A vendor at a Canadian festival used absurdity to make a point about marketing by selling hot dog water for $37.99 a bottle.
Hot Dog Water was for sale at a stand at the Vancouver Car Free Day festival Sunday. Billed as a gluten-free, Keto diet-compatible source of electrolytes, the product’s marketing promised to help the drinker lose weight and increase brain function.
Each bottle featured a real hot dog suspended inside.
The owner eventually revealed the whole thing was an elaborate stunt to inspire people to think more critically about health claims in product marketing.
In the fine print on the Hot Dog Water literature was the following line:
Hot Dog Water in its absurdity hopes to encourage critical thinking related to product marketing and the significant role it can play in our purchasing choices.
“From the responses, I think people will actually go away and reconsider some of these other $80 bottles of water that will come out that are ‘raw’ or ‘smart waters,’ or anything that doesn’t have any substantial scientific backing but just a lot of pretty impressive marketing,” according to Global News.