iRenew and QRay: The Return of the Magical Energy Bracelets

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, infomercial viewers convinced themselves that wearing a metal bracelet on the wrist could relieve pain throughout their bodies. At least one Spanish infomercial selling such a bracelet aired, but the most popular example of this genre was the infomercial for a “non-medical device” called the QRay Ionized Bracelet:

The infomercial is at pains to distinguish the QRay (“The World’s Only Ionized Bracelet”) from those inferior magnet and copper bracelets. By the time this infomercial aired in 2001, bracelets claiming to miraculously cure aches and pains had been already been sold, but QRay wants everyone who wasted their money on those products to go ahead and give Q-Ray a try—because it’s ionized!

Five years after this infomercial aired, a federal court ruled that Q-Ray engaged in “false and misleading” advertising. Not only did the court find the benefit claims of immediate pain relief to be false, but it also found that the bracelet wasn’t even “ionized” at all! Q-Ray was forced to offer refunds to consumers who bought the bracelets between January 1, 2000 and June 20, 2003.

This court ruling was devastating not only to the marketers of QRay but to customers who bought one thinking it would give them incredible super powers, much like Wonder Woman’s wrist bracelets.

Undaunted, the marketers still sell the QRay online, although you won’t find any mention on the website of the bracelet being “ionized.” And now another bracelet has made its way onto a TV infomercial, the iRenew Energy Bracelet:

The difference in the marketing of the iRenew bracelet (and the recent QRay efforts) is that it promotes itself as a device that provides “balance” and “energy” instead of pain relief. And those people who bought a copper bracelet that didn’t work…and a magnetic bracelet that didn’t work…and a ionized bracelet that didn’t work can rest assured that iRenew is different because it “uses natural frequencies.”

Infomercials peddling these types of health bracelets were parodied in the Spanish-language movie, Ladron Que Robar A Ladron (“A thief who robs a thief”), which is about a sleazy infomercial producer:

The Magic Bracelet’s claims of miracle cures are actually a lot more credible—because that thing is one whopping hunk of metal!