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Jim Molnar
Ashley Humphries
3/22/14
ENC 1101

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An Industry of Ignorance: BCAA Advertising Schemes

Anyone that considers themselves a fitness enthusiast will tell you that the supplement
industry is nothing more than a fancy language for overpromised misconceptions. The
supplement industry overpromises because it can, because being vague is literally an option. As

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you read this I would like you to stop and think of all the times you entered a GNC, supplement
store, or that one Publix aisle and saw a supplement that said something along the lines of
EXPLOSIVE FORMULA or GAIN MASSIVE MUSCLE WITHOUT THE FAT or some
other absurd hyperbolized statement. The point Im trying to make is that this industry is known
to advertise their product by including not entirely false statements, but statements that make the
product sound better than it actually delivers. The number one example of one of these products
is Branch Chain Amino Acid (BCAA) powder. Throughout this paper I will detail and uncover
this supplements shortcomings and exaggerations included in its misleading advertising
campaigns, all the while introducing an anti-advertisement to further prove the shortcomings of
this industry.
To understand when a products campaign is a misconception, there needs to be an
investigation of how it advertises. What is it trying to say? What can this product do for me? Will
this actually work? In the original BCAA advertisement, the first thing you may notice in this
advertisement are the large, bolded letters stating BCAA REDUCES MUSCLE DAMAGE
What this image lacks is in its explanation of to what extent. Michael Mathews explains in his
article Why the BCAA Supplement is Overrated that BCAAs do in fact contain chemicals that
can help with benefits like protein synthesis, which is the process by which the genetic code puts
together proteins in the cell. Mr. Mathews also states how the supplement industry came to this
conclusion, Research commonly cited that demonstrates muscle-related benefits of BCAA
supplementation was done with subjects that didnt eat enough protein. The subjects in this test
ate around half their bodyweight in grams of protein, which is nowhere near optimal for protein
synthesis. It is recommended, for protein synthesis to take effect that each person should eat at
least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. This fact can be further proven in the

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International Society of Sports Nutritions article on Bodybuilding.com titles How Much

Protein Do You Really Need? The Official Position Of The International Society Of Sports
Nutrition. he states Recommendations for strength/power exercise typically range from 1.6 to
2.0 g/kg/day which is in the range of .68 to 1g of protein per pound of body weight. The
subjects in this test were obviously deficient of protein so the chemicals in the BCAA powder
helped synthesize what they did have because their body thoroughly needed that not only for
their muscle recovery but for their overall health. The average weightlifter that has sufficient
nutrition would get little recovery from a BCAA blend of chemicals. By interpreting the text
involved with this advertisement, we have our first advertisement exaggeration, but we still have
the largest advertisement misconception to uncover, the color.
The next step at disproving this advertisement would be to take a step back from just
examining the words of this picture and take a look at the technique the creator of this ad uses to
get you to want their product, starting with the color. As soon as you see this image youre hit
with large bolded words promising an innovative BCAA formula and surrounded by shiny, well
lit colors that very easily catch the eye. The artists of this advertisement obviously wanted a, for
lack of a better word, WOW effect on its consumer. They dont only want to catch your eye;
they want you to look back at it. The use of different fonts also adds to this effect. There are two
things that makes a good (or a bad) advertisement, visuals and text. This image focuss much
more on creating appealing visuals than developing a detailed statement. The reason for this
being that supplement industrys know when they are trying to sell a product that, without
colorful designs and large fonts, would otherwise be difficult to sell because they know their
products uses are very low and limited. Even with that one small statement they presented on the
original advertisement, its possible to take what they state and lead it back to its

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misinterpretations. Relying on pretty stuff is much more efficient than relying on the ignorance
of your consumers, because some consumers are ignorant. Some realize this misconception and
share their understanding with others by creating anti-advertisements to thoroughly uncover the
truth.
So far throughout this paper most of the bulk has been in uncovering the real truth behind
the advertising campaign for Branch Chain Amino Acid products. For the next chunk of this
reading there will be discussion of the anti-ad of the original advertisement and incorporate what
its trying to portray into our understanding of the supplement industrys (specifically BCAAs)
products. Starting with the text, one of the most noticeable qualities is the change from BCAA
REDUCES MUSCLE DAMAGE to BCAA OVERpromises UNDERdelivers The reason for
this change is to nail into the ground the point that yes, BCAAs can indeed help reduce muscle
damage by increasing the protein synthesis process, but only when the subjects were not eating
enough protein to do it themselves. The product itself is next to useless if the person taking
BCAAs is already getting enough protein. Also, words like Innovation and Quality have
been replaced with Overrated and Exaggerated because that is exactly what this
advertisement is selling. There is nothing innovative about their formula, Allmaxs BCAA
product contains the same stuff that all other BCAA products contain, with one of the only
notable differences being in the taste of the product. BCAA products contain 3 essential amino
acids: Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine. Unless a company comes out and reinvents the rock, I
dont see the pattern changing. Also, it is difficult to increase the quality of something when the
effects are not adjusted as well. All this industry is made out of is false promises, and the only
reason that their advertisements overpromise is because of the simple fact that they can, and that
the truth does not always sell.

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Secondly, the visuals of this anti-ad must be observed much like we did with the original
advertisement. Notice that the creator of this image did not change the size, color, or font of
anything in the image. This could pose questions like: How is this ad making a point of the
visuals if they are in no way changing? It is by that very aspect that the visual appeal of the antiad is not changing that make it effective. Concluded earlier in this paper was that the creators of
the original advertisement spent more time on the visuals than the text; the only way they even
bring attention to the text is by the statement that encompasses half the advertisement, which are
the exact words the creator of this anti-ad changed. The words in each image are the words that
the companies want to nail into the back of your head. The original advertisement wants you to
know that their product reduces muscle damage, making the consumer believe that their product
is essential to the survival of their gains, while the anti-ad does the opposite by focusing on the
ignorance of the consumer, making he/she realize that their product is a scam. Each picture
centralizes its reasoning for the entire advertisement by creating the boldness, color and font of
its statement. The same visuals do not mean they each have the same point, but the same
importance. The honest importance being that the supplement industry is a scam, and the branch
of BCAA advertisements is one of their important marketing ploys.
In the world of advertising every consumer is going to come across ads that are not
entirely living up to its hype, and that same instance is completely true when it comes to the
supplement companies. BCAAs are essential, this statement we can all agree on, but they are not
made in a lab or the back of a GNC, they are in fact in the foods you eat every single day and we
as humans have been doing just fine without the powder form of it for our entire existence, why
would we need them now? Just because someone puts REDUCES MUSCLE DAMAGE on an
image does not mean it will be noticeably effective. For all we know it could reduce it by .

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0001% or 10000% and it is with that very reasoning that BCAA supplement companies win their
audience. They dont expect you to do your research or be critical with their product, you are a
consumer, they expect you to consume if they dress it up nice enough, and by that I mean dress
up their product and everything about it, including the advertisements for the product. Earlier in
this paper I stated that Allmax put more work into the visual aspects of the BCAA image because
it makes the product more appealing and draws attention to the words and statements that
actually matter, even though they are overpromised misconceptions. They do not have to be
specific when they put out advertisements like this because by putting out more information and
text, they could potentially lose customers because they are releasing more information that can
be critically analyzed. So it is best to keep the message short and sweet.
In the end, it is very recognizable that ignorance is bliss, and the supplement company
knows that better than anyone, well, expect for the people they hire to create their
advertisements. BCAAs cannot hurt you (or more importantly your gains) and can, in very small
proportions, help you recover from intense workouts, but only when your body is not already
getting what it needs to ignite protein synthesis, which we discovered by reviewing Michael
Mathews article earlier in the paper, making Allmaxs statement of BCAA REDUCES
MUSCLE DAMAGE a misconception. This is the reason for the anti-advertisement stating
BCAA OVERpromises and UNDERdelivers When comparing the two advertisements, you can
note that yes, the words did change, but the font and size of the font stayed relatively the same
due to the fact that both statements do not share the same message, but the same importance.
Other factors such as color and the boldness of such to catch the viewers eye stayed stagnant as
well to relate the importance of both messages. Overall, the point is that this industry relies on
us, the consumers, to not know any better about the product they are selling and just buying it

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due to the fact that we believe it will help us with our workout progress in great amounts. They
rely on us to trust the bold words and pretty colors of their advertising. In that sense, they are not
promoting BCAAs at all, they are promoting false advertisement, they are promoting
overpromising, and they are promoting ignorance.

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Work Cited
Flex Staff. BCAA Reduces Muscle Damage. Digital image. Flex. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Mathews, Michael. "Why the BCAA Supplement Is Overrated." Muscle For Life Why the
BCAA Supplement Is Overrated Comments. Muscle For Life, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
International Society Of Sports Nutrition. "How Much Protein Do You Really Need? Bodybuilding.com." Bodybuilding.com. N.p., 23 Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.