Don't drink the water
Or at least, do drink the attractive-looking, ubiquitous, heavily advertised Vitamin Water, in all of its lovely flavours with dynamic names (Spark, Revive, Defence), if you want to give money to the Coca Cola company, who manufacture it but - oddly - don't make a very big fuss about the fact that they do on the drink's website. Presumably, this caginess is connected with the fact that they don't wish to put off the kind of trendy, health-conscious modern potential customers who think themselves a cut above the Coke-swilling masses and ordinarily despise the sort of monopolistic multinationals who have been accused of but categorically don't employ paramilitaries to intimidate union organisers in South American countries and deplete the water table of countries like India and increase the toxicity of the water supply with liberally applied pesticides.++++++++++++DISCLAIMER++++++++++++
I did not go to the bother of putting this blog entry up to increase traffic to my website by touching on yet another "contentious" issue, or indeed to congratulate myself that I am the first person to spot that Vitamin Water is made by the Coca Cola company. I live in London. Yesterday, one of our free newspapers, the kind that are thrust into the hands of commuters in order to sell advertising, was "wrapped" in a colourful advert for Vitamin Water, selling it as a refreshing but healthy elixir in a plastic bottle. I got sick of seeing it, left on train seats and strewn all over London's streets, so I thought I'd pass on the information above to anybody who doesn't look into this type of thing. I have no interest in increasing the traffic to my website. It carries no ads. It earns me no money. I only write the blog because I enjoy it. By using Google Analytics, I can monitor every single visitor and hit, and I've been hovering between 150 and 250 visitors a day for as long as I can remember; this only went up when I wrote about The Apprentice, and when Mark Kermode mentioned the website on Five Live. Then it went down again. I don't care. I do care about large companies buying smaller companies to make their shareholders happy by literally buying into something they consider good for their image. Clearly, in buying Glaceau, the company who manufacture Vitamin Water and other energy type drinks, Coca Cola thought they were doing this, but you'd be hard pushed to find that fact out on the Vitamin Water website. That is all.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 2:42 PM
55 Comments
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55 Comments:
Now didn't you previously protest your innocence at being a trolling website-traffic whore Mr.Collins?
And just check out the sugar content. Freaked me out
Rich
Nice colours though. If you had a shelf stacker with a bit of imagination you could have a really pretty display in your store.
I hear that Coca Cola invented homoeopathy.
Edd, that is a serious accusation and I resent it. Please withdraw it, or come up with some proof. I keep seeing ads for this product and put this alert up as a public service for anyone that cares.
The fluoride thread has been very busy - however my traffic has not increased especially since posting it. But then, I don't care if it does. What do I get out it?
Come on.
Not such a serious accusation really, and surely meant more in humour anyway?
Colin
Rainwater is clearly the way forward. It's free, there's an inexhaustible supply and, thanks to the wonders of evaporation, any chemical nasties you may not want to consume are left behind. Also, since the 70s and 80s, there's been a dramatic reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions, so it's much less acidic. We should all invest in water butts.
As there are no adverts on this website and like me, Andrew does his blog principally for fun and to amuse or interest anyone who is interested, I have to agree that accusations of him trying to attract traffic to his site and unfounded, ridiculous and offensive.
It is a bit sad that the world has got to a place where people are so cynical that they think it's impossible for someone to do something they like or believe in without hope of monetary or other reward.
Like Eric Morecambe, I may take the mickey out of my Ernie Wise, but if anyone else does it there will be Hell to pay!
It is a serious accusation, Colin. Or, it is to me. Why would I wish to increase traffic to my blog by posting about things that might increase my traffic? The only time my traffic has increased significantly is when I've written about The Apprentice, which I've stopped doing. What a fool I must be! I could have increased traffic by carrying on and ... and what? More people would read my free blog. I could bathe in champagne.
Call me a whore, and you'd better have something to back that up with. I'm not here to be insulted, even if it is does in "humour". There's nothing humorous about being called a whore.
When I am being a whore, I usually say so. But a whore who doesn't get paid is a useless whore.
So we're not supposed to drink it because it's made by (gasp!) a multinational?
I'm having flashbacks to my student union in the 1980s!
John
Tropicana fruit juices is owned by Pepsi which came as a surprise to me when I found out. Pretty cynical marketing of Vitamin Water, much back-slapping when they come up with that one I bet. Also these energy drinks, like Monster and Full Throttle, that look designed to appeal to teenagers worry me.
I'm not sure why you're apparently getting defensive about Edd's comment. It's not a serious accusation. It's either a comical or moronic one considering how, as Herring pointed out, there are, in fact, no ads. Not to mention that the last two posts are consistent with what little I know about your views and politics. It's just a drive-by comment, no need to get upset about those. It's not as if a similar comment on the last post got any traction.
"But a whore who doesn't get paid is a useless whore."
Isn't a whore who doesnt get paid just a woman? So you're calling all women "useless whores" are you?
That's awful Andrew. Despite the fact that I'm deliberately twisting your words, and despite all evidence to the contrary, I think you should be ashamed and sacked from the BBC. (As soon as you're next working for them)
I am both interested and amused by this blog post
I like stories about water. You don't get enough of them nowadays, mainly because of our celebrity obsessed media. Unless the water is showing it's vagina whilst getting out of a car at a film premier, they ain't interested.
(Please ignore the trolls Andrew! ...leave it mate, he's not worth it! etc...)
Maybe the next podcast could be 'unsponsored' by Vitamin Water- if sponsorship is designed to increase the sales of a particular product, 'unsponsoring' something would be designed to raise awareness and decrease the sales of some piece of corporate numbness like this.
It just goes to show, you can't be too careful...
I try to increase traffic to this site by telling my friends about it. I hope that's allowed. If they don't visit once that's their lookout.
They obviously haven't launched it in Kent yet I'm still on the Roninsons, but I'm glad you said it's made by Coke, I shall avoid it. Is this to try to regain ground after the desani (sic) water debacle do you think? I bet it's tap water anyway
Simon in Sevenoaks (worried about upsetting Andrew)
I'm surprised they don't give away a little transparent plastic spoon with it.
I went through a phase of drinking that water. Last week. Well, I had one. I was thirsty and got sucked in by the colours. Then subsequently sucked the colours in.
I was somewhat startled by the amount of stuff in it, so I thought I'd try and resist in future. So far, so good. It seems to be advertised everywhere, and calling it 'Vitamin Water' makes me a bit suspicious... it's like calling burgers 'McHealthy goodstuffs' or summat...
Now, where's that bottle of Shiraz...
Passing off soft drinks as health tonics is hardly a new thing for the Coca Cola Company - isn't that exactly where they started?
the real troll was edd accusing you of being a troll that is like new labour edd is a new troll, see the irony? a troll going around accusing non trolls of being trolls and saying Im not a troll so many times people start to beleive the hype... maybe we are trolls and trolls are not trolls hmmm
Had a delicious hoi-sin duck wrap at Pret today (realising I was basically eating a Macdonalds, who own the chain).
But I don't really care about Coke owning these horrid looking flavoured waters. They'd be horrid whoever owned the company.
As a side note, I caved in to buying a deodorant with more active ingredients than just coriander seed today. I felt I was letting the spirit of Collings down.
Why the Vitamin water in particular then? Why not a picture of a can of coke and a message saying 'Please don't buy from Coca Cola. They are a bunch of twats who'll be first against the wall come the revolution'.
Blimey, you're all jumping down my throat. I bothered to point out that lovely Vitamin Water is secretly made by Coca Cola because the words Coca and Cola are deliberately absent from the product's website. I thought I was doing a public service. Fair enough, if you're not into futile gestures like I am, but don't have a go. I'm trying to spread information. If you drink Coca Cola and don't care about these things, fine, drink Vitamin Water. Fill a swimming pool with it. (So, to answer your question, Mike, I didn't put a picture of Coca Cola on my blog because Coca Cola is quite clearly made by Coca Cola. But you knew that.)
Alright, some of you are jumping down my throat, before anybody jumps down my throat for generalising.
...and if you want to criticize Coke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Coca-Cola
Oh my goodness, 1000% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C? I thought that was bad for you?
It is the colours isn't it. People will buy it because it looks pretty. It's depressing. (Interestingly though the vitamins go in the ingredients list but not the E numbers.)
They've certainly hidden their Coke links well, I appreciate the heads up.
I was nearly tempted into buying a bottle of Vitamin Water a few weeks ago, but decided against. It wasn't the Coca-Cola thing that put me off - it was the fact that the so-called "orange" flavour didn't include oranges among the list of ingredients.
They describe it as "still orange flavour spring water drink" but to me "orange flavour" strongly suggests "contains orange juice". Here it means "mimics the flavour of oranges by use of citric acid from an unspecified source which may not be oranges at all".
If you don't believe me, look at the ingredients label (which they handily make available on their website). You'll see that it is mostly just water and two types of sugar ("fructose" and "sugar"). One 500ml bottle contains 26% of an adult's "guideline daily amount" of sugar. That sounds like quite a lot of sugar to me.
For what it's worth, Pret aren't owned by McDonalds - they had a one-third stake, but sold it last year.
I've just check their site (http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/brands/product_list_a.html)
Coca-Cola don't own ANY oat milk brands, so you're good to go, Andrew.
I 'do' a blog that needs hits to square the ads. And you get hits through content that people want to read. Trolling your own site just pisses people off.
AC is writing about stuff that he believes in, with the knowing smirk that it will rile people - and more power to him for that. He generated debate on the flouride thread and it was fun to watch.
Mmmm... delicious fluoride.
Everyone seems to be getting a bit precious about someone posting free content about something they happens to think. That's the point of blogging, but there's no need to be nasty about it!
For my part, I agree with your stance, Collins, but if I fact-checked every item I bought at my local Best-In, I'd need a team of researchers. So I'll eat any old shit. I hate to think what goes into my beloved Bernard Matthews chicken kievs.
*puts apple on Collins's desk*
Please continue with the futile gestures.
One could consider our whole existence is basically a futile gesture.
So giving up the futile gestures would be, well, giving up.
And making the whole things maybe even more futile.
Or maybe, what I'm trying to say is futile, altruistic, non-profit-making, artistic gestures are the things which distinguish us (i hope) from other animals. So although futile, important.
Please carry on!
Matt
Incidentally, I think this brand "vitamin water" has been available here in Japan a while. I've never fancied it much. I sometimes drink pocari sweat though.
Coca-cola even sell green tea here (though at least they do put their name subtly on the packaging)
I have added a DISCLAIMER above, which you can read.
When I was in the navy the Captain would finish important pronouncements over the Tannoy (R) - other PA systems are available - with "That is all".
Whoever coined the phrase "coca-Colonisation" was on the money. Can they be stopped? No? Thought not... Thanks for sharing though.
With the names and colours of these things, they look like power-ups in a computer role-playing game. Perhaps that's what encouraged the trolling discussion . . .
Swineshead:
"So I'll eat any old shit. I hate to think what goes into my beloved Bernard Matthews chicken kievs."
possibly answered yr own question there.
(not claiming any moral high ground by the way. i'll eat almost anything)
On an entirely unrelated note to all the discussion that has clearly exploded as a result of this post, I'd just like to say that I am extremely proud that I get the same number of daily hits as you on my little cake blog. I always think of your blog as far more widely read and important than mine - so thanks for mentioning your google analytics - it's made my day!
(Excerpt from Disclaimer..)
"I carries no ads."
Is that a bit of Northamptonese slipping in there Andrew? :)
Back on topic, i find the concept of "vitamin water" bloody stupid when even a half-thought through diet will give you most of what you need.
"Oh my goodness, 1000% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C? I thought that was bad for you?
"
@Tina: About 10 years ago accidentally consumed 200% Vit. C in some nourishment drink milkshake thing and gave me a severe headache (i'd drink two at a time).
Unfortunatley i only linked the two after taking these for a couple of weeks.
You should only take Vitamins in *supplemental* quantities. That said not all Vitamins taken over the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) cause ill effects.
John, I yearn for the days of your student union in the 1980s. When people, including students, cared, and Labour stood for something.
Caked Crusader, I'm glad you get as many visitors as me. I do not think of myself as important, it's just that you people sometimes make me feel as if what I think matters more than it actually does.
Patrick, you got a headache from some nourishment shake and you blame it on the Vitamin C? What else was in it? I'd be surprised if Vitamin C gave you a headache.
Also, RDAs are woefully old and out of date. When it comes to supplements, most decent ones go way over the RDA (and clearly state this on the tin). Still, best not to drink a drink called Vitamin Water for your vitamins, when, as well as vitamins, it also contains crystalline fructose, caffeine, gum Arabic, natural flavor, electrolytes, gum ester, zinc picolinate and caramel color. Try an orange.
Your original article is/was rubbish. It had pretensions to political activism - "Don't drink this because of Columbia/Guatemala/India". The disclaimer is a far better read. Far more honest that you are pissed off at seeing the empty bottles everywhere. There are many native people in South America and India taking CC to the courts there and if they ask for our support we can give it then.
You are not some deep political thinker who 'fights the power', you write best about the small things and how they make you feel. Your previous posts on comedy in the nineties and your infatuation with the Mitford sisters are a joy to read, straight from the heart. The post on fluoridation was utter pablum. You did bugger all reading on fluoride in water, your grasp of basic chemistry is non-existant and you used that great shibboleth 'just don't know' about fluoride - yes we do. We know many communities around the world that fluoride occurs in the water naturally. You mention a chemical compound that is not 'natural', so what. Mercury is natural but I'm not going to go swimming in it. Certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation will give you skin cancer but it doesn't stop people sunbathing. 'But it's radiation! Radiation is dangerous!' I can imagine you writing.
This is your blog and you can write what you want but don't be surprised when people jump down your throat when you write utter shite.
You are a wonderfully warm writer and I look forward to your dispatches from Glasto. But you are not James Lovelock or John Pilger.
Crystalline fructose (Granulated sugar), caffeine (you drink coffee?), gum Arabic (we've been using it since before jesus), natural flavor (fruit extract I imagine), electrolytes ( a bit of salt), gum ester (an extract from pine trees), zinc picolinate (a transport mechanism to get essential zinc into our system) and caramel color (some burnt sugar).
Your orange could have been grown in contaminated groundwater. We 'just don't know';-)
Thank you for your full and frank contribution, Mike. If I may . . .
"Your original article is/was rubbish."
Your opinion. You are entitled to it.
"It had pretensions to political activism - "Don't drink this because of Columbia/Guatemala/India". The disclaimer is a far better read."
Phew. I've done something right!
"Far more honest that you are pissed off at seeing the empty bottles everywhere."
I didn't mention empty bottles. I would be pissed off by seeing them everywhere, but I haven't seen them everywhere. I was referring to the discarded free newspapers.
"There are many native people in South America and India taking CC to the courts there and if they ask for our support we can give it then."
You're a very formal man.
"You are not some deep political thinker who 'fights the power' ..."
You judge me harshly. I think very deeply. Most of the political things I think I do not write about here. I also refer very frankly to making "futile gestures" - boycotting Starbucks etc. I don't see anything wrong in making such futile gestures. You have to start somewhere. Of, of course, you could do nothing at all, ever.
"... you write best about the small things and how they make you feel."
Again, thank you. But I'm afraid I do sometimes think about big things. I am a grown up.
"Your previous posts on comedy in the nineties and your infatuation with the Mitford sisters are a joy to read, straight from the heart."
I can promise you that all my posts are straight from the heart.
"The post on fluoridation was utter pablum. You did bugger all reading on fluoride in water, your grasp of basic chemistry is non-existant and you used that great shibboleth 'just don't know' about fluoride - yes we do."
Do I have to say it again? I merely ask for the choice to have fluoride or not. That is all I ever asked, and all I ask now. I have done a lot of reading on fluoride. Maybe you have done more. You are, in that sense, better than me, so please enjoy the superiority you have over me in this area.
"We know many communities around the world that fluoride occurs in the water naturally. You mention a chemical compound that is not 'natural', so what. Mercury is natural but I'm not going to go swimming in it. Certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation will give you skin cancer but it doesn't stop people sunbathing. 'But it's radiation! Radiation is dangerous!' I can imagine you writing."
Try to criticise me for what I writer rather than what you imagine I write.
"This is your blog and you can write what you want but don't be surprised when people jump down your throat when you write utter shite."
Utter shite? You giveth and you taketh away.
"You are a wonderfully warm writer and I look forward to your dispatches from Glasto. But you are not James Lovelock or John Pilger."
Agreed, I am not James Lovelock or John Pilger. Perhaps you could supply a list of subjects it's OK for me to write about in future. Or, I could just email you my blog posts first and you could sign them off?
You clearly come from a science background and what really irks you is that - occasionally - I dare to discuss, from a layman's position, my feelings about issues that concern me. You're like the minority who continually berate me on the Word forums for daring to stray from subjects I am allowed to write about, namely, telly, films and bands. (You say I'm allowed to speak about the Mitford Sisters. I'm grateful - many think that is outside my remit too. I wish I'd been at that meeting.) I won't apologise for being interested in other things, or writing about them.
You do realise that I could easily have not published your comment, even though it accused me of many bad things and told me I had written "utter shite", which is hardly a constructive criticism. But I have published it, in the spirit of debate.
Sorry, just seen your post about the ingredients in Vitamin Water, Mike. You are a scientist. My point was simply that vitamins in a sugary drink is probably not the best carrier in the world. You're right, of course, the orange may not be perfect, but it's a lot more natural than a thing made in a factory - even you must admit that. But well done on the pomposity.
You're welcome to your opinions, obviously, Mike, but don't you think you're being a little harsh on someone who writes a free blog about whatever he happens to be thinking about, for people who (mostly) appreciate whatever it is he has to say?
We all disagree with Andrew sometimes but thats why we end up having interesting debates like the fluoride one. He isn't writing for a newspaper here. I doubt he puts a huge amount of thought into writing every little piece he puts up here. And why should he? Sometimes it's a long and affectionate piece about something he loves, and other times it's a short piece of information or an opinion, which we feel welcome to comment on.
Your aggressive stance just really isn't in the spirit of this blog or these comments. Andrew is a big boy and he can certainly take it, but it feels pretty rude to me.
"the orange may not be perfect, but it's a lot more natural than a thing made in a factory"
Natural does not automatically mean good, or better. You seem to imagine that anything man made is bad or at least a dodgy substitute for something natural.
"Crystalline fructose (Granulated sugar)"
Actually, fructose is one of a number of sugars that make up "granulated sugar". Usually, fructose used by the food industry comes from high fructose corn syrup.
Just thought I'd add to the pedantry...
The main problem with the "natural" vs "un-natural" debate is that, most of the crap that goes into processed foods is essentially "natural", in that, a scientist hasn't created it from scratch using chemicals from the shelf. The ingredients come from natural sources but the product is completely un-natural. How often do you find caffeine in water, for example.
FYI: you really shouldn't mess caffeine; we use it in our lab all the time to prevent normal cell cycle arrest. Too much caffeine prevents cells from arresting to allow DNA to be repaired properly. Wont stop me drinking coffee though...
The corn syrup is more an american blight. I think it's mostly sugar beet derived in the UK.
High Fructose Corn Syrup! You'll only make scare Andrew more ;-)
Not a scientist. I didn't make it to A level. Rudeness and Pomposity? Double PhD.
But I do think that to state, in effect that "if A is 'more' natural than B it is better" is a fundamental falsehood and Andrews whole scientific world view is based on this falsehood (eg homeopathy vs medicine) but I should wait for Richard to correct this view in the podcasts.
"Certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation will give you skin cancer but it doesn't stop people sunbathing. 'But it's radiation! Radiation is dangerous!' I can imagine you writing."
Sorry, but Mike, you've really pissed me off with you're pseudo-scientific accusations!
Look, you're right, some radiation is completely harmless. Others, such as UV-A, UV-B, UV-C, gamma, alpha and the like are EXTREMELY dangerous. What's your point? Sunbathing IS dangerous! I work in a DNA repair lab for Cancer Research UK so I can tell you all about the damage UV can do to your body.
And, your right. Fluoride does occur naturally in fresh water at 0.3 parts per million compared with up to 1.2 ppm used by US water fluorination plants.
Though I don't agree 100% with everything Andrew believes regarding water fluorination, I agree 100% that we should have to right to choose whether we take this crap into our bodies or not.
Hi Tom.
Pseudo-scientific? The first sentence you quote is a statement of fact. The second, I would remove. Alpha radiation is not electromagnetic, but as a biologist I can understand you see anything causing cell damage as radiation and not differentiate. It's an implicit attempt to link Natural/Safe/Dangerous at certain levels.
Fluoride occurs naturally at varying rates around the world, some higher than the 0.7-1.2 range that the US uses, some lower. About 200,000 Americans have [natural] drinking water with fluoride concentrations at or above the EPA's limit of 4 ppm, and 1.4 million have water with levels between 2 and 3.9 ppm.
The public policy decision should be based on sound evidence not at an 'it's not natural, it's got chemicals in it' level of debate. The whole individual choice vs state mandated health policy is tortuous enough without Andrew's pseudo/anti-science.
Mike, will you please stop calling me "anti-science". It's a preposterous generalisation. I am pro-caution in many matters, that's all, and pro-open mindedness in others. If you will insist on putting me in a box it's very hard for me to look up your scientific superiority with kindness and respect. I really mean it - pack it in, or phrase your comments more carefully.
I'm another person who enjoys the wide range of topics & discussions here. As someone who has regularly boycotted products & companies for a number of causes since I was a student, I'm always interested to hear about these ethical issues; several times this blog has given me a chance to read up further on things I had missed elsewhere so I could decide for myself (such as with the Tom's of Maine sellout entry, with which I entirely agreed).
I'm vegan, so I'm used to questioning what I eat & drink and appearing different when I'm out. People get quite confrontational with me at times about that (even when it's them who've asked me why I've made that choice & I've answered politely & rationally!). It's hard when other people question one's ethics & motivation for doing something, especially when they make (often wrong) assumptions. We all have the chance to choose what's important to us & be permitted to stick by our principles - every little helps.
I think that, at times, some people seem to forget that this is Andrew's blog, so he chooses what topics he wishes to cover & doesn't have to apologise to us. We are his visitors and can either join in a reasoned debate or just skip over topics we don't enjoy. It's a shame to bait him further than the usual friendly banter & try to read in all manner of hidden meaning to what seemed to be a pretty straightforward post or two.
Oh, & there are some ethical cola companies out there, such as Ubuntu, for those who don't want to give the Coca Cola Co their money ...
I greatly enjoy Andrew's blog but this thread does have a bit of a bitter edge to it which is a shame.
Andrew you are brilliant, please don't be deterred to bring things to our attention - because you are so astute and on the right wavelength that I barely bother to read newpapers anymore - just come straight here and to your podcast. This probably makes me crazy for caring more about Vitamin Water than the chaos in Iran but well it's not that, it's more complicated than that.
Not a great money maker for you so what can I say other than thank you. And have some sweeties on me.
Good for you Andrew..i think most people who have read one or two of your blogs realise you are an honest chap.
I might not agree with everything you say(homeopathy, flouride, love of the Mitford sisters) but to my eyes you are nothing if not principled.
Coca Cola are see you enn tees.
It's not exactly a secret Mr Collings, it says "Product of the Coca Cola Company" on the bottle.
Gdog
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