The 2016 ‘Shonky Awards’ Have Named And Shamed The Dodgiest Brands In Australia
Exploding phones, camel milk that apparently cures cancer and bottled air. What a time to be a consumer.
For the past 10 years the folks over at CHOICE have been bringing us the ‘Shonky Awards’: a list of the year’s worst consumer products. After receiving hundreds of nominations and undertaking an exhaustive judging process, the shonkiest products of 2016 have finally been unveiled.
Topping the list is the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the phone that has a tendency to explode. The phone is considered so hazardous airlines have banned users from charging them during flights. Someone even made a mod for Grand Theft Auto 5 that replaces the games sticky bombs with animated versions of the Galaxy Note 7.
According to CHOICE, when they “sought to amplify the message about the dangerous device and encourage consumers to seek a full refund” Samsung responded with a letter from their lawyers. It’s the second time in as many years that Samsung has gotten a Shonky Award. Last year they got a gong for a dodgy washing machine that had to be recalled.
Camel Milk (yes, that’s a thing), as endorsed by everyone’s favourite health expert Pete Evans, also picked up a Shonky this year. According to its advertising the milk can help those who have “autism, diabetes, tuberculosis, cancer, stomach ulcers and more”. According to CHOICE, none of those supposed health benefits are allowed to be advertised and they’ve lodged a complaint with the federal and state regulators.
Mmm. Delicious, fraudulent camel milk.
Also on the list of shonky products is something called Green and Clean. Green and Clean is… bottled air. For $246 you can get yourself 12 cans of “pure, clean air” from the Blue Mountains or Tasmania. Some might say that consumers shouldn’t need a Shonky Award to tell them this product is a complete scam.
According to Green and Clean’s website, “While there have not been any studies covering the effect on people living in polluted areas breathing small quantities of clean air, many people work on the basis that some clean air is better than none.”
What do the experts say? “Given that the average person breathes five to eight litres of air per minute while resting (and much more during exercise), it seems highly improbable that air in a canister could have any significant impact in diluting the adverse effects of poor ambient air quality,” says Professor Guy Marks from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.
CHOICE also pinged Kellogg’s for reducing the average length of a Pringle by nearly 9 percent. Groundbreaking and important research in our opinion (seriously).
You can check out the full list of Shonky Award winners here and watch a video of the awards below.