Michael Jones

I spent most of my youthful life striving to look like and become a body builder like those pictured in my magazines.

In an attempt to help fulfill that dream I gather all my dollar savings a week and at the end of every month I bought magazine after magazine to see the pictures of my heroes and to see what new protein drinks and sports supplements were available on the market.

Of course I was not in any type of financial status to buy these type of muscle growing sports mixtures, but I could and did have available to me all the ingredients to formulate one of those egg and milk protein shakes.

You muscle heads remember. Those shakes that stopped half way between your throat and stomach and you had to hold your nose while swallowing, hoping you wouldn’t chuck it up into the trash can placed nearby every time you attempted this action.

And like you, I was willing to do whatever it took to become like that Greek god in the magazine.

As I got older my quest began to grow stronger and I was one of those people who believed that to achieve a body like my heroes, I needed to have every sport supplement made.

After a year of taking muscle producing supplements I realized I wasn’t getting the same muscle growth as my magazine heroes who, year after year, were getting bigger and bigger. All I was getting was a round face and a little round belly that shook when I laughed like a bowl full of jelly.

After doing a little research and refusing to listen to the local gym-rat who knew less about bodybuilding than me, I found out that my muscled-headed heroes took pharmaceuticals on the side. What a bummer. There was really no hope of getting as big as the guys in the mags.

How could I have been so blind to let this type of foolishness go on for years? I mean I am a pretty smart person. It’s not just me. It happens to you too.

We look at that model and dream that we can become that person and to get that look we focus on what appeared to have made the model that way. Most of the time it is not the product that is pictured along with the model. The models never stated that that’s the only product they are using and most of the time they are only stating what the manufacturer has already placed on the container for your viewing.

The controversy comes having an endorser who is using other types of products along with the ones that are displayed in the photo. In my case other pharmaceuticals, i.e. steroids. Marketing advertisement in the wrong hands can leads to deception.

Where does advertising stop and deception begin?

Graphic Credit:
Sabrina Segal