6 Vitamin water is widely marketed as a healthy beverage, but it is actually just sugar-water that contains 33 gm of sugar! Coca-Cola just invented a line of vitamin water to keep the customers who were trying to take the healthy road and not drinking cold drinks. 

In 2010, Coca-Cola was sued by a public interest group for the faulty health claims that they make for their vitamin water. According to Coca-Cola, their vitamin waters are very healthy, but the group thinks this is based on no proof. So, Coca-Cola decided to defend itself by saying that surely no reasonable consumer could be misled to believe the ridiculous notion that vitamin water is, in fact, healthy. This must be the most bizarre defense ever used!

But is Coca-Cola really misleading people to believe that vitamin water is healthy? In fact, they are. Coca-Cola has invested billions in advertising their vitamin water. They brought in celebrities like Kobe Bryant to promote the product. They advertise it as something that will bring a “healthy state of physical and mental well-being.”

When analyzed closely, vitamin water is just sugar water with a pinch of vitamins. Each bottle contains around 33 gm of sugar which is close to any other soft drink. Moreover, the vitamins can be sourced from real foods instead of relying on this bottled water. (source)

7 Hair products companies emphasize that special shampoos and conditioners have the power to “repair” split ends. Sadly, this is just a creative invention to sell more products, and split ends cannot be repaired. The only way is to cut them off.

The sad truth about split ends is that once they appear, there’s no going back. Split ends cannot be treated. This seems quite obvious because split ends mean that the hair strand has split in two. Repair would mean that the splits would have to be joined together again which is impossible.

But since we are surrounded with numerous hair care products that scream about their ability to treat split ends, we are bound to try them once. This is how people get trapped by these beauty care companies.

The best way to take care of split ends is to avoid overwashing, styling with too much heat, or brushing too hard. And if the split ends still find their way into your hair, the best way to stop them is to cut them off. (1, 2)

8 There are plenty of products ranging from detox massages, smoothies, to herbal teas and starvation diets that help in detoxing our bodies. But these are just lies, and our bodies are entirely capable of eliminating toxins. And interestingly, this happens every day and not just when these products are used, as claimed by the companies.

Every New Year, people make resolutions to go on a detox diet to clean their bodies. The market is flooded with numerous products that promise to help. Products range from detox massages, smoothies, herbal teas, to starvation diets. But these are just marketing stunts to sell products.

These home detox products are marketed to consumers with promises that they have the power to remove toxins from our bodies. And with people nowadays eating fast food so much, these products are a hit. But there is no evidence that these products actually remove the so-called toxins from one’s body.

Moreover, our body does not require any additional and external substances to clear out toxins. There is work taking place inside the body every day that extracts out all the toxins from our blood. This happens irrespective of eating or drinking any detox substances.

Our gut has special lymphatic cells, Peyer’s patches, that are present as bundles in the lining of the mucous membrane of the intestine. These bundles identify the harmful particles so that they do not enter the blood. People do not require any detoxing products from the market to clean their blood. (source)

9 Gillette invented the problem that women having hair in certain places seems unattractive. All they wanted was to double their profits by adding women as a customer base, and they exactly that! They just manipulated women into believing that not shaving should make you feel conscious among people!

There is a sneaky and manipulative story behind the custom of women shaving. Prior to the 20th century, shaving was not a part of life for women. Removal of body hair was just unnecessary for women. Then enter King Camp Gillette, the inventor of the safety razor. Camp Gillette realized that he could double his profits by introducing women as customers for his razors. So, he sat down to figure out a way to make that happen.

Fortunately for him, the changing dressing styles offered him the best opportunity. Women were getting out of the long and fully covered Victorian dresses and were starting to wear short dresses that exposed their legs and hands. Gillette saw this as an opportunity and invented a problem that was earlier not there – the embarrassing personal problem of having hair in the wrong places.

Feminine razors were advertised as a must-have fashion accessory. The trend caught on like wildfire. But all this was not for the benefit of the women; it was for the dollars. (source)

10 Levi Strauss invented the concept of business casuals so that they could increase the sale of their brand Dockers. Dockers even sponsored in-office fashion shows and provided a hotline for workplace dress code emergencies!

The concept of casual Fridays was first introduced by Hewlett-Packard in the 1950s. Then. in 1966, the Hawaiian Fashion Guild introduced the relaxed dress code “Aloha Fridays” where people celebrated their culture by wearing Hawaiian shirts to work. But there was an underlying problem to these casual dress codes. There was no defined attire that would fall under the category “casuals” that were appropriate to be worn to a workplace. People saw this as a chance to dress sloppily and provocatively.

This allowed Levi’s to see an opportunity in the apparel industry. Daniel M. Chew, a former consumer marketing director for Levi’s says, “We did not create casual business wear. What we did was identify a trend and see a business opportunity.” In 1992, they launched the marketing campaign “A Guide to Casual Businesswear.” The designed a pamphlet and Levi’s educated people on casual dress codes that are appropriate for workplaces. They promoted their office-casuals brand Dockers. It became so popular that companies started coming to Levi’s for help!

Levi’s saw a gap in the market and invented a solution that seems so normal today. (source)