Today, I watched Episode 1 of The Gretchen Project "the pursuit of everlasting beauty," featuring an interview with Manhatten dermatologist Dr. David Goldberg. Unfortunately, it failed to deliver. Rather, it seemed like a giant infomercial for Velashape.
(This is how the much ballyhooed "The Gretchen Project" defines itself: The Gretchen Project hosted by Gretchen Rossi follows her through her pursuit of beauty. Gretchen will find the new, now and next in beauty from leading medical and beauty experts from around the world with the ultimate goal to pass along the pearls of wisdom to the modern day woman.)
To be honest, I had never heard of Gretchen Rossi before hearing of her "project." At first blush, She seemed genuine enough in her pursuit of beauty everlasting, but the broadcast was overly scripted with unnatural delivery of questions and comments. The content would appeal to someone with very little knowledge of anti-aging procedures.
For example, Gretchen asked Dr. Goldstein what are the three most important skincare products that a woman should use, and Dr. G replied with there are three or words to that effect, which seemed like poor writing to me. The three, in case you are wondering, were sunscreen, antioxidants and Retinol. Something of which we ladies-in-the-know are well aware. Dr. G. did come up with one interesting statistic though: that our skin receives 90% of the damage it will ever receive, before age 20. I had always heard the figure 86%, so this is news to me. (Where did the extra 4% come from?) For this reason we are urged by Dr. G. to see a derm in our 20s to start an anti-aging skincare program.
The broadcast quickly entered cellulite territory and remained there, blaming estrogen as the cause (with no explanation) and touting Velashape as the solution. The "thousands" of cellulite creams on the market don't work, says Dr. G., but having a Velashape treatment every six months or so will. (Note that RealSelf.com reports a 70% dissatisfaction rate with the procedure and shows a price range of $2,000 - to $3,000 for treatments.) Gretchen refers to the procedure as not that expensive.
And that was it! Episode 1 finished with a call to action for "preventative skin aging" — a phrase that makes no sense to me.
But here's the really good part: I was immediately convinced that this broadcast was primarily to promote Velashape. There was just too many mentions and too much raving. I browsed around to see who made the device and noticed it was Syneron. That's interesting, I thought. Didn't I just see that name in my email inbox? Sure enough, the The Gretchen Project pitch email was dispatched by Syneron. Say no more. Whether Syneron or another corporation involved in marketing their product through Gretchen will be sending the email for the next episode, I don't know. I may not even receive any more after this posting. But frankly, I won't care. I'm sick of this deceptive form of marketing.
Are you?
Gretchen photograph courtesy of thehollywoodgossip.com
8 comments:
I found this site via google alert for gretchen rossi. I cover her for my blog on bravo programming and also found her video to be overly scripted and fake. It all made sense when I realized she is a paid shill for Syneron, as you did. I wish they'd at least be ethical about it and disclose that she's a paid spokesperson.
Gretchen is a reality star from real housewives of orange county. She is trying to make a name for herself as a tv personality, and that's why she's doing this. Part of her role on the cast of RHOC is tha she's the youngest and has had no plastic surgery, although alleged older photos of her have left that up to some debate.
Anyway, great blog!
I went to the site, Rosina and it sounds so "impartial me!" ish. That doctor is really phoney IMO. Is it my imagination or are most dermatologists bald?
Thank you for dropping by Maria. I must check your blog out. It's funny...when I was doing a Google search for that image of Gretchen, there was a before and after pic there where she looked completely different. However, she doesn't look overly fake to me, just a rather pretty lady in an unusual way. It's the cookie-cutter surgically enhanced faces that look so awful. I have heard of that show but never watched it.
Salvador, I just spotted that comment about bald dermatologists. Hehe!
The whole interview was painful and boring to watch. She has no personality and the camera man should be fired. They constantly zoomed in on the doctor, rarely showing the two of them at once, leading me to be believe they didn't want to show her reading cue cards. The information that was giving was very general.
This girl is way out of comfort zone.
This is an absolute joke. I learned all that about skin in Grade 12. This is just a big informercial like you say. She can't even talk naturally. It says in her site that she is visiting the conference to find out what is NEW in the world of skincare. The Velashape procedure has been done for at least ten months, which is when my friend had it done. She spent $2700 and had no results at all. I like this blog. I'm 38 and my mother is 55. She reads it all the time.
Good investigative journalism! Siiilly Gretchen Rossi. I watched Real Housewives and she never impressed me very much. I'm not sure why companies would even want to associate their products with her (classless) image.
-callalily from eds
When will TV and Advertising Execs realise we're not stupid.
Volumising shampoo on women with hair extensions, volumising mascara on women with false eyelashes, anti-ageing skincare on women with botox, wrinkle reversing moisturisers on women...no sorry girls who've not yet a single wrinkle.
I'm sick of it.
Yes, Miranda, it is all smoke and mirrors. Today, in Canada's better daily newspaper is a before and after pic of a women who has had a liquid face lift. I could see something weird about it. Then I realised the whole thing had been Photoshopped. Her hair was identical in both pictures, with three strands out of place on the top and a streak of misbrushed hair in front of her left ear. The story that accompanied the pics was about a 61 year-old woman and was as insane as you'll ever read. "It's a lovely time of year but I didn't feel lovely..." Who says things like that?
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