Does anyone remember Jeff Hope, the man with the most outrageous marketing claim ever to hit my inbox?
"Any sort of disease whatsoever -
physical or mental - will be rapidly curable, simply and cheaply. It
will be possible to reverse aging and rejuvenate the person. It will be
possible to re-grow limbs and straighten misshapen spines - and directly
remove the causes of mental diseases and cure them as well. Lifespan
will be staggeringly increased, without 'old age's debilitation'. AIDS,
cancer, leukemia [sic]
, and genetic diseases will be completely conquered..."
The device in question - the Quantumwave Laser - was so staggeringly successful in curing AIDS and cancer that it, errr, doesn't appear to be for sale any more.
Upon being challenged by the regulators, Jeff mounted a spirited defence.
"The Wellness Tree (Wellness) said... on reflection, the leaflet could have been taken out of context
and there should have been more checks made before it went to print.
Wellness said they would no longer distribute the leaflet and had
engaged an advertising agent and legal advisor to ensure that all their
advertising material complied with the CAP Code in future."
This "advertising agent" and "legal advisor" - if, indeed, any such person was ever engaged - seem to have been asleep at their desks.
Jeff's latest advertisements, which have been appearing in Nexus magazine throughout the year, are full of claims for a device which might be used to treat... errr, AIDS and cancer!
The Elanra, pictured above, is claimed to be
"THE ONLY patented device out there which makes negative ions of OXYGEN!"
Anyone who has been to their local Homebase, Argos or Wilkinsons recently might dispute that finding, but let's get down to the nitty-gritty.
"Let us now explore the primary benefits gained by using the Elanra... In 1992, NEXUS even paid for the world's leading researcher into oxygen therapies, Ed McCabe, to fly to Australia [where Nexus is published] to display documentation of people cured of AIDS and cancer via oxygen therapies..."
The Elanra is pretty good for cases of delhi belly, too, as Nexus magazine's editor Duncan explains.
"Josh and Nina had brought along their portable version of the Elanra ioniser, and not only were they the only ones NOT to get sick [from diarrhaea], but when they kindly loaned it to others with the bug, they soon recovered! Those on the special tablets we were given for such bugs, remained glued to the toilet."
Jeff's company, the Wellness Tree Group, have learned from their brush with the authorities and are now producing "evidence" to support their claims. Not, it must be said, with unqualified success.
"An independent survey of Elanra users by Osborne International in 2009 reported these impressive results: 91% Less Hayfever/Allergies... 95% Less Cols & Flu... 89% Faster Illness Recovery..."
The world's universities and research companies must be kicking themselves having spent trillions of dollars on research, when a customer satisfaction survey - yes, a customer satisfaction survey - will do the job just as well!
Jeff, don't you think it's time to stop breaking the law, and go straight? Meanwhile - ASA complaint follows!
1. I'm writing to complain about two advertisements for Wellness Tree Group which appeared in the October-November 2012 issue of Nexus Magazine. The advertisements promote the "Elanra", a "Medical Negative Ioniser" device as a possible treatment for several serious medical conditions.
2. Near-identical adverts also appeared in the February 2012 issue (p2 & p28), the April 2012 issue (p2 & p62), the June 2012 issue (p2 & p19) and the August 2012 issue (p2 & p22).
3. I'd like to challenge whether the following health claims are misleading, and whether they can be substantiated:
(p27)
(i) "Josh and Nina had brought along their portable version of the Elanra ioniser, and not only were they the only ones NOT to get sick [from diarrhaea], but when they kindly loaned it to others with the bug, they soon recovered! Those on the special tablets we were given for such bugs, remained glued to the toilet."
(ii) The world's "leading research into oxygen therapies" is Ed McCabe, even though McCabe describes himself as a "journalist" [1] with a degree in "Educational Media" [2], not a doctor, medical researcher or scientist
(iii) Ed McCabe has "display[ed] documentation of people cured of AIDS and cancer via oxygen therapies"
(iv) "We have lost count of the people who claim that they cured themselves of cancer, herpes, candida and a myriad of other diseases, all by increasing their oxygen level"
(v) "...this machine [the Elanra] is THE ONLY patented device out there which makes negative ions of OXYGEN!"
(vi) "...the Elanra also literally cleans the air, eliminating odours, germs, fungi, moulds etc etc..."
(vii) "Every health practitioner's waiting room should have one of these devices. They would improve the health of people waiting, as well as kill germs and bacteria coughed and spluttered by those waiting."
(viii) "...and by programming the microprocessor, [the Elanra] could produce frequencies that had proven beneficial effects on the human body"
(ix) "I have sighted the results of scientific tests conducted by Japanese scientists. Within two seconds of the Elanra being switched on, the brain (3 feet away) switched to match the Schumann Resonance!"
(p2)
(x) "Helps with: Sleep problems - Allergies/Hayfever - Skin complaints - Chronic fatigue - Breathing difficulties... Weak immune system - Chemical sensitivity... flu..."
4. The advert on p2 quotes an "independent survey of Elanra users by Osborne International in 2009", which apparently produced "impressive results".
5. I'd like to challenge whether the use of this survey is misleading, because health claims are normally substantiated by rigorous clinical evidence published in medical journals, not by customer satisfaction surveys.
[1] http://www.oxygenhealth.com/
[2] http://www.oxygenhealth.com/bio.html
Jeff Hope and his company Wellness Tree Ltd are breaking the law and deserve to be sent to prison for ruthlessly misleading vulnerable members of the public.
The firm is offering some gadgets grandiosely described as Quantum Wave Lasers. Together with its attachments, one of the devices can be purchased for £7,450. If that sounds like a lot of money you should know that, according to the company's flyer (available here, here, here and here), the technology is the greatest scientific breakthrough in the history of human civilisation."Any sort of disease whatsoever - physical or mental - will be rapidly curable, simply and cheaply. It will be possible to reverse aging and rejuvenate the person. It will be possible to re-grow limbs and straighten misshapen spines - and directly remove the causes of mental diseases and cure them as well. Lifespan will be staggeringly increased, without 'old age's debilitation'. AIDS, cancer, leukemia [sic], and genetic diseases will be completely conquered..."Besides a reprehensible offence under the Cancer Act 1939, the flyer is responsible for countless breaches of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 - some of which I enumerate in this complaint to the ASA."I write to complain about a flyer I picked up at the CamExpo exhibition in London on 24th October this year.The flyer, for Quantum Wave Lasers, promotes a laser healing device which is currently available for £7,450 (including probes).The advertisers claim the device can cure "any sort of disease whatsoever", including the named diseases "AIDS", "cancer" and "leukemia" [sic].I suspect that the flyer and its inserts may be in breach of innumerable sections of the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP) (2010). I can provide the original flyer by post, if necessary.1. The main flyer is titled "Quantum wave Lasers - Cold Laser News - Helping the body to achieve optimum health".2. Under Section 3.1 of the CAP Code I challenge whether the following claims are misleading,under Section 12.1 I challenge whether they can be substantiated, under Section 12.2 I challenge whether they discourage essential treatment, and under Section 12.6 I challenge whether the advertisers falsely claim to cure illness:(i) "Everything", presumably including pathogens and cancer cells, has "a vibrational [i.e. resonance] frequency which can be measured in Hertz..."(ii) "Royal Rife" has "developed a method to determine the frequency of pathogens and cancer cells"(iii) "Royal Rife" was able to use a "polarizing [sic] microscope" to "determine the specific frequency of the pathogen or cell and also discover which frequency destroyed it"(iv) "Jack Schwartz" was able to "generate... frequencies... within his own body to overcome illness"(v) As a result, "Jack Schwartz" was able to put "a long sail-maker's needle through his biceps with no resultant bleeding"(vi) "Jack Schwartz" could "heal his body within hours after it was injured" and was "unaffected by toxic substances injected into his body"(vii) "...specific body tissues are in resonance with specific frequencies, according to their embryonic origin"(viii) "...illness and dis-ease result when cells, molecules or particles of matter are out of their normal resonance frequencies associated with that tissue"(ix) By "repeatedly exposing damaged tissue to the[ir] normal resonance frequencies... healing often occurs, sometimes very rapidly"(x) "...prominent and successful healers...emit an electromagnetic frequency of 8 Hz" which is the same as the "electromagnetic frequency of 8 [sic] Hz" emitted by "The earth [sic]". (xi) "...developing a grounded connection to the earth [sic] is good for health, healing and balancing"(xii) "...frequency medicine works" and can be used to "improve our lives", as documented by "all of this research and knowledge we have gained"(xiii) For example a similar product, the "Erchonia laser", can "support physical healing for a huge range of conditions" and can "deliver a large range of healing frequencies"(xiv) The advertised product is the "first fully digital cold laser or low level laser" which is user-programmable "in any frequency [the user] desires", a feat which is "unheard of with any other laser"(xv) The laser is able to effect healing on "skin, bones, organs, glands, lymph" as well as affect "pain, sleep...and much more"(xvi) The advertised product will "outperform 99% of all other lasers" because of the features documented in the leaflet's paragraphs 3-5(xvii) The product can "[deliver] information" to the body(xxviii) The "optional cold laser probes" are "groundbreaking [sic] healing lasers with plenty of power..."(xxix) "The healing potential of scalar waves is phenomenal..."(xxx) "The medical implications are enormous. By just reversing the damaged cells back to a previous physical [sic] state, this gives a physics [sic] mechanism for controlled cellular dedifferentiation, in biology terms [sic]. Physicians will time-reverse diseased, damaged or aged cells back to an earlier healthy condition, including all the cellular genetics. Normal cells are just reversed to a slightly younger condition"(xxxi) "Any sort of disease whatsoever - physical or mental - will be rapidly curable, simply and cheaply. It will be possible to reverse aging and rejuvenate the person. It will be possible to re-grow limbs and straighten misshapen spines - and directly remove the causes of mental diseases and cure them as well. Lifespan will be staggeringly increased, without 'old age's debilitation'. AIDS, cancer, leukemia [sic], and genetic diseases will be completely conquered..."3. (i) The flyer contains a number of inserts which, I suspect, each feature egregious breaches of the CAP Code. For brevity, I have excluded them from this complaint, but I recommend that you examine them, since they contain medical claims not made in the main flyer.(ii) I have scanned the inserts for you and can send them, if required.4. I confirm I have no connections with the advertiser. I confirm I am not involved in legal proceedings with the advertiser."
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