Video: https://www.tiktok.com/@distilledscience/video/7525175662185893150
Transcript
Why Science Creators are Poor, based on a true story. Hi, ScienceBacked. Uh, hello? You know, that's just my Instagram name for SEO purposes and for weeding out bots, right? I love what you are doing on your IG. Your content is truly inspiring and resonates with our passion for health here at... Company Name. Have you actually watched my content? What was your favorite? We would like to send you World's... best vitamin D3. For free. We are sure you will love it and share it with your followers. Okay, I like free stuff, and I do take vitamin D sometimes when it's the winter and I'm not getting enough sun and my lab results show that I'm on the low end, but what makes yours the world's best? This is not normal vitamin D3. It is special vitamin D3 called colocasiparola. That is special? That's just the name for vitamin D3. That is proved by our hundreds of science studies to be better absorbed than normal vitamin D. We... You funded hundreds of studies? We have hundreds of science studies. You mean like this study, which was published before you guys even existed and is the reason why basically all vitamin D supplements now use D3? Are there any studies using your supplement? We have hundreds of science studies. How much does it cost? Our monthly subscription is 10% of your supplement. 10% off, just $31.46. But free for you! What? I can get a year's worth for $15. Why should my followers pay that much every single month? Is it unique at all? Our product was designed by a doctor and a... Oh, designed how? Why would a doctor be an expert in formulating supplements? Wouldn't you want someone with a PhD, nutritional biochemistry, or pharmacology? And is pharmaceutical grade? That's not a legal category. Under U.S. law, something is either a supplement or a drug. There's no pharmaceutical grade. You could have USP or NSF certification. So to sign up for our affiliate program, just click here. Get out.
Additional notes
😿 The Dilemma: I would love to spend all of my time making super well-researched and well-edited content for you guys. But, I want to be able to give it to you for free. Especially, anything I do to fight misinformation. To do that, it helps to sometimes work with brands. Which would be simple if I just said yes to all the brands that constantly reach out to me… but most of them are either: A. Total scams B. Technically legit product but lots of exaggerated marketing claims, absurdly high pricing, or both. C. Legitimately good quality product but in a space that I want to be able to discuss without any risk of personal bias, so I have to say no even if I would (or sometimes already do) use said product. This whole topic gets even harder when you consider that, even for the products that work, they likely won’t work for everyone. E.g. a particular vitamin might be helpful if you’re currently deficient, but useless (or sometimes harmful) if you’re not, and yet all of the marketing copy just says “X supports blah blah blah” without making any type of proper distinction. I haven’t come up with a good solution to this whole issue yet, but here’s a thought that I’d love y’all’s feedback on if you’ve made it this far into the caption: I'm considering starting a podcast where I challenge brands to come on and present and defend the scientific validity of their product and marketing claims. This longer format would give me the time required to really explore the nuance of if it works and who it should work for. Only once a company passes that public-facing vetting process would I agree to potentially do some sort of discount/affiliate program around it. I would also bring on independent experts to discuss the various types of products from an unbiased perspective, as well as do the occasional solo episode where I do detailed tear downs of companies that are unwilling to come on themselves. If this 👆 is of interest to you, let me know in the comments–as well as what brands you want me to challenge to come on! #science #health #wellness #influencers #podcast #podcasting #healthscams
References
- Vitamin D3 supplement claims and generic D3 study context discussed in transcript; specific study title/source URL/DOI/PMID not listed in workbook.