Open social media platforms and search for the keyword "weight loss", and hundreds of graphic and textual videos such as "check-in for weight loss" and "comeback comparison" will instantly pop up: "Losing 10 pounds in 15 days does not rebound" and "Just 40 pounds, take it!" These extremely eye-catching titles attract netizens to leave messages and ask, "How did you lose weight? How did you do it?" Bloggers often use "private message sharing" as an excuse to guide users to add friends. Media investigations have found that these seemingly genuine "experience sharing" are actually carefully designed marketing tactics by businesses. They use multiple accounts to direct and act out, disguise themselves as ordinary consumers, and conduct evaluations in order to lure consumers into the trap of selling high priced products. This type of slimming experience post appears to be a sharing of experience, but in reality it is a carefully designed consumer bait. Merchants are well aware of the prevalent mentality in society of "wanting to lose weight but fearing fatigue", and package "lying thin" as a dream that anyone can achieve. They also deliberately blur the objective laws of scientific weight loss, using pseudoscientific arguments such as "breaking down fat" and "improving metabolism" to replace concepts, simplifying complex physiological processes into "taking medicine to lose weight" weight loss tricks. The marketing strategy of using perfect cases to stimulate desire, using "rebound warnings" to create anxiety, and providing a false sense of security with "exclusive solutions" can be described as interconnected. Under this attack, consumers are prone to losing their rational judgment and ultimately becoming the target of harvesting. If consumers are tempted to place orders and consume, they may pay a high price. Those weight loss products that claim to be "pure plant extracts" and "have no side effects" may actually contain prohibited ingredients such as sibutramine and phenolphthalein. These substances may create the illusion of weight loss in the short term, but long-term use can lead to metabolic disorders, intestinal damage, and even serious consequences such as heart disease. Moreover, these physical injuries often have a lag effect. When consumers experience symptoms such as palpitations and insomnia and want to seek justice from businesses, they find that they have been blacklisted and deleted, making it almost impossible to pursue legal action. In the context of "the country calls you to lose weight" and weight loss becoming a national topic, the harm of such experience posts is even more worthy of vigilance. The country is promoting weight management and medical institutions are popularizing weight loss knowledge, but weight loss experience posts are taking advantage of the heat to add chaos, leading to the prevalence of pseudoscience such as "seven day quick fix" for weight loss, and erroneous weight loss concepts such as "drugs are omnipotent" are deeply rooted in people's hearts. This not only reduces public trust in scientific weight loss, but may also lead health management astray. There is a gray industry chain behind the slimming experience posts, with the core being the professional "weight loss support" group. They are either hired by unscrupulous merchants as internet trolls, or fake bloggers with vested interests. This gray industry can grow wildly, exposing multiple regulatory loopholes, such as platform supervision oversight, vague definition of soft article promotion, inadequate accountability for false advertising, and so on. In view of this, in order to cut off this black industry chain, regulatory authorities need to establish a penetrating review mechanism and also require platforms to implement tag based management of weight loss content. In addition, it is necessary to improve relevant laws and regulations and include "grass planting notes" in the scope of advertising supervision. For the vast number of people who are trying to lose weight, it is necessary to significantly improve their health literacy, deeply instill the scientific concept of weight loss, make standardized weight management outpatient services easily accessible, and also provide support for weight loss practices such as "stepping out of your legs and controlling your mouth". Only in this way can we timely fill in such fraudulent traps, allowing the public to lose weight scientifically and with confidence. (New Society)
Edit:XieYing Responsible editor:ZhangYang
Source:people.cn
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