As fitness/health professional, you've probably seen ~ and been exasperated by ~ those television ads for AbTronic belts. You know...the ones that promise to flatten the stomach and pare off pounds with no effort on the part of the wearer.

Here's the pitch: "Say goodbye to strenuous, time-consuming workouts. With the AbTronic, your muscles are moving but you are not! 10 minutes on the AbTronic is the equivalent of 600 sit-ups."

Well, you can say goodbye to AbTronic. The Federal Competition Bureau has discerned that these things simply don't work. The bureau recently ordered Thane Direct Canada Inc. of North York, ON, to stop selling them immediately.

Further, Thane must televise one-minute public service announcements about their false claims for the products, and refund the purchase price (about $120) to any buyers ~ numbering in the hundreds of thousands across North America ~ who send the things back.

In addition, Thane must send the bureau $75,000 as an "administrative penalty."

Thane, by the way, is based in California and has distributors in more than 80 countries doing direct marketing worth some $1.7 trillion, mostly in fitness, health and beauty "aids", plus motivational courses.

Such as, for example, the Youth Cocktail System, "available in a pre-measured pouch, or great tasting liquid. In as little as one month, you'll start to feel an incredible difference in your energy levels and mental sharpness." Or Eye-Q, which "will enable both you and your children to read and process info at least two to 10 times faster in just two weeks, guaranteed."

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched lawsuits against the company.

This article is reprinted from the
January 2002 (vol. 12 no. 1) issue
of Active Living newsletter.