Since the beginning, Coca-Cola has advertised its Vitaminwater products as a gateway to an “active lifestyle”, and the notion seemed to have to been well received by our increasingly health-conscious society. I mean, it’s hard to go wrong with a a bottle of flavoured water with added vitamins. It wasn’t until 2009, when non-profit group The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola on the grounds that the company made unwarranted health claims in its continuous effort to advertise the Vitaminwater as a healthy beverage. In fact, each bottle of Vitamin water contains 33 grams of sugar, which is online a few grams shy from what is found in a bottle of Coke. Health experts have gone on to suggest that Vitaminwater’s potential to promote obesity and other health problems far outweighed the limited benefits of the added synthesized vitamins. In response to the lawsuit, a representative from Coca-Cola responded by saying, “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”
It’s become apparent that Vitaminwater was simply Coca-Cola’s way of disguising its new line of soft drinks as a healthy nutritious beverage by focusing solely on its benefits. What’s more outrageous is that the company believes that its marketing ploy can be justified by saying that they didn’t expect anyone to fall for their obvious deception. Personally, I have grown to become skeptical towards every ‘too-good-to-be-true’ claim made by companies attempting to sell us their products, and I believe that every consumer should be equipped with the same degree of skepticism. It is still unethical to stretch the facts so far as to distort and mask the truth behind a product’s true nature. But it appears that despite the lawsuit, Coca-Cola has chosen to continued to advertise Vitaminwater as a nutritious beverage:
An Vitaminwater ad poster banned by the British Advertising Standards Authority for its use of the word ‘nutritious’ in 2010
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12218673
http://healthy-eating.fitsugar.com/Truth-About-Vitamin-Water-541747
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/the-dark-side-of-vitaminw_b_669716.html?ref=twitter