What are Kinoki Detox Foot Pads?

If you have been watching any late night television lately, you've probably seen the commercials for Kinoki Detox Foot Pads. The commercial is pretty entertaining, it shows various people putting what looks like a tea bag filled with sand on their feet, sleeping with them and waking up with them after they turned a dark black color. Apparently, the color change indicates that the pad sucked up a bunch of lurking internal toxins. Detox Foot Pads have become so popular that Avon has gotten in to marketing them and now there are multiple copy-cat products.

The premise of the foot pad is that they can suck out toxins, parasites and toxic chemicals through the feet. But this theory is medically doubtful. According to Dr. George Friedman-Jimenez, the director of the Bellevue / New York University Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic in New York City, "... you cannot pull toxins out of the body through the feet -- "not in any significant amount." So there goes that argument.

True Story

A good friend of mine recently tried the Kinoki Foot Pads for over 3 weeks. We inspected his feet each day, discussed energy levels and talked about how the pads smelled like bacon and other unmentionable odors in the morning. The results were the same every time, the pad was darker, smelled gross, no difference in energy level. The frustrating thing was that the pads never got lighter after continued use. This is consistent with what 20/20 observed when they investigated...

20/20 Investigates

Leave it to the folks at 20/20 to find out the truth! One convincing claim Kinoki makes is that you can mail in your used foot pads for analysis and they will send you a report which shows you the levels of toxins in your body. In the 20/20 report, several studies came back with small amounts of lead. But the good Dr. Friedman-Jiminez is doubtful the lead came from people's bodies. "It could've been in the packaging of the pad, it could've been a contamination from dust on the floors. Many apartments that have lead paint have trace amounts of lead in the dust and if someone is walking around barefoot," the doctor said, it could have gotten on our testers' feet. "But the lead is not toxin that's being drawn from the person's body." Very clever.

So why are so many people falling for this scam?

The Art of the Infomercial

The art of the infomercial is a tested and proven formula using slick marketing tactics, data analysis and human psychology and combining that with the American obsession of buying a whole lot of crap we don't need.

Did you know the same person who invented the Chia pet also invented the Clapper??

Infomercials are products created and marketed by professionals to SELL and they have it down to a science. It start with the copywriters - Ginsu knives (made in Arkansas) were originally called Quickcut but they thought Ginsu sounded more catchy. Then a bubbly personality, a British accent or some bulging biceps are added to the mix to keep the audience engaged. Then the infomercial is tested with several groups of people to gauge response and interest. Once all that is added together, the data crunchers go to work. Phrases like, "But wait, theres more!" are proven to increase sales as are other add ons like expedited shipping.

So don't feel bad next time you are intrigued by an infomercial, they can be really entertaining. Just hold onto your credit card and figure out if you actually need that shiny all-in-one vegetable peeler/dicer/fryer/juicer/dehydrator with extra attachments or if your regular vegetable peeler will do.

Confession: I still have a Thighmaster from somewhere around 1982 but i saw no significant results. I also have a George Foreman grill that i bought at Costco in college that I used about five times.