California scientist Don
McPherson says he's
developed a pair of sunglasses
that can help
color blind people see normally.
It is the amazing technology
that is allowing the colorblind
to see what they've never been able
to see before.
The heartwarming story of
when a little boy who is colorblind
sees color for the first time.
Wow.
Can you see the color?
Are they working? Oh my god
oh my god...
your hairs like red. awwww
Is that purple?
Is that green?
Is that red? Yeah!!
You've probably seen
the viral videos on social media
we are so excited
you can see color for the first time
Grown men
reduced to tears,
trying on a pair of colorblind glasses
and swearing this seeing true color
for the first time.
But as someone who's colorblind
and has worked
professionally with colors
for over six years, I wasn't buying it.
So I decided to put these color
corrective glasses to the test.
Little did
I know this would lead me down
a three month long investigation.
Where I’d uncover
a raft of shady business practices.
deceptive marketing stage
reaction videos,
fake product reviews,
compromise scientific research, dishonest
influencers, fraud, you name it.
Turns out
all those viral videos
were just a colorful smokescreen
for what is actually a giant scam.
In this two part series,
we're going to expose
the industry responsible
for misleading millions of people
who suffer from an
incurable medical condition.
On a lighter note, if you
appreciate in-depth
investigative content like this
and want to support my channel,
I've just launched a Patreon.
So if you're willing or able to help,
that would be incredible.
Ahh this?
It’s all A.I.
video about that on my Patreon!
Now back to the video.
In 2015, paint manufacturer Valspar
joined forces with EnChroma,
a company that creates glasses
for the colorblind.
And together,
they launched a marketing campaign
that would leave a lasting impact.
The concept was simple.
Create a heart-tugging three minute
mini documentary
where a small group
of handpicked individuals
would open up about their colorblindness.
They then captured the emotional moment
as they try
on EnChromer's glasses
and see a “whole new world of color”
for the very first time.
that video gets posted
on a dedicated website
where others are invited
to share their struggles
with colorblindness.
those with the most compelling stories
would get a free pair of EnChroma
glasses
and can make their very own
emotional video. It was an immediate hit.
Social media was flooded
with viral videos
and the media were all over it
The campaign was so successful
that they raked in over 800 million views
and won a gold award
for best use of viral marketing.
All this for a pair
of overpriced sunglasses
that don't deliver on their promise.
But we'll get into that later.
First, let's back up a moment.
Colorblindness isn't always this
black and white vision people
often assume.
I only found out
I was colorblind when I was 21.
I stumbled across
one of those Ishihara
color tests on YouTube.
Couldn't read all the numbers
and assumed it was a prank.
That was until a friend of mine
passed with flying colors.
Just like that,
I learned
I had a color vision deficiency.
But I mostly struggled with subtle
or nuanced colors.
For example,
I wouldn't notice my skin
turning red
after too much sun
or a dark green
car would just appear dark gray.
But when it came to primary colors
like rainbows or reading traffic lights,
I never had an issue,
so I never thought anything of it.
That was until I landed a job
working on TV commercials
for a company called Trivago.
ACTION!
color became a vital part of my work.
Unbeknownst to me at the time,
one of my key roles was, get this,
color correcting footage.
This often led to awkward
feedback from my colleagues
who would point things out like DUDE!
the talents skin tones look VERY red...
And I'd just be like, ohhh..
yeah..
I was going to fix that...
But I couldn't see any issues whatsoever.
I also struggled with
something known as green-spill
which is where green light
reflects off a talent skin
when shooting them against
a green screen.
This is a pretty common
issue in the film industry,
and it's a relatively easy fix, provided
you can actually see it.
Now, while these issues were a struggle
early on,
I quickly found ways around it
and I've continued to work with color
ever since.
To me,
colorblindness was more of a nuisance
than a life altering disability.
so you can imagine my skepticism
every time
I'd come across one of these viral videos
where people were having
these “life changing” reactions.
And to add to my skepticism,
some of these videos just didn’t
make any sense
For example,
there's this common theme
where a colorblind person is
given a color naming task.
I want you to point to each one
and tell me what color they are okay?
Dark green, blue, blue,
brown, blue
only to put on the glasses and purple?
that's purple!
Orange. Yes!
That's red? Yes,
Yes.
How did you know??
Yeah. How did you know?
If you've never seen these colors before?
How are you able to name them all?
The first time you're seeing them?
It doesn't make any sense.
And there are many examples
just like this one.
So that was a huge blue flag for me.
And then there was also this.
I got this box
and inside this box are glasses
that will fix my color blindness.
Then three years later this.
ohhh my god the color blind video!
So I put on these glasses, bro no change.
Hahaha! I didn't know that.
The sky like zero.
Like maybe the sky was a little
like lighter shade of blue.
And I had a moment in my mind.
I was like, We're at the Getty Museum.
I have I.. What do I...
I have to fake this.
So I was like...
Who would have thought YouTube's
most virtuous influencer, Logan Paul,
would stage a video for Views.
Shocking.
But even more concerning
was that some influencers were profiting
from their over-the-top reactions.
A great example
is this recent video by the creators
2Hearts1Seoul, a creator
a couple from South Korea.
Step one boyfriend tries on the glasses.
Step two.
Emotional reaction.
Step three The tears start flowing.
And step four,
advertise an affiliate link.
I signed up for the affiliate program.
we have a link
and we have a code for 10% off of them.
And if you buy them,
we get a very,
like small commission percentage.
Wait a minute.
So she signed up
for the affiliate program
AND got a custom coupon code
from an EnChroma,
before they even knew
whether or not the glasses would work?
Seems to me
that they were planning
on making money from these glasses
regardless of the outcome.
The couple also claim
they're not sponsored by EnChroma.
again, it's not sponsored,
However, EnChroma
has been using their content
as advertising material
on Instagram and Facebook.
Now I can tell you right now,
most influencers
will not allow companies to do this
without some form of payment.
And judging by the #EnChroma, well,
it's got to make you wonder.
Now, after reaching out
to the couple for comment,
they came out
swinging in defense
of their video, insisting
they only signed up
for the affiliate program
after being impressed by the glossies.
But I'm struggling to understand
how they managed to apply
AND get approval
for this affiliate program
in the midst
of shooting their video at the park.
The timeline doesn't add up.
They also claim EnChroma
hasn't paid them a dime
besides affiliate commission.
Yet they conveniently dodged
my questions
about why
EnChroma was using their content
as advertising material.
Concluding their email,
I was given a stern warning
that I'm not to use the content
in any way opps It’s worth it.
Worth it!
Regardless, in the interest of fairness,
I invited them to back up their story
with proof of some dates, you know,
for the affiliate registration.
But no.
Apparently I was
too hostile and accusatory,
so they felt why bother?
but despite all these concerning videos,
there were still
a lot of reactions out there
that actually felt genuine,
like real emotional responses
to these glasses
that just didn't come across as acting.
And honestly,
a part of me wanted to believe
at least
some of them were real
because I too wanted to experience
what they were experiencing.
so it was time to find out
what the hype was all about
and try these glasses.
But first, I had to get tested.
So I Googled colorblindness test.
And would you look at
who showed up at the top of the results?
Interesting.
Enchroma's test
is pretty straightforward.
The whole process took
less than 2 minutes
and my results came back
as a severe Deutan,
which is a type of red
green colorblindness,
These are the numbers I got wrong
or couldn't make out.
I decided to do another online test,
but this time from a company
called PileStone
who also make glasses for the colorblind.
Strangely,
their one pegged me as a mild Deutan.
However, you should never
rely on the internet
for a medical diagnosis.
So I booked an appointment
at a professional eye clinic
here in Seoul.
The process began
with the typical Ishihara color test,
much like the ones online,
which quickly
confirmed my general colorblindness.
They then repeated the test,
focusing on one eye at a time.
Apparently, some people are colorblind
in only one eye.
Not me, though.
Next came
a test I'd never heard of before.
The Farnsworth D15 color test.
In layman's terms,
this is a color arrangement task.
You're provided
with a reference color to start with,
And then you have to
organize the remaining 14 color chips
according to the color similarity.
It's like putting together
a puzzle with shades of colors.
And again,
both of my eyes failed miserably.
With the tests done and dusted.
The doctor was ready to give me
my official diagnosis
Now, I wasn't allowed
to record this, unfortunately,
but the doctor simply said
you're colorblind in Korean.
but given all the additional testing
they did,
I had hoped for a
more detailed diagnosis.
So naturally I was like,
okay, but how colorblind am I exactly?
To which the doctor replied:
Totally colorblind.
And there's no cure.
Not the most informative diagnosis
I was hoping for.
Nor one that I really agree with.
What's interesting is
I had actually also been
professionally tested in New Zealand
about eight years ago, and back
then I was officially diagnosed
as being red/green, colorblind.
That's it.
so I've been told I'm a strong deutan,
a mild, deutan, red/green colorblind
and totally colorblind.
One thing
I learned during this entire process
is that
it is NOT easy getting a clear
and concise diagnosis.
But I figured the answers lay
in the hands of these “miracle glasses”.
So it was time to put them to the test.
Now EnChroma claims
that with their glasses
you're guaranteed to see color
and thousands of hues for the first time.
Pretty bold claim.
Let's see my reaction.
let's see if we get some tears today.
All right.
I'll just put them on
and I'll just start talking
about what I'm seeing I guess.
Whooa!, Haha okay...
Ahh..
Everything's a real intense magenta.
Like tint pinkish tint magenta tint.
And I fail to see how that's
going to go away
at all.
That's so intense.
All right.
So I just found a couple of items
in the house.
This looks really different now.
Like, this is intense,
so I think something's
actually happening here.
anything this color.
Like this is like this pops.
Is this color new to me?
I don't think so.
now I'll spare you the entire video.
But after wearing the glasses
for an entire day,
I did start to notice
changes to certain colors.
pinks were more saturated
and oranges became more of a blood orange
or red.
At first,
a part of me thought the glasses
were actually doing something meaningful.
But whenever I posed myself the question:
Are these colors new to me?
The answer was always: No, not at all.
In fact, on the downside,
I found certain colors to be worse.
Greens looked slightly darker
and yellows became very muted.
Now, EnChroma
does recommend that you give your eyes
a few weeks to adjust to the glasses.
So I did just that But
there was no improvement
to color perception at all.
I also tried grading footage
with the glasses on,
but I found it
more of a hindrance than an aid.
So all things
considered, EnChroma’s
glasses did not live up to the hype
at all.
But I wasn't going to give up that easy.
So I decided to test out
a few more brands.
The next pair
I got my hands on
was from the company called Pilestone.
They claim their glasses give individuals
with a color vision deficiency
the ability to see in perfect color.
Wow. Just what I was looking for.
Here they are. Here.
So let me show you what they look like.
Wow.
This, ladies and gentlemen,
is what perfect color looks like.
Honestly, the pink tent is so intense,
it's painful to wear these.
It's no wonder
people are crying
when they're putting these on
for the first time.
Now as painful as it was,
I continued to wear these glasses
for prolonged periods of time.
And what I noticed was,
the glasses appeared to affect colors
in a similar way to EnChroma’s,
but at like, three times the strength,
The longer I wore these glasses,
the more
I was convinced that this technology
actually makes color perception worse.
Here's a great example as to why.
Here we have the colors, orange and red.
and I can easily discriminate
these two colors.
but when the glasses come on,
they look basically identical.
Through the camera
you can see
a slight difference in colors,
but barely.
So I have no idea why
they're claiming these glasses help
you see color better,
when they make
two completely different colors
look almost identical.
Needless to say,
Pilestone did not deliver
on their promise of “perfect color”.
Now, just as I thought,
it couldn't get any worse.
Wait until you see this last pair
from a company called Carelust.
They claim their glasses are FDA approved
and allow you to see color
“like never before”.
Well, here they are.
And holy $#%@ I must admit,
I have truly never seen color
like this before..
because damn.
ladies and gentlemen,
this is apparently what normal
color vision looks like.
It's absolutely
ridiculous and borderline terrifying.
And on top of the obnoxious red tent,
there's a reflective coating
on the inside of these lenses,
which is so strong
that all you can see it first
as a reflection of your own eyes.
The FDA must be completely blind.
I won't lie.
I was genuinely shocked at
just how bad these glasses are.
Now, I'm
not the first person
to put these on and go, yuck
But most of these companies
use the excuse
that their glasses
won't work for everyone,
which acts as an excellent
get out of jail free card for them.
Because a lot of the people
who are honest about their bad experience
just go. “Ahh bummer.
I guess I'm not one of the lucky ones”.
But really?
Is this really a case
where some people are seeing
an obnoxious red tent
and others are seeing
a “whole new world of color?”
I don't think so.
So I decided to go back and take a closer
look at what customers were saying.
And what I uncovered
was incredibly concerning.
A quick
look on Trustpilot revealed that EnChroma
had terrible reviews
with the majority of customers
giving their product a one star.
But try finding a negative review
on their website.
I found none.
And after submitting my own
negative review, it was never published.
But after posting a positive review,
what do you know
that showed up on their website.
Now, that's not surprising
given the third party service
managing their reviews,
Okendo, allows them to approve
and reject reviews as they please.
How convenient.
Carelust also have many angry
customers on Trustpilot
a stark contrast to their website
which boasts a score of 4.6.
And after posting my own negative review,
I'm told it's submitted for approval.
And of course it never gets published.
Not concerning at all.
Now, as for Pilestone,
well,
their situation is a little different.
They too boast a solid amount of positive
reviews on their website.
And according to the third party
review service shopper approved,
they are all from verified
paying customers, thank goodness.
But as I scrolled through the reviews,
I noticed something strange.
Many of the reviews said odd
things like
“easy” or “smooth” or “very informative”.
Well, it turns out the majority of these
five star reviews
were actually coming from
the users who had completed
the colorblindness test.
They weren’t from paying
customers at all.
I won't lie.
It was a sobering realization.
All the review systems
for these companies were compromised.
A calculated manipulation
that is beyond unethical.
With the investigation
looking more and more grim,
I turned my attention
back to the reaction videos
to see if I could find anything off
color
And sure enough, I stumbled across
some damning evidence. Watch this.
I want you to point to each balloon
and tell me what color they are.
Okay?
It's another balloon challenge video.
The boy gets the colors of the balloons
all wrong. That one’s blue.
That one’s orange, and that ones purple.
Puts on the EnChroma glasses
and gets them all right.
Blue, red, purple, green,
orange and yellow.
But after watching the video
several times, I noticed something.
Something was written on the balloons.
They literally wrote the wrong colors
on each balloon
to help
this boy state the colors
he was supposedly getting wrong.
green. Okay.
Yellow. Yep.
Yellow. Wait, no that one’s red.
The video was staged.
The most insane thing about this
is I found this video on in EnChroma’s
Press Kit page literally a video
for the press to use
when advertising and EnChroma.
That is insane.
It was at this point,
I knew I had a serious investigation
on my hands.
But little did I know
I had barely scraped the surface.
On the next episode,
I consult with some color
vision scientists,
Can these color vision aids
help you see new colors
for the first time? No.
You're certainly not
going to see new colors
for the first time because you don't
they're not giving you a new detector.
Overall,
they will NOT increase
the number of colors
that you can see in a scene.
And mostly
they play with brightness contrast
Including a scientists
that worked with EnChroma.
when I've seen things,
you know, at one point
when I was more active in this,
I complained
and umm
I tried to make my opinions clear.
would you
have still taken the shares from them,
you know,
knowing that they're going
to advertise their product in this way?
that's pretty
you have to admit, it's
pretty unethical
to take someone's
scientific study
and then mischaracterize it
to sell your glasses,
were you aware
that they were mischaracterizing
your findings in this way? Well...
The mainstream media unknowingly
promote $4 dollar glasses
from China
under the guidance
of a medical professional
I mean, I saw I, I saw the
I saw the news segment.
Feel free to publish whatever you want.
Do you want me to quote you?
I mean, like,
wow.