White Rabbit

[embedyt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0[/embedyt]Marquel, TPVs NYTimes There’s a Sucker Born in Brooklyn Section correspondent, just sent tweets #MakeAFilmUncomfortable, Vaccines Are from Mars, Mothers Smattered,  when he read, Stupid Pills, and stopped to ponder about life.

Marquel read the article. One pill makes you smarter. One pill makes you thin. One pill makes you happy. Another keeps you energized. And so what if tests conducted by scientists in New York and Canada have found that the substances behind these miracle enhancements may contain nothing more than powdered rice or houseplants. The New York attorney General found three out of four supplements sold at Wal-Mart, Target, and other major stores were nothing but sawdust or its equivalent. They contained not a molecule of what they said on the label. Marquel wasn’t surprised. Supplements don’t work. They do nothing for you. Orrin Hatch, whose family practically owns the industry, got a law passed saying the FDA can’t touch supplements. So while they have no medicinal value, and can’t claim any curative powers, they enrich the Hatch family by billions. But shouldn’t they contain Chinese sugar radish if it says so on the bottle? Or, since sawdust is just as good, and cheaper, why not? Marquel went to the industry. The major U.S. retailer of supplements sat down to talk with Marquel.

So what do you want to know?” Mr. GNC asked.

“I’m not sure what you mean. We try to say as little as possible to avoid getting sued.” He said.

“Oh, the ingredients! That’s what you mean. Frankly the ingredients are the last important element.” He said.

“No, they’re buying results. Do you realize that our sawdust actually gets better results than the herbs, when there are herbs?” He said.

“Okay, say we sell yeast derivatives, or ginseng, or Chinese radishes. We get letters from people whose symptoms disappear. Backache, leprosy, cancer. We pay attention to our customers. Do you know that when we sell just sawdust, the testimonials are ten times higher? We’d like to patent sawdust but our lawyers think that would raise problems.” He explained.

“No we never do that. That would be fraud. I’m just saying the ingredients aren’t key and if we occasionally get it wrong, the consumer profits. They get better.” He said.

He looked at me long and hard. “It doesn’t take a genius, does it?” He finally said.

“Why does a bear shit in the woods?” He asked.

“Well we don’t sell metaphors. We sell supplements and it puts bread on my table.” He said.

“He’s in the woods.” He said.

“I’ll see what I can do.”