Mendacious Trends or Just Plain Lies
UnNatural Trend In The Natural Products Industry. “Smiling Faces Sometime Tell Lies.”
Mendacious and lying have similar meanings, but the two are not interchangeable. Mendacious is more formal and literary, suggesting a deception harmless enough to be considered somewhat bland. Lying is more blunt, accusatory, and often aggressive. You might yell, “You lying rat!” in an argument, but you would most likely stick to the more diplomatic, “Aren’t you being somewhat mendacious?” in a business meeting. Mendacious can also imply habitual untruthfulness, whereas lying is more likely to be used to identify specific instances of dishonesty.
It is hard to be funny about what appears to be the new normal. Article after article is paid lies, and it is the hottest revenue stream for many online and print publications.
I see articles daily in all the glamor and natural publications that often start with the headline, “The Top Ten Dermatologist Recommended Wrinkle Creams,” or “I’m A Dermatologist, and I use ___________ For My Daily Skin Regimen.” So naturally, I get the question, “Why is Keys® not mentioned in these articles? The reason is simple: they are clickbait, fake, or paid for. Weekly, I get emails from salespeople offering a placement for products in magazines like People, Vogue, etc., from agencies specializing in placing products into highly read internet and other print publication news services. The price tag? $5,000.00-$10,000.00 per placement. So the simple answer is we just don’t do that. We prefer to give our customers highly effective products at fair prices.
Unfortunately, the trend has filtered into the natural marketplace with large NGOs and blogs using the same technique. Worse, many of them link to Amazon, where the publication doubles down by getting an affiliate commission from Amazon on the “click-through.” Nowadays, every celebrity seems to have a skincare line and uses these techniques to one-up. Some contract manufacturers seem to be pitching the celebs with products made in China. The problem with that is money talks, and these products are most likely full of junk like propylene glycol, phthalates, and parabens. Ingredient integrity is in question.
Keys® has been straight-up for twenty years. Although the Charleton’s over those 20 have changed their games, now we are entering a time when the lies harm people. My message is to be careful of who you trust.
