Two years ago, this YouTube exposé revealed that Vince and his V Shred fitness business were all a scam. Full of misinformation, selling people on what they want to hear, and shilling out overpriced run-of-the-mill supplements, this business preys on the individuals who have low fitness experience and are naive enough to fall victim to their marketing. Unlike other fitness businesses, V Shred specifically targets Facebook ads, Instagram reels, TikTok Feeds, YouTube ads, etc. They specifically do not target those with enough experience or knowledge that could see through their elementary training and fitness advice. The YouTube video is 13 minutes long and is fantastically produced, I definitely recommend watching it.

Despite this video having over 5.5M views at the time of writing this and despite the mass disapproval from other internet fitness personalities, V Shred remains in business and remains relevant.

A company has a lot of choices on what it can focus on and for V Shred, it’s all about its forward facing branding. Vince is insanely good looking, which makes everything he says believable to a degree. The YouTube video above goes in great detail about how Vince is a great model and actor, but even he can barely believe what he’s saying and selling.

While scrolling YouTube shorts, one of his ads came up. I had seen this ad more than once, but it really rubbed me the wrong way after I saw it again and again.

TikTok videos or short form content of any form have been bombarded with clips from the Joe Rogan Experience. Of course the world’s most popular podcast has clips posted regularly. The animated subtitles and red curtain background are a common sight when scrolling, coupled with typical short form song anthems.

The way V Shred frames this advertisement is so disingenuous, make no mistake. The way his headphones look, the position of the mic, the angle of the camera, the background, the direction he’s facing, all of it mirrors what a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience looks like.

Short form content is so ingenious because it removes the labor of reading a title and thumbnail and choosing what to watch, instead being a constant feed of stimulus. To match that, the first thing you see when scrolling upon this ad is the impression that Vince is on Joe’s show and, “Wow, when did Vince get on his show?” and “Joe’s talking to Vince about fitness?”

If anyone else were to frame themselves as a guest of the Joe Rogan Experience, they would lose their credibility. What is this, some kind of joke? Some kind of wishful delusion? Why don’t you just say what you want to say without making it look as if you’re on the most popular podcast on the world, something very easy to verify if you’re not on? Wouldn’t you look silly?

Well that’s the length of shamelessness V Shred has. It’s okay if they very intentionally made their ad look like they were on Joe’s podcast, because hey they just like the look of it!

This video truly is a meme. You have a fitness model scarfing down carbs, selling the dream to many dieters. He poses in a selfie and addresses all the failed dieting trends, even making a funny face and pose addressing CrossFit. And then he goes into a jumble of information which has some truth in it, but is cherry picked for what people want to hear. “Cardio burns fat? No. Cardio actually burns calories, usually in the form of carbs in the bloodstream, that are then replaced with the very next meal that you eat, stored as more fat.” The grain of truth in his statement is that the body typically burns through simple sugars before burning fat, as fat is more easily stored in the bodies and carbs are more quickly consumed. If your body is extremely low on simple sugars, it will begin burning fat for caloric output.

Googling “hierarchy of fat loss” can reveal what everyone agrees on when it comes to weight loss: first is what you put into your body. And it really should be that simple, if your body was a car and you only put low quality fuel into it, it wouldn’t be at its best. You can point to a dozen other things that affect a car’s performance, but it’s disingenuous and even a bit shameless to sell people the idea they can put any kind of fuel into their body.

“Hollywood’s elite actors…” A few years ago, V Shred did do some videos on how to unlock the secret of Hollywood bodies. He’s still selling different bits and different secrets the actors do to get their incredible bodies. Two years ago, the steroid use in Hollywood was much more under wraps and the general population could be fooled into thinking chicken and broccoli and insane trainers could really make it work. Nowadays, V Shred addresses the steroid culture by saying that there’s “a secret that’s been used for generations.” Come on man, how many keywords can you fit into an ad before people just throw their wallet at you?

The very best part of this ad? The Joe Rogan like set to draw you in? It’s actually the closer to the ad. It’s not selling you anything directly. Instead it’s providing a free product internet users LOVE. It’s a personality test. Find out what makes YOU so unique and what YOU should do instead of just any generic routine. V Shred doesn’t have to sell a novice user anything if it can lead them along this convoluted path long enough and gain their trust. Once a naive individual goes down this path, it’s only a matter of time before one of the selling pitches, one of the magical keywords, one of the solutions lines up with what their wallet can afford and what their greed can stomach.

I truly hate V Shred. But game recognizes game. V Shred spent the marketing money and are without a doubt going to gain a lot of customers from this ad. There’s a lot to dissect and appreciate from such a shameless company. The real lesson, aside from the business and media examples listed, is that there will always be some version, some X product, that is so shameless in its business or practice, that it will go to any length to succeed. So what does that tell you about your ideas? Your values? What if your ideas or values were any good, weren’t so shameful? And what if you had the same attitude nefarious companies have when it comes to pursuing their dreams? Wouldn’t the world be better if the quality products and ideas were the ones shamelessly doing anything to get their brand out there? Instead we have companies that knowingly have shitty products do whatever it takes to sell.

So to that I say, if you’re gonna sell out in any way, do it in a way that’s true to yourself. Because you can be true to yourself and lose. You can be a liar and win. But only a few, and what we truly desire, is to have the honest win.