subject: Vitaminwater Revealed As Non-healthy Beverage By Coca-cola's Own Lawyer [print this page] Deceptive advertising has been around ever since advertising began. Companies or people are always trying to pass something off as something that it is not in the hope that you will perceive it to be what they say it is and ultimately increase their sales. The Coca Cola company is a master at deceptive advertising in the promotion of their unhealthy products. Finally something is being done about this illegal and unethical practice and hopefully more will follow. The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a lawsuit in Federal Court claiming that Coca Cola was deceptively advertising their line of Vitaminwaters as healthy products when in fact they are no better than regular soda.
Plus Coca Cola has come up with an almost novel defense of their advertising practices concerning these products: claiming "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage." Pretty amazing, huh? The name and their marketing practice both lead to convincing the public that this is a healthy product but they are trying to argue just the opposite.
From the beginning with the release of the original Vitaminwater Coca Cola has positioned the products as health-enhancing beverages, thereby deceiving millions of consumers. Even the name, Vitaminwater, implies that the beverage consists of just water and Vitamins. Couldn't be further from the truth. Vitaminwater does contain some inorganic, man-made vitamins but its main ingredients are sugar and water.
The label states that "one serving" of Vitaminwater contains only 13 grams of sugar per serving. The problem with that is there are 2 1/2 servings per bottle, so each Vitaminwater actually contains over 32 grams of liquid sugars. That's just one of the many "deceptive and unsubstantiated claims" pointed out by CSPI in its lawsuit against Coca-Cola. These sugars come in the form of crystalline Fructose, a processed sweetener linked with serious health problems. Why would anyone drink this stuff? Many of us read labels on all products and would never touch the stuff but the public is very gullible and only looks at the main words in the product name and how it is actually marketed.
If Coca Cola says it's a healthy drink then most people will believe it, they don't take the time to check things like this out for themselves. It long past time that we need new regulations concerning marketing of all products. I understand the need to put products in the best light to increase sales but the line must be drawn at deceptive practices that are used to mislead consumers and potentially cause them harm. More lawsuits like this will probably be needed before anything substantial is done to protect the public from deceptive marketing and advertising practices.
