Mentholated magnets?

Okay. I know I'm missing something here.

Let's start with the basic product, because it isn't well-known in America. Basically, peep ee- rehkey-ban. (ビッブエレキバン, if you want the Japanese) The peep seems to be just noise. The rest of the name seems to be a shortened version of electric bandage, interestingly enough. What it actually is, is little magnetic tablets, nicely rounded and smoothed, enamaled I think, with a round bandage to stick them to you. Because what people do is wear them. According to the users, they relieve various aches and whatnot.

Now, according to users like my sister in law, you need fresh ones. I have tried to argue that the magnets don't fade -- they are permanent magnets, and will stick nicely to a refrigerator or whatever even after she insists that they aren't fresh anymore, but... I don't argue with beliefs like this.

Okay? That's the basic product. Little magnetic disks for you to stick to yourself to relieve whatever. And you have to buy new ones pretty often because you need fresh magnetic waves, not those old worn-out ones.

But there's a new ad out for the new, improved version. Are you ready? Peep ee-rehkey-ban MENTHOL! As far as I can tell, they have doped the bandage with menthol. So along with those magnetic waves doing their mysterious magic on your bod, you get good stinks! Of course, this may make it easier to convince people that they need fresh ones, since the menthol may in fact wear off.

Still, we're now talking about sticking a magnet to your body over some kind of power points, and adding in the ineffable benefits of having a menthol odor at that point. So to the well-known advantages of dosing yourself with magnetic waves, we add having a dose of menthol.

Huh?

And I used to think the tales of snake-oil salesmen were odd.

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