Today was quite interesting! Lots and lots of snow in my area! My mom and I started to put up our Christmas lights, but couldn't really do much since everything was snow covered in no time! I will have to put pictures up of this winter wonderland tomorrow. It's so pretty when the snow first falls and then it just gets ugly from all the dirt and such. My area was only expecting 1-3 inches of snow, but we got way more than that. It's heavy snow too so the snow blower has to put up a fight.
As for some school talk, we are approaching week 11. My macroeconomics teacher actually just assigned two last assignments, which is a scary thought, but also a good one, because that means vacation is well on it's way! It's been another successful quarter so no complaining over here!
I did find something interesting that I wanted to bring up in my blog tonight and that is the FTC and what they are doing to make consumers aware of products and services that could actually do harm. My discussion board this week in advertising was to visit the FTC website (www.ftc.gov) and give a brief summary of a current consumer issue. There are many there and lots of interesting ones that I came across. For my post, I chose this:
FTC Charges Marketers with Making Baseless Weight-Loss Claims Despite Order to Stop
I found this article in regards to two weight loss programs, Relacore and Akävar 20/50, that make claims that people can still eat what they want by following these plans and still lose weight, as well as making claims that if it wasn't true, they wouldn't have printed it on their products. These programs have violated the 2006 FTC order, barring them from making health or weight-loss claims without a reasonable basis. Due to this, the Commission is seeking to stop the defendants from making such claims and make them pay civil penalties for these actions.
These companies know that people will believe these claims so of course they go out and make it a point to purchase these programs. It's very wrong to do, so I am happy that the FTC is acting and making they pay civil penalties for making unreasonable claims.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/11/basicresearch.shtm
Many of us have seen these types of weight loss products making such claims, but marketers know there is a great amount of people who will fall for it. I am glad that the FTC is making them pay back money for making such claims. It's kind of a no brainer, but there are people out there who will believe everything they see and hear without any questions. Other students in my class chose ones about credit card scams, ID theft, and free trials. The trial scams are very interesting. I'm sure everyone has heard of the Acai Berry detox that all you pay is 99 cents and they will send you a trial of the product. Well it turns out that when you give over all your information, they enroll you in their monthly program which is placed somewhere in their long agreement which can easily be over passed since no body ever wants to read those big long rules. It's in the fine print, so when you get that bill and try to fight it, they just come back at you saying that you should have read the agreement. I actually was watching Rachel Ray and she had this on her show telling everyone to go on and try it. Well I went on and I didn't finish filling out the information, so I had these people calling my house looking for my other information, so my mom saved my butt and said I was only 16 and shouldn't even be trying to get my hands on that stuff.
After that, they stopped calling, but it's such a big scam and so unfair. It just comes to show that people need to be more careful with the products or services they get involved with.
Does anyone have any stories about weight loss programs, or free trials that ended up enrolling you in their monthly programs?
These types of things are happening to people everyday, so my advice is just to be on the lookout for these types of scammers. They are EVERYWHERE!
Stay warm and enjoy the rest of your weekend! I will be sure to post some snow pictures and Christmas light pictures! :)
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