Vitamin Water, with its various flavors such as defense, rescue, energy, and endurance, is clearly intending to portray itself as a healthy beverage. Interestingly, when Coca-Cola was accused for false advertising, the company retaliated by claiming that “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitamin Water was a healthy beverage“. Well, since Vitamin Water defines itself as “a great-tasting, active lifestyle hydrating beverage packed with vitamins and minerals to help get you through your day, it is no surprise that many consumers assumed that Vitamin Water is a “healthy” beverage.

Though there nutritional information is listed on every bottle, the serving size can be quite misleading. For example, the label shows that 1 serving size includes 13g of sugar. However, each bottle is actually 2.5 servings which results in a total of around 32g of sugar. Furthermore, the recommended dose is one or two bottles per day for adults, as needed. That could potentially total up to over  60g of sugar!

Relating back to the topic of ethics, there is nothing wrong with selling a drink with such high sugar content. For example, consumers know about Coca-Cola’s high sugar content and understand the health risks that may result from drinking too much of that beverage. In contrast, Vitamin Water was advertised in a way that promoted itself as a healthy alternative to pop drinks while it essentially contained as much sugar as Coca-Cola.

While consumers are becoming increasingly health concious, it makes sense for beverage companies to produce health orientated products. However, it does not give them a reason to use health as a marketing strategy if their product does not qualify as being healthy. If the product is truly beneficial to its consumers’ well-being, it is acceptable to promote its benefits to attract consumers. However, in the case of Vitamin Water, I feel it is unethical for the company to position their brand as “healthy and nutritional” while taking attention away from the drink’s high sugar content which may lead to potential health risks such as obesity.