5. The Advertorial
This is a scam in which the advertisement is presented as being an unbiased article on nutrition, fitness or anything else, often from a "respectable" source. The first part covers some topic related to the product, or outlines a long standing "problem"...the second part provides a solution to the problem that is, surprise surprise, a product that the source just happens to have for sale.

Page after page of info about the horrors of having an arse as hairy as a Persian rug followed by a tag line for "Mick's Cheek Wax", you know the kind of thing. Many of the popular fitness and bodybuilding magazines now give over more pages to this kind of advertising than any other. Sure, the product itself can sometimes have worth, but when the salesman goes to such lengths to disguise their adverts they really don't deserve your money.

All of these scams stem from a marketing driven approach to product design. In this approach the first question asked is "Can we sell it?" If the answer is "yes" then the team swings in to action, a target market is defined and the marketing war begins...regardless of whether the product has any worth.

Honourable vendors approach first the question "does the product have worth?" If the answer is "yes" then the next question is "who does it have worth to" and from there on a market is defined and the product is sold on the basis of its worth to that market. It is never sold simply on the basis that people will buy it.

Oftentimes unscrupulous companies dream up products specifically to appeal to a given market sector. Some one at the top of the company picks up the phone and calls down to marketing..."Guys, 18 year old kids have a lot of disposable income these days...what can we make that we can sell to them?".

Marketing looks at the research and says "18 year old kids are prone to buying things on impulse and are looking for fast results with little outlay of effort" so now they have a marketing strategy. This process goes on until eventually, last of all, they get round to designing the product itself. This process is utterly backward and often results in the product being sold by one of the above approaches.

I hope this has given you some idea at what to look out for when considering making a lifting related purchase, whether a supplement or anything else. Don't be swayed by advertising, seek out information from sources that have nothing to do with the product in question and then make a purchasing decision based on FACTS, not hype.

Look to people that are willing to give over there time and effort to you BEFORE you invest in a product or service, look for dedication and reliance upon the product itself, whatever it might be. Good luck making sensible future purchases and as always...caveat emptor, "let the buyer beware".

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