Sayan's Revol[ve]ution

Marketers are learning. Sadly, they don’t think the rest of us are, and perhaps they’re right. Case in point: Glaceau Vitamin Water. Everything from its self-righteous slogan (“hydrate responsibly”) to its nutritional label is a bit of an insult to our consumer intelligence.  

A full bottle is actually 2.5 servings of what is mentioned on Vitamin Water’s nutritional information. This means that unless you really are planning to drink under half a bottle, this chic substitute for water is loading you up with 125 calories and 33 grams of sugar per bottle – that’s equivalent to a can of Coke (140 calories and 39 grams of sugar)¹.

Would you ever drink a can of Coke to hydrate yourself before or after a workout? Of course not! Drinks that are full of sugar only serve to dehydrate your body no matter how much water they contain², and therein lays my beef with Glaceau. I would have no problem with Vitamin Water if it was promoted like any other sugary beverage, but by selling it as a healthy, responsible, and tasty alternative for water, Glaceau is playing with the health of those who fall for this fallacy.  

Now I know you’re probably thinking, “what about the vitamins, they have to count for something right?” Well according to Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University, the only vitamin that we may not get enough of in a day is Vitamin E, which is a fat-soluble vitamin, along with vitamins A, D, and K. This means that they “can only enter the blood stream to carry out their function if dissolved in dietary fat, like that in a meal.” Plus there is no nutritional benefit in stocking up on vitamins. Vitamins like B and C, which are water-soluble, get immediately flushed out of our system if not needed. ¹

I can go on and on, but I also want to move on to my next point (check the links at the bottom for more shocking revelations concerning Vitamin Water’s “health” impacts).

As an aspiring marketer, though I do feel embarrassed by these tactics, I also wonder if consumers should share some of the blame. If we’re going to repeatedly fall for the same tricks, product launch after product launch, can we dare ask for more from our marketers? With the abundance of information available to us, are we excused from our responsibility to ourselves and our planet by simply pleading ignorance?  

Well I can tell you that ironically, it is because of those of us who saw past “The Dasani Deception,” that Coca-Cola has become increasingly desperate and attempted to pull this Vitamin Water ploy on us.  Dasani was Coca-Cola’s answer to its decreasing soda sales as consumers became more health conscious.  Now that consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious and saying no to plastic water bottles, they are trying to hold on to consumers leaving both these markets, by differentiating yet again. Sugary-beverage, then water, now again sugary beverage – we’ve gone full circle. I know I’ve been talking a lot about cyclicality, but this is not what I meant. Still with marketers always having the first-mover advantage, is it possible for consumers to think two steps ahead and take control of what we really want?

Sources:

1 – http://thesparkpost.com/cuff/vitaminwater-tells-its-customers-to-hydrate-responsibly-that.html

2 – http://healthy-eating.fitsugar.com/Truth-About-Vitamin-Water-541747

Both these sites expand on the misconception of Vitamin Water being healthy. The first link does a great job breaking down Vitamin Water’s ingrediants (highlights include a description of what Vitamin Water’s sweetner, crystalline fructose, really is and how it may harm our liver). The second link does the same, but in less detail.