I have the POWERRRRRRRRRRR!
Last week I went to the Tokyo Gift Show, a place where a whole lot of different vendors take over a convention center and set up their booths. Products on display range from clothing/fashion items, to health care, beauty aids, gourmet food and wines, home interior/decor, holiday decorations, crafting supplies, kitchen goods, toys, and artists displaying some of their work. While the show is open to the public, it is geared more toward the sales industry. Many booths have nothing for sale, but are there to meet and make contact with the buyers and agents for various different chain stores, small gift shop owners, and representatives of other retail outlets.
One of the many products I saw was a company trying to sell those little rubber/silicone bracelets with a little symbol on it that is supposedly able to give you more power and improve your balance. This was one of the very few booths (I think I only saw two) that was using "Booth babes" to try to lure people in to their booth to get the sales pitch, one of whom struck up a conversation with me as I was walking by and she was handing out flyers. I try to be nice to the people working the hand out flyer sort of jobs. I may not be interested in the stuff they're trying to sell, but I usually don't just brush them off. They're humans too, probably just trying to pay the bills. Chances are, they were just hired for the day on a part-time basis to work the event, and probably don't really know much of anything about the products they're touting beyond a half-page summary they skimmed over the first morning of the event. They have to stand around all day either being ignored or having conversations about stuff they barely know. For booth babes, you can add leered at, hit on, sexually harassed, groped, photographed, judged, glared at by jealous girlfriends/wives.
This girl struck up a short conversation with me, so I ended up taking a look at the little bands (they also sold various other things like sportswear/workout clothes, etc). I said I didn't believe that a little braclet could improve your balance, sports performance, energy, power, etc. She passed me over to one of the guys who works for the place full time, who offered to do a little test of the thing. The test involved me standing on one foot with my arms at my sides, while he pulled down on the arm on the same side as the raised leg. First, I wasn't holding the little bracelet thing, and he pulled down on my arm, it didn't take much before I was tipping to the side. Next, I held the power bracelet in my hand, he did the test again, and pulled harder, yet I didn't fall to the side. OH MY GOD! IT WORKS!
Well, it works if the intent of the test is to enable me to feel the slight difference in the direction he was pulling. When I wasn't holding the bracelet, he started pulling straight down, but then started pulling out slightly at an angle, perhaps only 10 degrees or so away from my body. When I was holding the bracelet, he only pulled straight down. I said as much, and he offered to do the test again, which only re-confirmed for me that he was pulling a slightly different direction both times. If I'd had someone with me, I would have offered a test of my own: Have my friend stand behind me, and secretly hand him the band or not, so the guy wouldn't know if I were holding it or not when he pulled on the arm, and wouldn't know when to pull out to the side. I wonder how many people have been taken in by the little "test".
Of course, I'd also seen this video before, which reveals how these "tests" work, though it was quite some time ago I saw it. The first half of the video is pretty much a reproduction of the sales pitch. If you don't want to watch the whole ten minutes, jump in to about 5 minutes, where they reveal how the test results happen. The test they had me do was slightly different, but operates on the same principle.
Don't get suckered in by these things, people. Save your money for other things.
One of the many products I saw was a company trying to sell those little rubber/silicone bracelets with a little symbol on it that is supposedly able to give you more power and improve your balance. This was one of the very few booths (I think I only saw two) that was using "Booth babes" to try to lure people in to their booth to get the sales pitch, one of whom struck up a conversation with me as I was walking by and she was handing out flyers. I try to be nice to the people working the hand out flyer sort of jobs. I may not be interested in the stuff they're trying to sell, but I usually don't just brush them off. They're humans too, probably just trying to pay the bills. Chances are, they were just hired for the day on a part-time basis to work the event, and probably don't really know much of anything about the products they're touting beyond a half-page summary they skimmed over the first morning of the event. They have to stand around all day either being ignored or having conversations about stuff they barely know. For booth babes, you can add leered at, hit on, sexually harassed, groped, photographed, judged, glared at by jealous girlfriends/wives.
This girl struck up a short conversation with me, so I ended up taking a look at the little bands (they also sold various other things like sportswear/workout clothes, etc). I said I didn't believe that a little braclet could improve your balance, sports performance, energy, power, etc. She passed me over to one of the guys who works for the place full time, who offered to do a little test of the thing. The test involved me standing on one foot with my arms at my sides, while he pulled down on the arm on the same side as the raised leg. First, I wasn't holding the little bracelet thing, and he pulled down on my arm, it didn't take much before I was tipping to the side. Next, I held the power bracelet in my hand, he did the test again, and pulled harder, yet I didn't fall to the side. OH MY GOD! IT WORKS!
Well, it works if the intent of the test is to enable me to feel the slight difference in the direction he was pulling. When I wasn't holding the bracelet, he started pulling straight down, but then started pulling out slightly at an angle, perhaps only 10 degrees or so away from my body. When I was holding the bracelet, he only pulled straight down. I said as much, and he offered to do the test again, which only re-confirmed for me that he was pulling a slightly different direction both times. If I'd had someone with me, I would have offered a test of my own: Have my friend stand behind me, and secretly hand him the band or not, so the guy wouldn't know if I were holding it or not when he pulled on the arm, and wouldn't know when to pull out to the side. I wonder how many people have been taken in by the little "test".
Of course, I'd also seen this video before, which reveals how these "tests" work, though it was quite some time ago I saw it. The first half of the video is pretty much a reproduction of the sales pitch. If you don't want to watch the whole ten minutes, jump in to about 5 minutes, where they reveal how the test results happen. The test they had me do was slightly different, but operates on the same principle.
Don't get suckered in by these things, people. Save your money for other things.