14-year-old science students discover corporate advert lies!
Two New Zealand schoolgirls' school science
experiment found that their ready-to-drink Ribena contained almost no trace of
vitamin C - unlike the claims.
Students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo tested the blackcurrant cordial against rival brands to test their hypothesis that cheaper brands were less healthy. Instead, their tests found that the Ribena contained a tiny amount of vitamin C, while another brand’s orange juice drink contained almost four times more.
“We thought we were doing it wrong. We thought we must have made a mistake,” Anna told New Zealand’s Weekend Herald. The girls were both 14 and students at Pakuranga College in Auckland when they did the experiment in 2004.
When the commerce commission investigated, it found that although blackcurrants have more vitamin C than oranges, the same was not true of Ribena. It also said ready-to-drink Ribena contained no detectable level of vitamin C.
GSK is in court in Auckland today facing 15 charges relating to misleading advertising, risking fines of up to $2.16 million.
The girls should get a bounty for turning up the lies.
Posted: Tue - March 27, 2007 at 06:32 AM