At least two new YouTube ads are promoting a familiar lie in a story about the purported "weight loss," "Alpine ice hack," and "diet" product called Alpilean.
Some of our readers sent us links to unlisted videos that appeared to only be showing to users as an ad. One of them had nearly 600,000 views and was uploaded on Jan. 19. The other was uploaded on Jan. 25 and showed close to 150,000 views.
"Many are using this to live happier lives," both video titles read.
The brief clips appeared to contain the exact same script as a previous ad we looked at for another story. While the previous ad was shot in a kitchen, one of the new videos (archived) appeared to take place in a living room, perhaps even in the same space.
The other ad (archived) may have been shot from a Las Vegas hotel room, as the Oakland Raiders' Allegiant Stadium was visible outside.
An unidentified person narrated the videos with the following:
Hey guys. My rich stepmom is losing 13 pounds per week using this new "ice hack." It's so unfair. My stepmom found out about it from a video and she lost 50 pounds in 27 days all thanks to this "ice hack." Her transformation was covered in a news article. Let me show you. So, this is her right here. She's 64 years old and lost 50 pounds in 27 days, and I know for a fact she still ate all of her favorite foods and never even saw her personal trainer.
And it's not just her. Look at all of these people that transformed their lives with this "ice hack," easily melting away pounds from even the most stubborn areas.
Guys, you need to read this article for yourself. It's absolutely incredible. So if you're curious, I actually linked the exact article down below, and it has the video where she got this "ice hack" from. So just tap the blue "learn more" button to see it, and make sure you watch it now, because rich people have been trying for months to get this taken down, and they don't want you to read this article.
In these new ads and the one we previously covered, the person holding the camera showed a pot or hotel ice bucket filled with ice cubes and then pointed to a website named USA Health Today, which we also wrote about in a separate article.
The website was apparently designed to fool readers into thinking they're looking at a USA Today article, including the blue circle seen in the company's logo. However, USA Today had nothing to do with any of this.
The real USA Today logo versus the scam image.
The lie in the ads was that the narrator claimed to show photos of his "rich stepmom" having transformed her weight after losing 50 pounds in 27 days, all from using the "ice hack," a reference to the "weight loss" and "diet" product Alpilean. The article named the pictured woman as "Diane."
This woman's weight loss journey had nothing to do with Alpilean.
However, the woman in the photos was not named "Diane." Her real name is Michelle. Further, we found evidence that her transformation pictures dated back to at least 2016, if not before that, long before any trace of a product named Alpilean ever existed online.
As we've mentioned in the past, YouTube previously removed another "ice hack" and "diet" ad for Alpilean that had been seen more than 1.5 million times, citing its policy against "spam, deceptive practices, and scams."
We previously contacted Alpilean for comment through its official website but did not receive any response to our inquiry.