"BE AWARE!!!" BALANCE BRACELET PAIN RELIEVER

The Federal Trade Commission has charged California-based marketers of the "Balance Bracelet," a purported pain relief product, with making false and unsubstantiated calims. In its complaint filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, California, the FTC alleges that Media Maverick, Inc. of San Luis Obispo, California, and its officers, Mark Jones and Charles Cody, have deceptively claimed that the bracelet provides a fast-acting, effective treatment for many types of pain.

The bracelet is a C-shaped metal bracelet that is allegedly "electro-polarized" by an undisclosed process. The defendants promoted the bracelet through nationally disseminated 30-minute infomercials and on the Internet. Their advertisements claim that the bracelet relieves arthritis pain, joint pain, back pain and injury-related pain, among other things. The ads also claimed that pain is caused by excess static electricity in the body which purportedly comes from an imbalance of positive and negative energy, and that the Balance Bracelet returns the body to its "natural ionic balance." However, the rationale is complete nonsense and clinical testing has found that "ionized bracelets" are no more effective at relieving muscular and joint pain than placebo (non-ionized) bracelets.

The bracelet sells for $79.90, plus shipping and handling. In May 2003, the FTC charged the marketers of a similar product, the Q-Ray Inoized Bracelet, with making false and unsubstantiated pain-relief claims as well as failing to honor their advertised money-back guarantee. The defendants in the Q-Ray case entered into stipulated preliminary injunction halting the pain-relief claims for the product. The case currently is pending in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Ilinois.

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