2010 was a good year for nonsense, but one product idea I saw was so bad it truly took my breath away. You don't want to hand out a distinction like "worst ever" prematurely, but this is the most thoroughly terrible business model I've seen in a very long time.
The Worst Product Idea Ever
To start with, it's a DTC genomic test. But it's a DTCG test that exists... wait for it... to sell nutritional supplements!
Anyone who has talked to me for at least an hour knows the very low opinion I have for nutritional supplements. So already, this scheme has got my goat on several levels. It uses dubious science to get people to take more overly-hyped, mostly-unregulated, unproven, uncontrolled, uninspected and just generally nasty substances.
But that's not all. If only that were all.
Using baloney to sell nonsense is small-picture thinking. What you really need is a third kind of heat.
So they brilliantly added on an MLM growth opportunity so customers can tap into explosive growth by selling to friends and family. As we all know, one of the best ways to assess the importance of a medical technology is to find out what your upstream margins might be.
If they made a Bingo game out of annoying me, this would be a guaranteed winner.
Helpfully, their website allows you to let friends and family know about this tremendous opportunity. So I’ve made sure several members of FDA are on their mailing list. I hope Santa has at least one extra lump of coal handy.
Happy holidays to all and thanks for reading. Please don't be like these people.
I look forward to what 2011 might bring and wish you all a happy, safe, and scientifically sound new year.
