For the last decade a potentially dangerous anti-cellulite device called the Fasciablaster convinced women that they can rub away cellulite (and just about every other medical ailment) with a $95 plastic wand. Restoring youthful vigor is as easy as scraping hard plastic prongs over problematic areas until you are covered with bruises. The self-flagellating cure all has been surprisingly profitable The Fasciablaster’s charismatic wellness guru –a former personal trainer named Ashley Black--promises that the wand is “backed by science,” even as she bragged that she went to market long before she ever considered running a clinical trial.
Since 2014 Black’s wellness empire has brought in between $175-$100 million in revenue–meaning that millions of women have bought into her health explanations. 5-star reviews and testimonials fill her website and private facebook group and her various social media profiles boasts millions of followers. The improbable results come along with a glaring dark side. Tens of thousands of women joined facebook groups [here and here] that highlight how blasting their fascia doesn’t live up to the hype. Included in their posts are testimonials from women who claim that the device has actively hurt them.
Prominent among her critics is Karen Wallace, a Texas-based beautician who was drawn to fascia blasting against her “better judgment.” Wallace followed Black’s online instructions to “use ‘til you bruise” and soon started to experience rapid weight gain and a miscarriage. She also documented how her skin detached from the underlying fascia and began to sag off the underlying muscle.
“From a lymphatic standpoint you are causing extreme amounts of damage when you're going for that amount of time with that amount of pressure,” says Chris DaPrato, a physical therapist who teaches at UC-San Francisco's School of Medicine.
When Wallace posted about the damage she experienced on a private Facebook group Black filed a lawsuit alleging defamation. Both Wallace, and eventually a Texas appellate court agreed that the tactic was meant to “actively chill free speech on the internet and [Black] used lawsuit to “advertise what happens when you criticize Ms. Black or her Product”
Black likely spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to silence her critics, but failed to win any of her arguments.
The lawsuit and photos of sagging skin had a deleterious effect on Black’s wellness empire, and soon black needed more money. She turned to a crowdfunding campaign through a website called WeFunder that ultimately brought in more than $3 million. Several sources I spoke with called Black a “pathological liar” which made me think that her crowdfunding efforts might not be as transparent as she made them appear. An examination of her public finances raised critical questions about whether or not her investors would ever get their money back.
“It comes with a lot of reliance on, on this one person, their ability to run a business and things like that. And a lot of this is riding on this one person. And so I think, you know, from a risk standpoint, that's just really not worth the risk, even if it's not worth the risk” said Richard Coffin, a financial analyst who runs a popular YouTube channel, The Plain Bagel.
Ashley Black declined to sit for an interview with me but wrote in an email that, “I very much urge you to drop this story. There is no story other than an ex husband and some trolls trying to harm a legitimate business. We’ve sold over $170M of FasciaBlasters and are helping millions of people. There really are no ‘sides’.”
This week’s video is the most recent addition to my Liars Cheats and Charlatans of the Griftoverse series. While scam companies like Black’s are a dime a dozen, I think it’s important to analyze these sorts of consumer level wellness gifts that offer overly-simple solutions to common health problems. Everyone wants to look better, live longer and find affordable solutions to human suffering. It’s easy to be dissatisfied with the slow progress of scientific advancement and fall for wellness gurus whose sales pitches fill the void between scientific evidence and our understandable desires.
The problem with the internet and social media is that it makes fake results easy to syndicate and hard to debunk. Any grifter with an ounce of charisma and a social media advertising budget can make their case to millions of desperate people long before reality catches up. In the case of Ashley Black, the grift made her unbelievably wealthy almost overnight. It’s too bad that so many women had to suffer debilitating health consequences along the way.
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