Gweneth Paltrow’s lifestyle site, Goop, has been at the center of a poostorm over its baseless medical quackery. You can catch up on my post from a few weeks ago where I describe the Goop Effect.

A colleague suggested on Twitter that we should look at Goop and try to make sense of why they’re so successful. What is it that they’re offering that mainstream medicine isn’t? Rather than trash Goop, it was suggested, we should try to learn from them.

If that’s the case, doctors should be prescribing more vaginal steaming and coffee enemas.

While I’m down with learning from all types, it’s important to understand that Goop’s calculus is not to deliver what people need but rather to create chaos that drives visibility. Or as ‘Gwyneth’ likes to call cultural storms.

Traditional market forces don’t apply to Goop’s business model. Given their motivations, learning from Goop wouldn’t put medicine or health communication any further ahead.

Unless your goal is traffic.

Image via Kevin Noble on Unsplash