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cover of episode How can you spot a TikTok wellness scam?

How can you spot a TikTok wellness scam?

2025/3/20
logo of podcast What in the World

What in the World

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
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J
Jackie Wakefield
M
Makuochi Okafor
M
Maria Clara Montoya
S
Suzanne Adams
W
William Lee Adams
Topics
William Lee Adams: 本期节目探讨了保健行业的虚假宣传,并采访了多位专家,分析了保健骗局的传播方式以及如何识别这些骗局。我们还讨论了保健行业的影响以及如何保护自己免受虚假信息的侵害。 Jackie Wakefield: 全球保健产业规模巨大,许多保健潮流缺乏科学依据。保健网红的形象通常是年轻、健康、有吸引力的女性,她们通过宣传一些简单易记、新奇且能带来改变感的潮流来吸引粉丝。这些潮流通常是新颖的、奇怪的,并且很容易让人们相信它们能改善生活。然而,并非所有保健产品都是骗局,关键在于如何区分有效的和无效的,以及如何识别那些可能造成伤害的产品。 Suzanne Adams: 我曾经沉迷于健身,并尝试各种健康补充剂,这让我意识到保健行业中存在许多虚假宣传。 Makuochi Okafor: 在尼日利亚,保健营和各种保健产品非常流行,包括减肥茶和声称能治愈疾病的草药。这些骗局与尼日利亚的经济困境、文化背景和宗教因素有关。 Maria Clara Montoya: 在拉丁美洲,保健潮流关注身心健康、积极性、显化、健身和财务自由。巴西网红Kat Torres因人口贩卖和剥削被判刑,这凸显了保健骗局的严重性。 Jackie Wakefield: 识别保健骗局的方法包括:是否制造不存在的问题(例如“皮质醇脸”),解决方案是否过于简单,以及是否存在利益冲突(例如网红销售产品)。

Deep Dive

Chapters
The global wellness industry is massive, exceeding the pharmaceutical industry's value. Wellness influencers, often women, project aspirational lifestyles. Viral trends often involve simple, memorable, and unusual practices, offering a sense of change and improvement.
  • Global wellness industry is worth $6.3 trillion and growing.
  • Wellness influencers are typically younger women with aspirational lifestyles.
  • Viral wellness trends tend to be simple, memorable, and unusual.

Shownotes Transcript

Netflix has a TV show out called Apple Cider Vinegar - it’s a dramatisation of a real story of a real influencer who was popular online, and said she was treating a terminal illness with alternative therapies. But it turned out the supposed natural treatments she was promoting didn’t do anything, because she didn’t really have brain cancer.

So it got us thinking - how can you spot false wellness claims?

Drinking special tea to make you slimmer. Rubbing bee venom on your face to reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Inserting gemstones into your vagina to regulate menstrual cycles. These are just three on the seemingly endless list which have little to no scientific evidence to support their purported benefits.

Jacqui Wakefield, a reporter with the BBC’s Global Disinformation Unit, takes us through what makes these trends take off and how we can spot the bad ones online. Makuochi Okafor in our Lagos bureau explains what wellness scams look like in Nigeria. And Maria Clara Montoya tells us about the scene in Latin America.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: William Lee Adams Producer: Emily Horler Video Journalists: Benita Barden and Adam Chowdhury Editor: Verity Wilde