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
