Health

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The Sensa Weight Loss Potentially Costly “Free” Trial

You may have seen a full page ad in Parade magazine yesterday promising a 30-day free trial of Sensa, a product that claims you can “lose 30+ pounds without dieting”. You supposedly just sprinkle the stuff on everything you eat “to help reduce cravings, curb your appetite and help you feel full faster.”

When you visit their website from the link provided and click on the free offer, here’s what you see:

It looks like they have upped the offer because they are now going to send you a “free 2-month starter kit*” when you agree to pay $7.95 shipping and handling. There is also a smaller representation to “try Sensa Free for 30 days*”. If you follow the asterisk to near the bottom of the page, all is explained, or is it?

*MOUSE PRINT:

“*Product is Free to try for 30 days! Pay only a small shipping and handling fee.”

Out of curiosity, MrConsumer clicked the “terms and conditions” link at the very bottom of the page. Normally this contains information about website usage, copyright infringment, etc. This time, however, it revealed the true nature of this offer.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Terms of Offer
You have a full 30 days to try your SENSA 2-Month Starter Kit. If you enjoy SENSA, do nothing and you will be billed for the 2-Month Starter Kit one low payment of $89.95 at the end of the free trial on 10/25/2011. That’s a 35% SAVINGS off the retail price! If you decide to keep your 2-Month Starter Kit, you will be automatically enrolled in our SENSA AutoShip Delivery Service. As part of the SENSA AutoShip Delivery Service, you will receive a fresh 2-month supply of SENSA every 60 days at the low price of only $89.95 so you never run out. You will be charged this price every 60 days, billed to your credit card, plus $7.95 shipping and handling.

Someone who just blindly ordered from this “free offer” without paying attention, would likely get an expensive surprise on October 25 when their credit card gets charged $89.95 (not even a full 30 days after they receive the magic powder). Worse, two months later, they will get another shipment of the stuff and another charge because of the automatic shipment plan they may have unknowingly entered into.

It is high time that companies like this became straight forward in their advertising, and told you upfront what the deal really is. NOTE: We did not go through the ordering process to see what disclosures, if any, are given before and after entering one’s credit card number to cover the shipping and handling charges.

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Where’s the Juice? (Part 2)

Motts, the apple juice people, have been running a feel good commercial for their Motts for Tots product claiming their product has 40% less sugar than regular apple juice.

Did they come up with some revolutionary scientific discovery to remove sugar from apple juice?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Nope. It was a very natural solution. They diluted it with water. A lot of water. And if parents just grab the product without reading the label carefully, they may think they are doing a good thing for their kids when they are probably not.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The nutrition label suggests it might be diluted with about 46% water (in addition to the water necessary to dilute the apple juice concentrate). They did add a shot of vitamin C, however, to make the product more nutritious.

So since you are now buying a product that is almost half water, they’ve undoubtedly cut the price, right? Nope. A half gallon of their diluted product is the same price as 100% pure apple juice.

Motts is not alone is selling a watered-down product and touting the benefit of less sugar and calories. Tropicana has been promoting its “Trop50” product that way for the past several years.

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Who Knew Cookies Could be Nutritious?

Last week a commercial for a new product Whonu? cookies began airing nationally. It basically contends that its cookies are a healthy choice for consumers.

On their website, but a little less so in the commercial, the company makes an array of nutrition claims comparing itself not only to oatmeal and milk, but also to the vitamins in blueberries, spinach, carrot juice, tomato juice, cottage cheese, and fruit:


*MOUSE PRINT: Those little asterisks lead to a fine print disclosure on the website, and a similar one in the TV commercial, which is visible for only three seconds:

So, you have to eat three cookies to get the nutrition they claim. However, when looking at the nutrition label for their Oreo-like cookies, one discovers that it contains only three grams of fiber, not four, as one would find in a serving of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. And all the other vitamins and minerals are mostly in the 10% range (with a few up to 30%) of one’s daily requirement.

The bigger problem in our view is not quibbling over the claims referring to one cookie or three cookies, or the amount of fiber. Rather, it would be an unfortunate result to have people think they could eat these cookies as a substitute for all the healthy foods they compared them to, which obviously, as a whole, provide much more nutrition than these vitamin-spiked snacks.