Earlier today, the popular website Gizmodo tweeted a link to the story that Power Balance had admitted their products do not work and as a result were offering refunds in Australia.
This was retweeted by many people, including Adam Savage from Mythbusters who has almost 400,000 followers.
Pretty soon after, the phrase “Power Balance admits” was the second most popular topic trending worldwide – behind Macaulay Cullkin whose girlfriend apparently dumped him today (insert joke here about “home alone”. Other people have. Not my fault).
You can see that even as I kept refreshing the page, many more tweets were occurring. In this screen shot, there are 1,554 more tweets since I started searching just a few minutes earlier.
It took some time for Power Balance to respond, but respond they did, initially with this.
The link goes to the statement reproduced below:
Per the ruling from the ACCC, we are working to correct the marketing and advertising claims made by Power Balance in Australia. As we have always done, we are offering any dissatisfied customers a full refund through our 30-day no questions asked money back policy. To be clear, we are permitted to continue selling Power Balance in Australia. This is simply a matter of correcting prior marketing claims. From its inception, Power Balance has lived and thrived in the ultimate testing environment, the real world. Power Balance is committed to every athlete in the world from professional to recreational. We have heard from fitness professionals, athletes, coaches, personal trainers and everyday users who tell us they have experienced benefits from Power Balance for themselves, their clients and teams. While we continue to see, hear and learn about how people all around the world believe that our products have positively affected their lives, we will continue to invest both our time and resources in producing the best and most innovative products.
Which basically says that even though they admitted that “there is no scientific evidence that supports our claims and therefore we engaged in misleading conduct” people have told us our product is good n’stuff so, hey, whatever! What followed was a series of truly pathetic tweets, one can only guess, designed to distract people from the elephant on the tweet stream.
Which only set them up for satire from everyone following this sad affair.
Did someone say PWNED?
—— UPDATE:
The international media has picked up on this story overnight and there are now dozens of stories appearing all over the globe. Power Balance has gone into damage control on their Twitter feed, asserting that:
# The existing reports out there r fundamentally incorrect. We did not make claims that r product doesnt perform. We stand behind r products
about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck
# Power Balance works, we guarantee it.
about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck
They have since been hammered even more for directly contradicting the statement on their own website which says; “In our advertising we stated that Power Balance wristbands improved your strength, balance and flexibility. We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims and therefore we engaged in misleading conduct in breach of s52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.”
Power Balance bracelets are ‘no better than a rubber band’: A-list accessory maker forced to give refunds by advertising watchdog – The Daily Mail
PowerBalance Admits There’s No Proof It Works – The Consumerist
Power Balance says no science behind wristbands – Sports Illustrated
Power Balance: No science behind wristbands – CBS Sports
Maker admits no science behind popular bracelets – Chicago Tribune
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