by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Power Balance bracelets, the popular performance accessory worn by athletes including Drew Brees, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant, provide no scientific edge, the company confessed this week. So WTF. It is nothing but a placebo.
The California-based company was forced to admit the fact that there is absolutely no scientific or other evidence supporting its claims of natural power after coming to an agreement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, so it was reported recently.
Athletes who wore the bands insisted they provided a boost but science says otherwise and while we all know that science does not always has the answer, as for instance with traditional natural remedies that they claimed did not work and then some years after have to admit that, in fact, they do. Just as now with regards to zinc supplements and before with Echinacea.
The bracelets, first released on the market in 2007, were embedded with holograms and supposedly designed to interact with the energy flow of a body. They sold for $29.95 and were worn by athletes and celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal, David Beckham and Robert De Niro.
Power Balance expected sales of $35 million in 2010. With the confession that the bands are more charm than power source, that total could drop in 2011. If, indeed, that's what happens, the company has no one to blame but itself.
Why even bother making the claim that the bracelet gave power? Why not dance around the issue and refuse to make a definitive statement about them? Issue vague comments about natural energies and positive karma (like a hippie selling a crystal at a Phish show) and let fans of the product do the rest of the promotion by word of mouth.
Just like lucky socks, those titanium necklaces worn by baseball players or that $5 putter you bought from a sale rack at a pro shop, the only benefit derived from the Power Balance bracelet is the idea that it makes you better. Belief is a powerful thing; just watch a basketball player during a hot shooting streak or a golfer with the yips. Deep down we all know wearing the same sweatshirt on NFL Sunday doesn't change the outcome of our favorite team's game, but we wear it anyway, just in case.
Belief, in deed, is a powerful thing and there are anecdotes of soldiers and airmen going into battle noticing too late that they have forgotten their lucky rabbits foot, medal, or whatever, and being killed. Was it because they had forgotten their charm, just bad luck or, simply, the fact that they did not have their psychological crutch made them less alert or such? I don't know and must say that I do carry some lucky charms on me myself but...
Nobody really cares if the bracelet actually provides any positive effect, they just care that they think it does. By claiming the former, Power Balance caused people to doubt the latter.
It is often all in the mind and why make up supposed scientific claims in the first place when there are none. A little like bamboo clothing and bamboo flooring being green and environmentally friendly.
There are some bracelets, however, that have healing propertied even though science is lacking behind in proving that, and that are copper bracelets and copper chains and such. Copper does work against arthritis and I am proof of that and copper has been used since ancient times for this and the ancient Egyptian physicians did “prescribe” them against this crippling condition. It is not healing it, per se, but making it easier to live with, so I have found, and I am the world's greatest sceptic when it comes to claims of healing power of this or that.
The only problem is that there are places where arthritis strikes where bracelets are not convenient to use. However, before I got those bracelets that I use, made by someone for me from very thick railroad copper wire, I had great problems using a keyboard for a length of time and the joints in my hands were in serious problems and pain. Arrived the bracelets and I put one on thinking that I could see no way that that would be doing anything and then, and hour or so later feeling some real relief; well, what can one think then?
But power bracelets, things with holograms? Well, the power of the mind in that case, in the same was as a lucky stone, sock, medal, etc.
© 2011
