Is "vitaminwater" a healthy beverage? The Center for Science in the Public Interest has sued Coca-Cola, which makes the line of beverages, for falsely marketing them as healthy.
Coca-Cola's response? "No consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."
That's funny, because I'm pretty sure the whole marketing strategy is to suggest that the beverages are healthy. CSPI notes that the brand name itself suggests that the beverage consists of nothing but vitamins and water, when it would be far more accurate to say that it consists of sugar and water, with about a penny's worth of vitamins added. And of course some artificial coloring.
And then there are the "flavors," which are identified with healthful words such as "defense," "essential," and "endurance."
Author John Robbins asks on Huffington Post, is it "okay for a corporation to lie about its products, as long as they can then turn around and claim that no one actually believes their lies?"
And, if so, how much of what surrounds us everyday are we expected to know is not what it appears to be?