1. Are the instructions for writing the Abstract as clear cut as I am hoping?

2. How are we going to present our preconceived notions?

3. Are the 5 classmates we have left to interview going to be willing to give us 5 minutes of their time on Monday since it is the deadline for the project?

4. Is there some magical trick to making these YouTube videos start where we want them to start and not at some horrifying mid-gesture screen shot they select?

5. How on earth can we introduce each genre so that they flow more efficiently without the accompaniment of our auditory explanation?

6. Why are specific dates involved in the VitaminWater Lawsuit so difficult to find?

7. Why does it figure that everything VitaminWater has vanished from the online realm due to the current lawsuit?

8. Are people going to pick up on the hilariously snarky and surprising elements we have added to each genre?

9. What is the best way to conclude our project? Are suggestions for the public suitable after the texting genre?

10. When I look over the directions for this project, am I going to feel relieved, or even more stressed?

            From the start, this blind-taste-test was exciting but exhausting. To begin, I contacted my cousin, who is the manager of Rowan’s Barnes&Noble Café. I managed to get his approval to conduct our blind-taste-test on Thursday, April 21, 2011 from 11 to 1 p.m. Next, I took a trip to ShopRite to buy strawberry VitaminWater and Propel. We chose Propel as VitaminWater’s healthier competitor based upon sugar content alone.  Sadly, I found that strawberry is not a flavor available in VitaminWater. To my dismay, I spent the next 15 minutes comparing flavor’s until I decided in frustration that VitaminWater grape-blueberry is close enough to Propel grape.

            The following day was the blind-taste-test, and Abby and I were prepared- filled and labeled Dixie cups and all. Despite our efforts, however, Abby and I only managed to convince twelve 20-something females to take part in our blind-taste-test. Nevertheless, I do not blame our plan for our results. Abby and I selected Rowan’s Barnes&Noble location based upon the likelihood of the traffic of people reflecting our age. Also, we thought that testing between 11 and 1 would help our numbers because it is prime lunch time in the café. Within our first 15 minutes there, we managed to gain 4 participants. The next hour and 45 minutes, however, was torturous waiting for 20-something females to enter the door and be willing participants.

            The day did not escape humor, however, as we heard every excuse in the book as to why these women could not take part in our harmless test. We heard everything from I’m allergic to too many things, my wisdom teeth hurt, I don’t want to mix the flavors with my lunch, and I’m just too picky. In spite of this, our 12 brave souls helped us prove that when taking the drink labels away, it is much harder to determine which one tastes better and which one is healthier. I say that it is harder to determine which one tastes better, not because it is physically impossible to tell, but because we allow color to influence our decisions way too much. Second, our female participants used one of two indicators to make their decision regarding health- 1) The one that tastes bad is generally healthier or 2) The one without any color is generally healthier. Surprisingly, when it came to taste, we found that 50% of the participants preferred VitaminWater and 50% of the participants preferred Propel. On the other hand, 66% of participants thought that VitaminWater was healthier as opposed to the 44% who thought Propel was healthier.

            From this conclusion, Abby and I decided to represent our findings in a visual format. Why? Because our project is going to reflect the way in which VitaminWater communicates with the public—visually with a touch of minimalism.

Premise: In thinking about the next set of interviews that Abby and I are going to conduct, we realized that we want to present more of the public’s perspective. So far, our research is presenting that of the Center of Science for the Public Interest and Coca-Cola’s perspective. In this, the voice of the public is lost. To compensate for this void, Abby and I would like to interview some of our classmates. Pursuing this further, Abby and I thought it would be interesting to keep our process and product, outside of credible articles to that of a perspective of women from our generation. So far, Kari Reed along with Abby and I follow this rule and we intend to continue along this line of thinking by implementing another layer of interviews with female classmates ages 20-28.

Possible Participants: Stephanie Dibella, Lindsey Hooper, Kim Longo, Megan Norris, Kelly Peterson, Dawn Roy, Linsey Seifert, Tarrah Martinelli

Time Limit: 8 participants x 4 minutes each = 32 minutes of interviews

Interview Questions:

1.      Do you think VitaminWater is a healthy beverage?

— What did you base your answer on?

2.      Do you drink VitaminWater?

— Do you have a particular flavor that you prefer?

3.      Do you ever buy certain products based upon its color?

— Is there anything that you are aware of that influences what you?

4.      What is your reaction when I tell you that VitaminWater on average has 33 grams of sugar per bottle?

— What do think of VitaminWater having a small percentage of arsenic in its ingredients?

5.      Do you believe that VitaminWater has been advertised as a healthy beverage?

— Based on what I have shared with you, do you think that VitaminWater’s marketing campaign is ethical or fair?

1.      Prescription Script – Rx paper prescribing VitaminWater for the General Public signed by Dr. Coke Jellybean to illustrate Coke’s potential use of the jelly bean rule which is an FDA violation.

2.      Letter – Written by the Center of Science for the Public Interest and addressed to Coca-Cola using CSPI’s direct quotes and the strongest arguments found while researching such as fraudulent advertising and misleading the public.

3.      Video or Audio – Presenting VitaminWater’s use of color rhetoric from the perspective of Kari Reed, a woman with her Bachelors in Marketing and who works as a Graphic Designer for a living.

4.      Facebook Poll – Posing the question: Do you think VitaminWater is healthy? This will show the percentage of the general public polled and the common attributes associated with VitaminWater as it is advertised.

5.      Receipt – Belonging to coke and modeling the “priceless” commercials utilizing vitamins with the cost of a penny, sugar with a cost of 33 dollars and arsenic with the cost of 2 dollars, but a brilliant marketing campaign is priceless.

6.      Advertisements – Two that Coke actually displayed to the public and one that Abby and I design to show how much Coke has pushed the envelope in advertising paired with text above reading: one of these things is not like the other… one of these things just doesn’t belong.

7.      Bar graph – The different bars will illustrate the popularity of different flavors of VitaminWater in comparison to other flavors.

8.      Slideshow – Displaying the different bottles of VitaminWater to show colors and the health buzz words associated with them, working at a subconscious level.

9.      Texts – This would serve as the conclusion of the project where there are two choices- start or stop- that can be texted to answer the question Should Coke be able to continue promoting VitaminWater as healthy? while using the same medium Coke used to advertise to the public in 2007.

10.  Defense’s Opening Statement – This genre follows the setting of the lawsuit and allows Coke to present their opinion that the public could not possibly think VitaminWater is healthy.

11.  Label – This will not be designed by Abby or me, but we will add red circles to highlight overlooked elements such as the fact that there are 2 servings per bottle and an average of 33 grams of sugar.

12.  Inner Monologue – Written in a stream of consciousness format that will representing the internal conflicts that Coke’s Marketing Team experienced while planning.

13.  Glossary or Dictionary – Formatted in dictionary form with the parts of speech and pronunciation key using the words healthy, reasonable, sugar, and lie.

14.  Song Lyrics- Using the song Suga Suga by BabyBash to play on the line Suga Suga How’d you get so fly? As in it becoming so fly that it can now be called Vitamins.

15.  Debate- In dialogue form with a debate title we will use this genre to display the comments members on the discussion board made that were controversial or insightful.

16.  Timeline- Showing major events from the purchase of VitaminWater to the lawsuit.

17.  2 Obituaries- One for coke’s integrity and the other for the public being self-informed.

18.  Reviews or Video- Depending on which genre we choose for Kari’s marketing interview, we will use one of these choices to show the blind-taste-test.

            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!

1. Background:

What are your credentials in being well-informed on the food industry and health implications?

What or when was the start of your interest?

What changes in your diet have you made due to expanding your knowledge?

2. VitaminWater Lawsuit:

How did you hear about the VitaminWater Lawsuit?

What do you know about the VitaminWater Lawsuit?

What do you know about crystalline fructose?

3. The Center of Science in the Public Interest:

What knowledge do you have of The Center of Science in the Public Interest?

What is CSPI’s lawsuit based upon?

Do you feel CSPI has a right to sue?

4. Coca-Cola:

Are you aware of Coca-Cola’s perspective on the issue? What is their perspective?

Do you agree with Coca-Cola’s claim: "No consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitamin Water was a healthy beverage"?

Do you think that Coca-Cola is scared of the public knowing the truth about Vitamin Water’s nutritional facts? Why or why not?

5. The Public:

Why do you think the public views VitaminWater as a healthy beverage?

What do you predict the public’s response will be once they are informed about Vitamin Water’s lack of nutritional value?

In your opinion, what role should the public play in this situation?

6. Communication Between Parties:

What message do you see Coca-Cola communicating to the public through its advertisements?

Who is to blame for being misinformed? Is it Coca-Cola’s lack of integrity or the public’s growing ignorance? Why?

This is a combined effort of Lindsey Clay and Abigail Park's...

What is the discrepancy between the appearance and the reality of the health associated with Vitamin Water?

1. What is the public’s perception of Vitamin Water’s nutrition?

2. What is Coca-Cola’s claim on Vitamin Water’s nutrition?

3. Why is it called Vitamin Water?

4. What is the nutrition facts compared to other drinks?

5. Is there potential to do a blind taste test between Vitamin Water and a nutritionally sound drink? We could possibly ask participants to determine which drink tastes better as well as which drink they think is healthier without depending on labels.

6. What is the message that Vitamin Water’s advertisements are sending?

7. Who is to blame for being misinformed? Is it Coca-Cola’s lack of integrity or the public’s growing ignorance?

8. What are the implications of the public knowing the truth?

9. Once the public is informed, what is their attitude toward Vitamin Water and Coca-Cola?

10. Do we value the appearance or reality more? (“looks driven society”)