Power Balance
Power Balance is the original brand of hologram bracelets claimed by its manufacturers and vendors to use "holographic technology" to "resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body" to increase athletic performance.
This sustained prevalence compelled journalist Darren Rovell to remark that "a growing number of professional sportsmen and their attendants are starting to sound like New Age crystal healers.
"[7] CNBC Sports named Power Balance Product of the Year in 2010 for its strong sales and celebrity endorsements.
[8] Power Balance headquarters, which was located in Laguna Niguel, California, at the time, denied that they made any medical or scientific claims about their products.
[11] Dylan Evans, a lecturer in behavioral science at Cork University's School of Medicine, stated that the marketing of Power Balance has "managed to get away without deceiving anyone in the sense of an overt lie.
As of September 2022[update], the brand has been transferred to a new company, Power Balance Technologies, which still sells Power Balance bands and other items [14][non-primary source needed] In December 2009, an informal, double-blind test was conducted by Richard Saunders of the Australian Skeptics on the Australian television program Today Tonight.
[16][17][18] In 2011, researchers from RMIT's School of Health Sciences reported the results of an independent, randomized, and controlled double-blind trial.
[19] A group of students skeptical of the claims conducted a test which showed "no significant difference between the real wristband and the fake".
Greg Whyte, professor of applied sport and exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University, said that "for generations there have been devices that claim to mediate the body's flow of energy.
"[23] The Center for Inquiry noted Power Balance's use of pseudoscientific applied kinesiology tests, which it described as "problematic and full of flaws."
"[27] In November 2012, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban criticized an endorsement deal between the National Basketball Association and Power Balance.
"[28] In November 2010, the Australian distributors of "Power Balance" were ordered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration Complaints Resolution Panel to drop "false and misleading" claims that the wearers would experience "up to a 500% increase in strength, power and flexibility" and ordered the claims removed from the company's website and a retraction posted within two weeks.
[30] The consumer organization Facua [es] made an appeal to the Health Department for an increased fine, as they considered the amount to be low enough to allow the company to stay in business.
Ltd. an undertaking to take a number of actions in relation to correcting their misleading advertising, including: Power Balance Australia's chief executive, Tom O'Dowd, admitted that "we'd made claims in the start that said that our product improved strength, balance, and flexibility and we didn't have the scientific, peer-reviewed, double blind testing or the level of proof that we needed to substantiate those claims".
We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims and therefore we engaged in misleading conduct in breach of s52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.
[42][43]In December 2010, Italy's Antitrust Authority fined Power Balance €300,000 (and another company €50,000) for not having scientific proof of the claims made.
[44] In September 2010, the Dutch Advertising Code Commission (RCC)[45] made the following decision in the case where FIR-TEX Ltd.,[46] the plaintiff, had put Surf Unlimited Trading BV, distributor of power-balance in the Netherlands, on trial with the following complaint: Advertiser claims on its website that the use of the Power Balance Bracelet improves balance, strength and agility.
