Syfy Insider Exclusive

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!

Sign Up For Free to View
SYFY WIRE Bad Astronomy

Reality TV Gets One Right: Shark Tank Calls Out Quackery

By Phil Plait
skepticalhippo.jpg.CROP.rectangle-large.jpg

Reality TV is generally lambasted for its over-the-top silliness and for elevating shallow ambitions. But sometimes it gets things right.

Shark Tank is a reality show on ABC, and it has a pretty interesting premise: Budding entrepreneurs have to pitch their product ideas to a panel of billionaires. The âsharksâ grill the hopeful contestant and decide whether to invest in the product.

Iâve watched it now and again, and itâs fun and interesting. But in 2012 they had a contestant on the show that I really wish I had seen at the time.

The guyâs name was Ryan Naylor, and he was selling a product called Esso Watches. These silicon watches have, he claimed, ânegative ionsâ infused in them.

When he said that, I laughed out loud. That claim is utter nonsense. Right away, itâs impossible; if they had a net negative charge, theyâd discharge it right away. Thatâs how electricity works. Theyâd either do it in contact with the air, or with your body, or with your clothing. The only way they could maintain an electric charge is if they had a battery giving them the power needed to recharge themselves.

He also made claims about being bombarded with positive ions, how negative ions protect us, and more. Itâs all basically nonsense.

The beauty of this, though, was when Naylor stood up in front of the billionaire panel to try to sell this idea, and Mark Cuban wasnât having any of it. Mediaite has the video:

Wow. Cuban is essentially right in all his claims. I might quibble over calling this a scam, in that itâs possible Naylor honestly thought his product had health benefits. But in the end the watches do not, can not, do what he claims.

This is really just the same warmed-over nonsensical claims made by other companies that sell this kind of gimcrackery. They claim it restores your bodyâs energy, or balance, or some whatever. The funny thing is, whenever you actually, yâknow, test these claims, the merchandise doesnât actually, yâknow, work.

My friend Richard Saunders with the Australian Skeptics did a fantastic job showing this a while back, debunking the Power Balance bracelets. He even did so on the nationally broadcast TV show Today Tonight:

Note that this balance demo is the very same one Naylor used in his pitch. Iâve had Saunders do this demo on me, too, and itâs pretty funny. Youâd swear itâs real if you didnât know better (though itâs harder to think the person giving the demo can believe itâs being done honestly). Many of the companies that sell this quackery have been under a lot of fire; Power Balance was cited with making misleading claims, for example.

However, these products make a lot of money due to a gullible public. Power Balance bands sell briskly and are endorsed by a lot of university athletic departments. This, despite having no actual evidence supporting them beyond the placebo effect.

So perhaps Cuban made a mistake; Iâm sure that Naylor couldâve sold a lot of these watches. Apparently, though, he didnât: Esso Watches no longer exists, the name was changed to TAGI, and the website uses a passive voice to talk about negative ions: âProfessional athletes can be spotted all over television wearing Negative Ions to boost their game.â Note how that sounds like an endorsement, but isnât quite enough of one to get them in hot water with the FTC.

It was refreshing to see someone called out for selling a useless product like this (well, if it keeps time I suppose it does have one use) and done so unequivocally. If only more critical thinking were employed in this way, the world would be a far, far better place.

Read more about: