'Magic dirt': How the internet fueled, and defeated, the pandemic's weirdest MLM

[Nevilledog]

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Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__
New from @BrandyZadrozny:

Antivaxxers have been eating (yes, eating) "Magic Dirt" called BOO, claiming it's a miracle cure for hair growth, various diseases, and even changing your eye color.

Turns out it's just dirt from a plot that borders a landfill.

'Magic dirt': How the internet fueled, and defeated, the pandemic's weirdest company
The social media posts started in May: photos and videos of smiling people, mostly women, drinking Mason jars of black liquid, slathering black paste on their
nbcnews.com
8:12 AM · Dec 2, 2021

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/magic-dirt-internet-fueled-defeated-pandemics-weirdest-mlm-rcna6950?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

The social media posts started in May: photos and videos of smiling people, mostly women, drinking Mason jars of black liquid, slathering black paste on their faces and feet, or dipping babies and dogs in tubs of the black water. They tagged the posts #BOO and linked to a website that sold a product called Black Oxygen Organics.

Black Oxygen Organics, or “BOO” for short, is difficult to classify. It was marketed as fulvic acid, a compound derived from decayed plants, that was dug up from an Ontario peat bog. The website of the Canadian company that sold it billed it as “the end product and smallest particle of the decomposition of ancient, organic matter.”

Put more simply, the product is dirt — four-and-a-half ounces of it, sealed in a sleek black plastic baggie and sold for $110 plus shipping. Visitors to the Black Oxygen Organics website, recently taken offline, were greeted with a pair of white hands cradling cups of dirt like an offering. “A gift from the Ground,” it reads. “Drink it. Wear it. Bathe in it.”

BOO, which “can be taken by anyone at any age, as well as animals,” according to the company, claims many benefits and uses, including improved brain function and heart health, and ridding the body of so-called toxins that include heavy metals, pesticides and parasites.

*snip*


MLM = Multilevel marketing

[TheBlackAdder]

1. Emma Thorne did a great video on this.

.

.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Thanks, I'll stick to Black Strap Molasses. $4 a bottle, lots of vitamins and minerals

[tanyev]

3. Oh lordy, has anyone (legit) tested the lead levels in it?

That could explain quite a bit.

[Tree-Hugger]

4. From the article.

"Assuming the company-provided analysis was correct, two of the scientists confirmed that just two servings of BOO exceeded Health Canada’s daily limits for lead, and three servings — a dose recommended on the package — approached daily arsenic limits. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has no comparable daily guidelines."

The peat bog where they sourced their dirt is next to a landfill. Yum.

[tanyev]

5. Yikes! TY.

There really are a lot of gullible fools out there.

[NickB79]

6. $400/lb? Where's my shovel?!?!

Hell, I'll even make sure there are some "magic" nightcrawlers in there for good measure.

[DeeNice]

7. TASBEM is now TASBES