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Clinical exercise physiologist William Sukala - Source: Close Up -
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A clinical exercise physiologist has slammed television advertisements for the exercise machine Ab Circle Pro, saying they pander to a "pleasure seeker, pain avoider mentality".
The Ab Circle Pro promises users can lose 4.5kg if they use it for only three minutes a day over two weeks, but William Sukala said the ads are "absurd".
He wants people to look at the small print.
"It's not what they're telling you, it's what they're not telling you," he said.
The Ab Circle Pro machine is mentioned every 28 seconds in the infomercial, but the Ab Circle Pro System, a reduced calorie diet, is only mentioned six times in 10 minutes.
"[The ad] gives the consumer the faulty impression that if you do three minutes a day on this exercise machine, you'll lose 10 pounds or 4 and a half kilos," said Sukala.
At around $400 the Ab Circle Pro is not cheap, but it is flying out the door and worldwide sales have reached two million.
Paul Meier, chief executive at Brand Developers which sells the Ab Circle Pro and other products advertised on infomercials, says he backs it to the hilt.
The Ab Circle Pro is one of his top three sellers and he denies it takes advantage of people.
"In my view we're actually helping people because, to me, everybody who actually gets on a piece of exercise equipment is going to live longer," said Meier.
"If they use the machine, they find it doesn't work for them, we're quite happy to give them back their money. No ifs, no buts, no maybes, you can't be any more simpler or fairer.
But he admits you have to try the whole system, not just one piece of it.
"We can make that clearer if there's any issues with people...but we haven't had too many complaints about it to the best of my knowledge."
Close Up took the Ab Circle Pro to the street to see what people thought.
Overall the people who tried it liked it, and had a good time. But whether it did them any good remains to be seen.
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