USA Today is pushing the envelope with its story, “Mother’s Day gift guide: 5 picks for a health & beauty-obsessed mom like Gwyneth Paltrow.” The first line of the article refers to the actress as a “(self-proclaimed) health and beauty guru.”
But the story is just crappy click-bait because there’s nothing of substance about Gwyneth Paltrow’s health and beauty tips. (Granted, that might be hard to do under any circumstances.) But using her name was just the lure to suck you in.
This might not be the best week for USA Today to take that approach, since this week Timothy Caulfield’s new book, “Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything? How the Famous Sell Us Elixirs of Health, Beauty & Happiness,” was released.
While the heading on the USA Today web page where this appeared is ENTERTAIN THIS with a subhead of Fashion, we found it through a health search, as shown in the image at left.
The piece offers “some ideas about how you can treat the health and beauty-obsessed mom in your life — without dropping, like, $500 on a Goop-endorsed tank top.”
Here are a couple of the gems it promotes, without questioning any of the evidence for any of these – just outright “journalistic” promotion:
- an LED red anti-aging handheld system, which allows you to “bring the dermatologist home.”
- “She can rub stem cells on her face – seriously!” – a plug for a “rose stem cell bio-repair gel mask”
Or, you could get Mom a copy of Caulfield’s book.
On Vox.com, Julia Belluz wrote, “This professor put Gwyneth Paltrow’s health advice to the test. The truth is even worse than you’d think.”
But, nice try, USA Today. At least you spelled her name correctly.
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