which, if used in safe quantities, can prevent under-active thyroid in the same way iodized salt does. But too much iodine can be dangerous, and we don’t know how much is in the pink patch. In addition, research has found that bladderwrack can cause menstrual cycle changes and possibly kidney damage at high doses. Finally, bladderwrack can be contaminated with dangerous heavy metals if it is harvested from contaminated waters. Who knows where the pink patch gets its bladderwrack?
5-HTP is a serotonin precursor similar to Tryptophan, a product banned by the FDA when it was found to contain contaminants. Who knows if this stuff is contaminated?
Yerba mate is a stimulant that appears to slow gastrointestinal transit time, leading to a persistent sense of fullness and decreased food intake, as well as having caffeine-like inhibitory affects on appetite. An increase in certain cancers has been reported in areas with high intake of Yerba Mate, although other studies suggest that it may have antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. (Excellent review here.) In addition, Radioactive contaminants have been found in some brands of Yerba Mate, suggesting that they were grown with fertilizer from the area around the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident.
Flaxseed oil is an omega-3 rich oil. No problem there.
Guarana contains very high concentrations of caffeine, and therefore acts as a stimulant and appetite suppressant. However, irregular heart rhythms have been reported after use of Guarana. Seizures have been linked to high consumption of guarana containing energy drinks.
Lecithin is a fatty substance isolated from eggs. It’s safe.
L-carnitine is a nutrient that is involved in fat transport and metabolism. Its efficacy for weight loss is unproven, but it is probably safe. L-carnitine may interact with certain medications. (Good review here)
While some of the ingredients of the Pink Patch have properties that could lead to weight loss, well-done clinical trials have yet proven these claims. More importantly, there is absolutely no quality control or outside oversight on the manufacture or dosing of the products in the Pink Patch.
The Pink Patch is marketed directly to young women
The Pink Patch is blatantly marketed to teens and young women, with slogans like “Be the envy of every girl you know”, and comments about dining hall food and term paper stress.
Of course, you need a credit card to buy the Pink Patch, which limits its availability to older teens and college age girls. Fortunately, that’s just the market they’re going after.
Yes, this is America, and yes the FDA has no regulatory power over herbal products such as the Pink Patch.
But MySpace’s central place in teen culture imparts a responsibility to its owners to act responsibly in choosing advertisers. I notice there are no liquor or tobacco ads. They know that this would just not fly.
Well, it’s time for us to let them know that advertising unregulated herbal diet ads to teenage girls won’t fly either.
C’mon – Let’s see if we can get My Space to drop the Pink Patch Ads
If you already belong to My Space, go to Tom’s page (Tom is the founder of My Space, and that’s his page up there). Send Tom a message telling him what you think about the Pick Patch ads. Tell him it’s wrong to advertise unregulated diet medication to adolescents.
If you don’t belong to My Space, it’s easy enough to join. Tom will be your first friend. Then go to his page and message him.
If Tom isn’t taking email, then report this to the Myspace team as “abuse”, then choose “scams” from the drop down box. That’s what this is after all. A scam.
I’m already messaged Tom. Now I’m gonna’ head over to Kimya’s page and ask her to ask Tom to take the Pink Patch Ads off her page. Kimya seems like a really nice person, and she just had a baby girl.
I’m sure she wouldn’t want her daughter using diet pills and patches advertised on her own mother’s My Space page.
__________________________________________________________
I’m not the only one taking on the Pick Patch –
- The Pink Patch Needs to be Patched Up – great discussion
- The Beauty Brains – Great site, by the way
- Zara Rabinowicz at DollyMix
- Detroit Action News story
- Sybervision – links to investigation on the company that makes the Pink Patch
- The f word – “Products like this are complete bullocks”
**********************************UPDATE********************************
Kimya messaged me back, and she is taking on the cause!! Here’s what she wrote to me –
holy s***. wow. thank you. this is super important. i will take drastic measures
this evening.
Go Kimya! The rest of you, Go buy her album!
Tried to do so, but Tom is not taking e-mails currently. Tried to do an end-run and e-mail the technical side, but got an error message. Will try again later today or tomorrow, as I agree with you.
If Tom isn’t taking email, then you can message the Myspace team and report this under Abuse, subset “Scams”, since that what this really is.
Thanks TBTAM. I managed to do so by taking that route.
This is a great article! Thank you for discussing this topic and for linking to my article at beauty and the breast! I’m glad that people are finally getting the word out about this awful product/advertisement.
By the way, Facebook also has the ad and it wouldn’t hurt to contact their administrators as well.
As does Hotmail.
The first programme of the latest Dr Who series is worth watching – deals with weight loss. After watching it my daughters said they wouldn’t be using a pink patch…
Thanks for bringing this up. My post is here
Yuck.
I know this doesn’t solve the problem, but sometimes I am relieved I have adblock.
I bought into the ad and purchased the pink patch I spoke to my doctor before trying it and he advised against it. I comend you for your efforts and I hope we can get rid of the ad. I actually was going to ignore my doctors advise and try it anyway then I came across your site and thank God!
It is so important to know exactly what is in everything we put in our bodies. Thank you for your hard work…no telling what might have happened if I had tried it.
I had not realised there was already this furore about the Pink Patch -I was just incensed to see it popping up all over the place on Hotmail etc – I have three daughters and one very intelligent teen whom we have just about rescued from the brink of serious anorexia – I complained to advertising standards agency -do they have power over Hotmail/myspace and such like? I am glad I am not alone and hope it can be stopped.
I recently bought The Pink Patch and have been wearing it for 5 days now. I haven’t lost any weight yet, but it is seriously controling my appetite. I don’t see what the big deal is.
Thanks for your well thought out article. The ad is all over AOL too and so I have sent a message to AOL and to the Advertising Standards authority complaining and asking for removal of the Pink ad with a link to your comments as they are so well stated. Thanks. M. Netty
Hi – following your thought provoking article I wrote to AOl and they have replied (below) – good result – too bad the ad was on for so long.
Thanks. MNetty
Thank you for your email of 2 July regarding advertisements for pinkpatch.co.uk which have appeared on AOL services. I apologise for the delay in replying.
We have discussed this matter with the advertiser and the Advertising Standards Authority. The Advertising Standards Authority has confirmed that it will pre-clear any further advertising from this advertiser. In the meantime further advertisements for this particular client have been withdrawn.
We take feedback from our customers very seriously and were concerned to hear your comments. We are reviewing the creative used in the advertisements you referred to carefully with the advertiser.
Sent on behalf of the Director of Policy, AOL Europe
AOL UK Ltd
advertisingenquiries@corp.aol.com
Visit http://mediaspace.aol.co.uk/
From: MN
Sent: 02 July 2008 10:34
To: enquiries, advertising; enquiries@asa.org.uk
Subject: Please remove damaging advertising for Pink patch
Dear Sir / Madam,
Re: http://micro.thepinkpatch.co.uk/s-Paol300BT10h_V2/lp
As a middle aged woman with a young daughter, I have been horrified that you advertising the Pink patch so excessively without much care or responsibility. I have read several articles on the web from other readers equally distressed and I will copy the links to these as they are already so well written and researched. I myself have posed as a customer and subsequently have asked to cancel my subscription in order to test the ethics of the organisation. I look forward to a reply and to the removal of this very unhelpful and damaging advertising.
Please read the following for comprehensive outline of why this is damaging and harmful advertising with unsubstantiated benefits and product not regulated.
http://beautyandthebreast.org/2008/04/08/the-pink-patch-needs-to-be-patched-up/273
http://theblogthatatemanhattan.blogspot.com/2008/04/pink-patch-irresponsible-advertising-on.html
Your sincerely,
MNetty – London
For anyone interested the ASA judgement is here.
It makes interesting reading particularly about how the claims were tested….
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44751.htm
There is a firm working on a class action suit against CYC Pink Patch and its parent company USA Herbals. These guys are targeting young women and committing wire fraud with their free trial. If you know anyone that has used this product and wants more info, send me an email kaiyadiaz at gmail.com
I have just turned 17 and am on the heavy side (UK 16). I have seen these adverts all over the place and I just went on their website, the only reason I did not order my free trial was that I wanted to know whether they worked. I then googled the pink patch and found this blog, after reading this article I have seriously reconsidered ordering some. I would therefore like to Thank you for collecting this information and also for your determination to take the adverts off the internet.
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