A Spat Over a Breast Enhancement Cream
There is a legal spat going on between a company called Rodial and a plastic surgeon called Dr. Dalia Nield. You can read about it in this article in The Independent.
It strikes me that this one will run and run, but it could be one that falls into that category, where someone makes a legitimate comment, from professional knowledge and experience, and someone else decides they’ll challenge that statement in the Courts by suing for libel. Read the article in The Independent and you will see that Dr. Nield is supported by Sense About Science, a charity which fights against these actions and in the past supported the author, Simon Singh.
These sort of actions worry me, as I have pretty strong opinions on some controversial subjects and one of these days I might arouse the ire of a rather nasty snake oil salesman. So I will not come down in favour of one party or another.
I do know of Rodial though, but in a strange way. At least twice a week for several months, I have got a sales e-mail from them. When I got the first, I thought it was a spam e-mail, as it was trying to sell me a breast enhancement cream or other such product, that I have no need for. Mainly because I’m a man, but also because I don’t use any creams or potions at all. I should also say, that, I’ve seen lots of this type of e-mail from spammers in the United States and as this email seemed little different, I immediately regarded it as being of the same type, even though it enlarged breasts rather than the male organ. I didn’t even bother to try to unsubscribe, as it came from a retired e-mail address, I don’t use very often. So that means they must have obtained an old list from somewhere. I wonder what the Information Commisioner would say about that. I’m not bothered, as I just set the spam filter to drop them straight into the Spam Folder, as I do for most of the spam I get, as often unsubscribing tells the spammer that the e-mail address is real.
The Anonymous Widower 
My gut reaction to the cream is that the only way it could work is either by causing the breast to retain water and thus enlarge, or contain a hormone which would cause the breast to enlarge. There are a large number of people out there selling snake oil – I have actually overheard a pharmacist in an independant pharmacy which sells a lot of none pharmaceutical treatments that shark cartilidge would “almost certainly cure” the customer’s advanced cancer.
The difficulty is knowing the snake oil from the rest of the stuff. As an example, I have chronic facial pain, which included permanent ear pains, and this is caused by nerve damage after an accident. For some weeks I had been having a real problem with my right ear, it felt as if a small child was bouncing a ball against the inside of my ear drum. A number of visits to the GP didnt produce any relief, neither did the various ways of breathing to alter ear pressure, sucking sweets, etc. In desparation I went and had thermal auricular therapy, better known as ear candling. It cost me £20.00 but it worked, the unpleasant small child has found somewhere else to bounce its call. But sticking a hollow lighted candle into your ear sounds like snake oil. (DONT try it at home folks, they are special candles, and the lit end is outside the ear)
Comment by liz | November 12, 2010 |
[…] up to, I end up with a surprisingly short list; Rodial and Heaton Wealth Investments. As I said before, Rodial is a company I have no need for and I find it mildly amusing that they are targetting me. […]
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