An Australian company marketing bottled air to residents of polluted countries has been recognised in an annual prize-giving ceremony for brands found to be taking advantage of consumers.
The consumer advocacy group Choice held its annual Shonky awards for misleading advertising and dangerous or ineffectual products in Sydney on Wednesday.
Green & Clean, founded by Sydney residents John Dickinson and Theo Ruygrok, was recognised by Choice for “literally selling thin air” with its cans of “100% pure Australian air” retailing for $18.80 each.
Available in Yarra Valley, Blue Mountains, Bondi Beach, New Zealand and Tasmania varieties, a pack of 12 large cans cost nearly $250 and offered “upwards of 255 breaths”.
Breathing instructions for Tasmanian air (can't believe this is a real product) #shonkys pic.twitter.com/uJgJYVqnP5
— Elias Plastiras (@eliasplastiras) October 5, 2016
Dickinson told Guardian Australia that he thought the Shonky award was “disappointing and a little unfair”.
“As a company, we’ve never made any claims as to health benefits at all – it’s really been the market finding us.
“The product is actually what it is. It’s a can of fresh air from Australia – we’ve never said it’s anything else.”
Dickinson said the canned air was popular with people living in polluted parts of the world, particularly China and India, as well as with tourists to Australia.
Camel Milk Victoria was also recognised by Choice for its claim that camel milk bolsters the immune system against bacteria and infection and aids “those who have autism, diabetes, tuberculosis, cancer, stomach ulcers and more”.
Camel Milk Victoria had been referred by Choice to the food regulator. It has been contacted for comment by Guardian Australia.
Samsung was honoured for its Galaxy Note 7, with 51,060 smartphones recalled from the Australian market for posing a fire risk.
Samsung also received a nod in the 2015 Shonky awards for a faulty line of top-loader washing machines that resulted in more than 224 incidents, including 76 fires. It has been contacted for comment.
Vanish, manufactured by Reckitt Benckiser, was praised for a “money removal strategy” that was “nothing short of genius”.
“Create a bright pink bottle, give it a flash-sounding name like ‘Vanish Preen Powerpowder Clean and Fresh Large Area Carpet Cleaner’ … charge a whopping $14.70 a bottle.”
Testing by Choice had found the product had been less effective than water but a spokesman for Vanish said Choice had not used the product on dirt ground into carpet, the substance and surface it was designed for.
Nestlé was recognised for attaching a four-and-a-half health star rating to Milo, reached after mixing it with milk. Assessed on its own, the “delicious chocolate dirt” – 46% sugar – received only one-and-a-half stars.
A spokeswoman for Nestlé said Milo’s health star rating was in line with guidelines and that Milo was “a great way to drink milk”.
Kellogg’s was caught out reducing the length of the average Pringles chip by nearly 10%, as well as making the tube nearly 9% smaller – putting its reduced pack price into perspective.
The price per 100g increased by 9.3% from $2.73 to $2.99.
A spokesman said Kellogg’s did not make the decision to increase costs lightly but manufacturing costs had gone up.
The Medical Weightloss Institute was recognised for “targeting vulnerable people with dodgy diet advice” at the cost of several thousand dollars.
Choice said a drug used in the MWI program, diethylpropion, had been withdrawn from sale in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
A spokeswoman rejected Choice’s claims in a statement and said diethylpropion was “not a banned substance”. The TGA does require a licence and permit to export or import the substance, which is classified as a psychotropic.
Judges also honoured American Express – one of the highest-cost cards in the market – for its “surcharge-free” campaign, and Cash Converters, which prompted payday loans under the guise of an unbranded personal finance website.
A Cash Converters spokeswoman said its CommonCents website gave advice for how to work within small budgets and “in no way advises consumers to take out a personal loan with Cash Converters”. She said no links on the site led to Cash Converters’ Personal Finance page and said it was clearly branded.
American Express has been contacted for comment by Guardian Australia.
Alan Kirkland, Choice’s chief executive, said the Shonkys – named for an Australian slang word for shoddy or unreliable and now in their 11th year – were “the awards that we’d prefer not to give out”.
The group receives hundreds of nominations for products and services for the Shonky awards each year, with awards allocated on the basis that their “shonkiness” is quantifiable and affects a lot of people.
