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This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 10AM ET. Opt in for Optimizer here.
I’m willing to bet you’ve been served an ad for Athletic Greens — also known as AG1. It’s impossible to escape them in podcasts, and it seems like almost every wellness influencer on every social media platform has done an ad for them at some point.
AG1 is a greens powder containing over 70 ingredients. Most of it is freeze-dried vegetable powder blends. Basically, instead of taking a multivitamin or eating an actual vegetable, greens powders like AG1 claim to be a more convenient way to make sure you’re getting all your essential nutrients. The proposed benefits are better energy levels, gut health, digestion, focus, and immunity. You know, things that pesky dieticians say will come from eating a balanced diet.
I take AG1 first thing in the morning before work. I feel so much healthier and better in my body, say yoga-set-wearing influencers, holding up a glass of murky green liquid. In recent ads, actor Hugh Jackman tap dances, annoying his downstairs neighbors, because the “quality vitamins, probiotics, and superfoods” in AG1 give him boundless energy. He must drink it every morning if he’s to do eight shows on Broadway a week, Jackman says with a toothy, affable smile.
Wolverine isn’t the only one getting a boost. AG1 announced in a football-themed ad that it’s “endorsing” three student health researchers.
“At AG1, we believe that when you’re clinically backed, you should back research that moves science forward,” a baritone-voiced announcer intones, over footage of young academics posing on the 50-yard line.
None of the other smart, science-sounding words hit quite as hard as “clinically backed.” In the wellness wild west, you’ll see that descriptor plastered across a sea of marketing materials and falling awkwardly from the mouths of celebrity spokespersons. The implication is simple: Unlike the snake oil salesmen, we care about science. We do the research. We are trustworthy.
But what does “clinically backed” actually mean?
What does clinically backed mean for supplement? Screenshot: AG1
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