Visit almost any website that is selling or promoting Hoodia supplements and you’ll likely see the words prominently displayed, “As featured on” or “Endorsed by,” followed by the CBS 60 Minutes logo and the BBC logo. What you are led to believe is that the Hoodia diet pill being promoted was featured or endorsed by these two media programs. Not only was a specific Hoodia supplement not featured or endorsed by 60 minutes or the BBC, but no Hoodia diet pill was tested or endorsed at all!
Leslie Stahl, a 60 Minutes reporter, featured a story on Hoodia on November 21, 2004. Ms. Stahl traveled to the Kalahari Desert, where the Hoodia Gordonii plant is grown in the wild, and actually ate a small piece of the plant. She said after eating the plant she noticed a marked appetite suppressant quality. She said she wasn’t hungry all day. Ms. Stahl concluded that natural Hoodia probably worked as an appetite suppressant.
This was all that Stahl reported about Hoodia. Stahl, nor 60 minutes, endorsed a specific brand of Hoodia diet pill. In fact, 60 minutes didn’t even feature a specific Hoodia supplement in their show. But, you wouldn’t know this unless you had seen the program yourself or read the show’s transcript. Hoodia sellers are simply taking this report and twisting it around to their advantage in an attempt to sell their specific Hoodia supplements.
The BBC report is another example where Hoodia sellers have taken a story and have spun it to their advantage. The BBC did a documentary on Hoodia in 2003. Tom Mangold, a well-known BBC correspondent, also traveled to the Kalahari Desert to try the Hoodia Gordonii plant himself. Mr. Mangold and his camera man each ate a small piece of the plant. The pair reported that they, “did not even think about food” for the rest of the day. Even more amazing, they reported that they didn’t want breakfast the next morning and their appetite during lunchtime was nearly nonexistent.
Again, you’ll notice the BBC story did not even test a specific Hoodia supplement, let alone endorse one. Just as Leslie Stahl had done in her 60 Minutes story, Tom Mangold of the BBC actually ate the plant itself. Neither reporter tried a specific Hoodia product. And they certainly didn’t endorse a specific brand.
The next time you visit a website promoting or selling a Hoodia supplement that claims their product was featured or endorsed by 60 Minutes and the BBC, immediately click to another website. Any company that is willing to misrepresent a media story so that it works to their advantage so they can sell more of their products obviously isn’t honest. If they aren’t willing to be honest about something as simple as the media coverage of Hoodia on 60 Minutes and the BBC, how honest do you really think they are about the quality and authenticity of the product they are selling?
