VitaminWater:
Appearance v. Reality
Interview with Kari Reed
Introduction
We selected Kari Reed as an "expert" in our field due to her education and experience related to our topic: VitaminWater. She is a 26-year-old woman with her Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design and Marketing from the Art Institute of Philadelphia. She is currently attending Eastern University pursuing a Masters in Urban Studies and Art Transformations. For a living, Kari designs advertisements of all sorts for businesses, so she has the critical eye and background knowledge necessary to give Abby and I some insight into Coca-Cola's marketing campaign. On a more personal level, Kari is an active member of the public who takes her role in the food industry seriously. While she is able to navigate around marketing campaigns, she is also an avid label reader and documentary watcher. In particular, she has become so immersed in learning more about factory farms, surprising ingredients, and marketing ploys that she has exercised the eating habits of a vegetarian for quite a number of years. Abby and I were happy to receive a positive response from Kari about interviewing her and she specifically stated that she was "happy to help and never turns down an oppportunity to step up on her soap box!" Within the following four videos, which were recorded on April 5, 2011, it is our hope that the audience will walk away having learned something that they did not know before viewing the videos. In our opinion, it would be unlikely that anyone could remember all the quote-worthy statements that Kari offers, yet there are wonderful messages traced throughout all four videos. Take the following categories for instance: marketing ploys, crystalline fructose, the jellybean rule, visual input, public organizations, food industries, company integrity, public ignorance, and responsibility. If our research impacts 1 person it will be well worth the effort!
Video 1
“People seem to ignore the reality of a product because of the marketing or because of, you know, how it looked.”
“How do you make someone buy something or get around you know, the bad parts of a product of make them less obvious, so people would buy them?”
“Vitaminwater is kind of marketed very obviously as something that is good for you.”
“It’s marketed as a health food drink. Their slogans include ‘vitamins plus water, all you need,’ or ‘vitamins plus water, it’s in your hand.”
“On the label on the back, you actually see that it [Vitaminwater] has a gargantuan amount of sugar and calories, almost the equivalent to a soda.”
“People claim that it [the sugar] led to the obesity problem in America.”
Jellybean Rule: “You can’t take something, a product, that is in essence unhealthy, and inject it with something that is not bad for you and then call it health food.”
“Everything you need to know is on the label.”
“Crystalline Fructose is about 98% Fructose and then its chemically compounded that last two percent with about a milligram of arsenic, some heavy metal compounds, lead and chloride.”
“It, this chemical [Crystalline Fructose], has actually been linked in a lot of studies to causing liver cirrhosis and liver failure.”
“Fructose must be metabolized in your liver. There’s no other cells in your body that can handle the chemical compounds that make it up.”
“How do you make someone buy something or get around you know, the bad parts of a product of make them less obvious, so people would buy them?”
“Vitaminwater is kind of marketed very obviously as something that is good for you.”
“It’s marketed as a health food drink. Their slogans include ‘vitamins plus water, all you need,’ or ‘vitamins plus water, it’s in your hand.”
“On the label on the back, you actually see that it [Vitaminwater] has a gargantuan amount of sugar and calories, almost the equivalent to a soda.”
“People claim that it [the sugar] led to the obesity problem in America.”
Jellybean Rule: “You can’t take something, a product, that is in essence unhealthy, and inject it with something that is not bad for you and then call it health food.”
“Everything you need to know is on the label.”
“Crystalline Fructose is about 98% Fructose and then its chemically compounded that last two percent with about a milligram of arsenic, some heavy metal compounds, lead and chloride.”
“It, this chemical [Crystalline Fructose], has actually been linked in a lot of studies to causing liver cirrhosis and liver failure.”
“Fructose must be metabolized in your liver. There’s no other cells in your body that can handle the chemical compounds that make it up.”
Video 2
“[CSPI’s] overall purpose is to inform the public of scientific and nutritional research that would benefit them and to advocate government agencies that do the same that follow that kind of model.”
L: “There was a discrepancy between are they working for the public or are they working to kind of grow their own name?”
K: “At the end of the day, just like the food industry, CSPI is an organization that needs funding, they need people to know about them in order to function.”
L: “Coke says, ‘No consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking VitaminWater was a healthy beverage.’ Do they have any justification in saying that in your opinion?
K: “No, not at all. From a marketing perspective, VitaminWater as a product was brilliant, seriously, just brilliant. It’s a great marketing campaign. It did what it was supposed to do, everything from their name, to their slogans, to the design on the bottle , to the celebrities, who were mostly sports stars that they had doing commercials. ‘No person could be reasonably misled is a little false because the marketing team for Coca-Cola, or whoever developed the marketing campaign for VitaminWater their entire job was to reasonably mislead people into buying VitaminWater. Now whether, they set out with the intention of deceiving them nutritionally, I don’t know I wasn’t part of that marketing team…that was the point, the point was to make people buy it and they did that. So they succeeded on one hand, just ethically it was a little shady. You can’t really downplay the power of marketing. We know…that people make somewhere around 85% of their decisions based on visual imput.”
“Coca-Cola didn’t do anything in marketing that’s outside of the norm. They played to people’s visual interests. And the high stakes of belief that people put into marketing without even realizing it.”
“They marketed this beverage like it was something good for you, like it was something you could ingest and it would increase your physical prowess, so to speak. Statistically they succeeded, I mean VitaminWater in the last year has come to rival beverages like Gatorade, you know from a marketing perspective. VitaminWater was selling just as much if not more than Gatorade and it became their biggest competition.”
“Just their general visual imput if you look at the styling of their commercials and the styling of their bottles, they give off this very organic feel almost. If you were to take a bottle into say Whole Foods…the visual styling of the bottle and their graphics fits very well into what has become the organic food market everything from…the fonts that they use to the wording on the bottles. “
“If you look at VitaminWater as a product, everything that was associated with it, everything from the commercials, to like I said the style and design to the colors that they used, to the charity events that they supported were all health related. Everything that was associated with them was health related, except for that one inch by one inch square on the back that actually told you what was in it…It’s basically water and sugar and food coloring, and about a penny’s worth of water-soluble vitamins, which is not a lot, when you consider it’s a 20 oz. bottle you’re buying, and to make it even worse the bottles are actually a double serving.”
L: “There was a discrepancy between are they working for the public or are they working to kind of grow their own name?”
K: “At the end of the day, just like the food industry, CSPI is an organization that needs funding, they need people to know about them in order to function.”
L: “Coke says, ‘No consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking VitaminWater was a healthy beverage.’ Do they have any justification in saying that in your opinion?
K: “No, not at all. From a marketing perspective, VitaminWater as a product was brilliant, seriously, just brilliant. It’s a great marketing campaign. It did what it was supposed to do, everything from their name, to their slogans, to the design on the bottle , to the celebrities, who were mostly sports stars that they had doing commercials. ‘No person could be reasonably misled is a little false because the marketing team for Coca-Cola, or whoever developed the marketing campaign for VitaminWater their entire job was to reasonably mislead people into buying VitaminWater. Now whether, they set out with the intention of deceiving them nutritionally, I don’t know I wasn’t part of that marketing team…that was the point, the point was to make people buy it and they did that. So they succeeded on one hand, just ethically it was a little shady. You can’t really downplay the power of marketing. We know…that people make somewhere around 85% of their decisions based on visual imput.”
“Coca-Cola didn’t do anything in marketing that’s outside of the norm. They played to people’s visual interests. And the high stakes of belief that people put into marketing without even realizing it.”
“They marketed this beverage like it was something good for you, like it was something you could ingest and it would increase your physical prowess, so to speak. Statistically they succeeded, I mean VitaminWater in the last year has come to rival beverages like Gatorade, you know from a marketing perspective. VitaminWater was selling just as much if not more than Gatorade and it became their biggest competition.”
“Just their general visual imput if you look at the styling of their commercials and the styling of their bottles, they give off this very organic feel almost. If you were to take a bottle into say Whole Foods…the visual styling of the bottle and their graphics fits very well into what has become the organic food market everything from…the fonts that they use to the wording on the bottles. “
“If you look at VitaminWater as a product, everything that was associated with it, everything from the commercials, to like I said the style and design to the colors that they used, to the charity events that they supported were all health related. Everything that was associated with them was health related, except for that one inch by one inch square on the back that actually told you what was in it…It’s basically water and sugar and food coloring, and about a penny’s worth of water-soluble vitamins, which is not a lot, when you consider it’s a 20 oz. bottle you’re buying, and to make it even worse the bottles are actually a double serving.”
Video 3
“One of the points that CSPI has made in their lawsuit is that the amount of ‘nutritionally’ beneficial elements that are in VitaminWater are like multi-times outweighed by the amount of sugar and calories in the same drink.”
“[Coca-Cola is] making you associate that I am going to get X benefit if I drink this bottle of VitaminWater. And then, on a base level, you associate that with that color and they pretty much (pause) they were pretty right on as far as the colors they picked for the words that they used for each bottle along with the flavors. So, if you were to take a spread of VitaminWater, which is very interesting, you have like… [different colors and] ‘wake up’ words. [Coca-Cola] didn’t use any colors like (pause) all of their colors were kind muted a little bit. Like if you look at them, they weren’t neon because we associate neon colors on a subconscious level with things that aren’t real. So, we know from marketing from the food industry that unless it’s candy or something targeted for kids, we don’t use neon colors because on a subconscious level we think that that’s fake. So, they muted down all of their colors so that all of the colors that they use are these kind of like (pause) they are not all natural colors because they use like purple and orange and that kind of thing. But they took them down a few tones, so that they are all a little washed out. They still want you to associate the drink with water. So, because they want you to believe that a certain content of the drink is water and they don’t want you to think that it is unnatural, they use these muted colors in combination with the fact that they hook them with the colors with the words with the flavors.”
“In [Coke’s] defense, they are not the only organization in the food industry who [markets intentionally to be successful]. They just happen to be under fire right now.”
“I think that the food industry is able to make the statements that they make and do the things that they do, not unlike what Coke has done with VitaminWater, because the public has become complacent with being misinformed. So, I think it’s almost like a never-ending cycle of we allow organizations to have a lack of integrity because we are misinformed, and it just spirals.”
“This is a really good opportunity for the public to step forward and say, OK, what else (pause) A) How did a company think this was OK? B) How did we let this happen? C) What else in our lives or what other organizations are we misinformed about? And, which other ones are being a little less honest than they should?”
“[Coca-Cola is] making you associate that I am going to get X benefit if I drink this bottle of VitaminWater. And then, on a base level, you associate that with that color and they pretty much (pause) they were pretty right on as far as the colors they picked for the words that they used for each bottle along with the flavors. So, if you were to take a spread of VitaminWater, which is very interesting, you have like… [different colors and] ‘wake up’ words. [Coca-Cola] didn’t use any colors like (pause) all of their colors were kind muted a little bit. Like if you look at them, they weren’t neon because we associate neon colors on a subconscious level with things that aren’t real. So, we know from marketing from the food industry that unless it’s candy or something targeted for kids, we don’t use neon colors because on a subconscious level we think that that’s fake. So, they muted down all of their colors so that all of the colors that they use are these kind of like (pause) they are not all natural colors because they use like purple and orange and that kind of thing. But they took them down a few tones, so that they are all a little washed out. They still want you to associate the drink with water. So, because they want you to believe that a certain content of the drink is water and they don’t want you to think that it is unnatural, they use these muted colors in combination with the fact that they hook them with the colors with the words with the flavors.”
“In [Coke’s] defense, they are not the only organization in the food industry who [markets intentionally to be successful]. They just happen to be under fire right now.”
“I think that the food industry is able to make the statements that they make and do the things that they do, not unlike what Coke has done with VitaminWater, because the public has become complacent with being misinformed. So, I think it’s almost like a never-ending cycle of we allow organizations to have a lack of integrity because we are misinformed, and it just spirals.”
“This is a really good opportunity for the public to step forward and say, OK, what else (pause) A) How did a company think this was OK? B) How did we let this happen? C) What else in our lives or what other organizations are we misinformed about? And, which other ones are being a little less honest than they should?”
Video 4
“There is a big part of me that hopes that the public would say Oh my gosh, we have being deceived. What else are we being deceived on? Let’s call the food industry to a higher level of standards.”
“I think we have become so accustomed as a society to (pause) especially when it comes to the food industry to taking in their marketing, verbatim and believing it. Also, we don’t like to be inconvenienced. That is why something like VitaminWater does so well because people think that they are getting some great health benefit just by drinking a bottle of water as opposed to the other arguably more difficult ways we can get vitamins. So, how difficult it would be to reroute our society in a direction that is more healthy, not that just appears more healthy but that is, would be so difficult and so profound, that there is a of me that believes that the public wouldn’t be willing to engage in that process.”
“So ultimately, in what I am understanding of what you have been saying throughout this entire interview is that it is not CSPI’s fault, it is not the public’s fault, or Coke’s fault solely. It is kind of how they interplay and they all need to take responsibility for their own part while recognizing the errors of the other players.”
“I think we have become so accustomed as a society to (pause) especially when it comes to the food industry to taking in their marketing, verbatim and believing it. Also, we don’t like to be inconvenienced. That is why something like VitaminWater does so well because people think that they are getting some great health benefit just by drinking a bottle of water as opposed to the other arguably more difficult ways we can get vitamins. So, how difficult it would be to reroute our society in a direction that is more healthy, not that just appears more healthy but that is, would be so difficult and so profound, that there is a of me that believes that the public wouldn’t be willing to engage in that process.”
“So ultimately, in what I am understanding of what you have been saying throughout this entire interview is that it is not CSPI’s fault, it is not the public’s fault, or Coke’s fault solely. It is kind of how they interplay and they all need to take responsibility for their own part while recognizing the errors of the other players.”
Radiating RefleXion
Today was the big day for interview number one with Kari Reed, a woman who has her Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design and is a well-informed member of the public when it comes to the food industry. Overall, the experience was richly insightful and eye-opening. I learned so much about the process of interviewing and the benefits of ditching the script and engaging in conversation, for it was as if she had a much better script in store than I could have ever anticipated. Likewise, I was pleasantly surprised that when I stopped worrying about the progression of the interview, I was relaxed enough to partake in the perceptive information that I would have missed if I put a stop to the tangents.
Walking into the interview, I expected to hear my sister argue about who was right and who was wrong, yet I walked out with a completely different perspective. There is no one guilty party in this lawsuit; however, there are three separate parties— The Center of Science for Public Interest, Coca-Cola, and the public—who would all benefit greatly from taking responsibility for their own errors in judgment while also holding the other parties accountable. Furthermore, I appreciate the tangents concerning crystalline fructose, graphic design, and justified roles. First, I learned that crystalline fructose, while better than high fructose corn syrup, can only be broken down in the liver, and so when taken in excess, it has the potential to cause liver damage. Also, I was shocked to hear that VitaminWater has a percentage, however small, of arsenic in its contents. Second, I learned that VitaminWater has a brilliant marketing campaign from the elements of simplicity to font to color. More specifically, Kari explained from the perspective of a graphic designer that VitaminWater chose colorful, yet muted dyes in order to send a message that indeed there is the presence of water in this beverage, yet their energized verbs are also subconsciously communicated. Finally, it is important to remember that at the end of the day, Coca-Cola is an industry, CPSI is an organization, and the public is busy. In other words, they all have motives and intentions that are package deals with the role in which they play.
At the same time that the interview itself went well, the video editing side of the project was phenomenal. With the help of my amazingly talented sister, Abby and I were able to add an intro slide as well as a music clip. As a side note, I must say my suggestion of using the song “Suga Suga” by BabyBash to the introduction slide is not only hysterical, but ironic when seriously considered. I hope that our audience takes the time to see the links between the lyrics and the discrepancy with VitaminWater especially in the play on the word “suga”:
“You got me lifted shifted higher than a ceiling
And ooh wee it¡¦s the ultimate feeling
You got me lifted feeling so gifted
Sugar how you get so fly?
Suga suga how you get so fly?
In addition, it is important to note that I was extremely nervous about making the 30-minute benchmark, yet we exceeded this time limit by nearly 7 minutes with more than 500 words of quote-worthy excerpts! Without a doubt, I can say that today’s experience was exhilarating and beyond my expectations. This was exactly the encounter with our topic that I hoping for to motivate Abby and I into further research and the creation of multiple genres. Next on the list are 3-minute interviews with close friends as well as a blind-taste-test at Barnes&Noble!
Walking into the interview, I expected to hear my sister argue about who was right and who was wrong, yet I walked out with a completely different perspective. There is no one guilty party in this lawsuit; however, there are three separate parties— The Center of Science for Public Interest, Coca-Cola, and the public—who would all benefit greatly from taking responsibility for their own errors in judgment while also holding the other parties accountable. Furthermore, I appreciate the tangents concerning crystalline fructose, graphic design, and justified roles. First, I learned that crystalline fructose, while better than high fructose corn syrup, can only be broken down in the liver, and so when taken in excess, it has the potential to cause liver damage. Also, I was shocked to hear that VitaminWater has a percentage, however small, of arsenic in its contents. Second, I learned that VitaminWater has a brilliant marketing campaign from the elements of simplicity to font to color. More specifically, Kari explained from the perspective of a graphic designer that VitaminWater chose colorful, yet muted dyes in order to send a message that indeed there is the presence of water in this beverage, yet their energized verbs are also subconsciously communicated. Finally, it is important to remember that at the end of the day, Coca-Cola is an industry, CPSI is an organization, and the public is busy. In other words, they all have motives and intentions that are package deals with the role in which they play.
At the same time that the interview itself went well, the video editing side of the project was phenomenal. With the help of my amazingly talented sister, Abby and I were able to add an intro slide as well as a music clip. As a side note, I must say my suggestion of using the song “Suga Suga” by BabyBash to the introduction slide is not only hysterical, but ironic when seriously considered. I hope that our audience takes the time to see the links between the lyrics and the discrepancy with VitaminWater especially in the play on the word “suga”:
“You got me lifted shifted higher than a ceiling
And ooh wee it¡¦s the ultimate feeling
You got me lifted feeling so gifted
Sugar how you get so fly?
Suga suga how you get so fly?
In addition, it is important to note that I was extremely nervous about making the 30-minute benchmark, yet we exceeded this time limit by nearly 7 minutes with more than 500 words of quote-worthy excerpts! Without a doubt, I can say that today’s experience was exhilarating and beyond my expectations. This was exactly the encounter with our topic that I hoping for to motivate Abby and I into further research and the creation of multiple genres. Next on the list are 3-minute interviews with close friends as well as a blind-taste-test at Barnes&Noble!
