Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined

C

H A PTER 11

The Big Business of Beauty

Give me your tired, your rich, your aging masses

yearning to be beautiful

Boosting or amplifying an individual’s physical attractiveness can be

enormously profitable, especially for those who have both the ability

to devise new products or services andtheentrepreneurialchops to

market them to a PA-hungry public.

There’s no better example than Dr.David Ma

tlock, whose sur-

gery speciality discussed in theprior chapterhaspropelled him to

fame andprosperity through theLaser Vaginal RejuvenationInsti-

tute (LVRI). When Dr. Matlock realized how popular thissurgical

pr

ocedure had become, how many doctorswereperforming similar

operations and how it seemed to be making most of themrich, he

decided that hecould—nay,should!—profit not only fromhisown

Matlock’s physician-

associates enroll in his four-

day course to learn surgical

techniques to a tune

approaching $10,000 and

then pay $2,500 monthly

fees for two years, totaling

about $70,000 per person.

204 LOOKS

precisionapplicationsofthesurgicallaser,butfrom anyone using

his techniques. Matlock (did Imention that he also has an MBA?)

trademarked theterms ‘‘LVRI ’’ and ‘‘vaginal r ejuvenation’’ and

patented someofhi

sprocedures.

Thenhestarted a so-called ‘‘associate operation’’—not, heem-

phasizes, a franchise. ‘‘The doctors are associates of LVRI,’’ he ex-

plained. ‘‘Wetaught andtrained theminall techniques, and offered

themabusiness model. We also offer supporttoth

ese associates.’’

1

That’s nothing like whatBurger King does forits franchisees,

right?

Matlock’s physician-associates enroll in hisfour-day course to

learn surgical techniques to a tune approaching $10,000 andthen

pay $2,500 monthly fees for two years, totaling about $70,000 per

perso

n.By early 2005 he had already enrolled over fortyassociates

in theUnited States, Canada, Sweden,France, Indonesia, andAus-

tralia, adding aboutthree million dollarstohis coffers. Alwayspush-

ing forward, theportion of

his website targeted to gain more

potential associates (www.drmatlock.com/

physicians.asp, accessed August 14, 2007) to

supplement his already sizeable surgicalearn-

ings, headlines: ‘‘No one in theworld knows

theLVRI business like I do. In 2006, my LVRI

pra

ctice Gross Revenues were $3,000,000.00

on just 360 cases. This is anormal year forme.

David Matlock, MD, MBA, FACOG.’’ As for

the many physicians using similar techniques

and marketing themintermsthat resemble

Matlock’s trademarked LVRIand ‘‘vaginal re-

juvenati

on,’’ asthe doctoriden tifies such practitioners, hedis-

patches cease-and-desist lettersciting hispatents and asserting

trademark infringement.

Some doctors have expressed shock (orawe) about Matlock’s

methods, but hestayso

nmessagewith a rigor thatwould draw

approving nods from any politician or public relations executive.

Matlock knows why doctorswanttobein the designer vagina busi-

ness: It’s muchmorelucrative than standard OB/GYNor even

con-

ventionalcosmeticsurgery. In America, if you patent a unique

CHAPTER 11: THE BIG BUSINESS OF BEAUTY 205

techniquefor,say, cooking a fowl from the inside out, and get legal

trademarkprotection for ‘‘Inverse Cooking,’’ butsubsequently

learn thatothers are using your methods andcalling them by similar

names, you may eithe

ruse thelegalsystem to bar othersfromin-

fringing onyour patents andtrademarks or forfeitfurther financial

interest in your invention. If you don’t vigorously protect your in-

tellectualproperty, you

will lose it. So whenMatlock tells other

doctorsthat ifthey wanttouse his designer vagina techniques they

must pay him a license fee, he is merely defend-

ing his intellectualproperty.

And, of course, as Matlock reminds all who

caretolisten, his mi

ssion—andthatofhisclinic

and associates—is not to line anyone’s pockets

but ‘‘to empower women wi th knowledge,

choice, and alternatives.’’

2

I do not cite Dr. Matlock to suggest that

anything hedid might possibly be unlawful. As

far as I can tell, he has neither violated any ethi-

calcanonnor failed a patient in any way. I choose Matlock only

because, in hisown way, h

e is exemplar of a contemporary evolu-

tionary lobe of the colorfulNewWorld creature entrepreneurs

americanus, as much to be admired and maybe emulated as hisphil-

osophicalforebears Eli Whitney, Thomas Edison, andBill Gates.

Unti

lthe middle of thelast century,cosmeticsurgery was

mostly focused onhelping thetragically deformed. During World

War II,thousands of Japanese were horribly burned by thefire-

bombing of Tokyo andthen byatomicbombs dropped on Hir

o-

shima andNagasaki.AhandfulofJapanese surgeons and urologists

turned their attentionstorepairing and reconstructing their faces,

buttherewere too many victims and not enough trained surgeons.

Among the most tragicofthese v

ictimswas agroupofgrotesquely

disfigured adolescent girls dubbed theHiroshima Maidens; their

faces weredistorted by thick scar tissue andtheir hands werebent

into near-useless claws. In 1955, twenty-five of these young women

werebroughttoth

eUnited States, wherethey endured a succession

of cosmetic operationsthat helped restoretheir appearance to a

semblance of normalcy.

And, of course, as Matlock

reminds all who care to lis-

ten, his mission is not to line

anyone’s pockets but ‘‘to

empower women with

knowledge, choice, and

alternatives.’’