The Atlantic recently published an exposé on Snapple’s “Real Facts,” those bite-sized nuggets of random information printed on the underside of Snapple caps. Turns out that they’re not all real facts! Many of them are outdated, misleading, contradictory, unverifiable, or just plain wrong.
Snapple claims to have a pretty vigorous fact-checking process, but any curious tea drinker can hop on the internet and debunk many of Snapple’s factoids in less than 30 seconds.
Some “Real Facts” already proven to be false?
“Elephants only sleep two hours a day.” (#35)
“Caller ID is illegal in California.” (#70)
“Thomas Jefferson invented the coat hanger.” (#868)
Regarding the permeation of misinformation, the article also quotes Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings as saying, “But now people believe Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room, or that babies are born without kneecaps. They see it 10 times, so they think it must be true.”
Wait, what?! I won a baby shower game with the answer that babies don’t have kneecaps. Turns out they do. So I guess I owe the party hostesses a plastic baby bottle filled with pastel M&Ms, huh?
Although Diet Snapple was my tea of choice for most of my teens and 20s, I now prefer Honest Tea — the beverage and the bottle caps. I feel healthier drinking it (less sugar).
And while I don’t buy Honest Tea solely for the words of wisdom printed on their caps, they do share some pretty inspiring quotes. I particularly enjoyed their collaboration with SMITH’s Six-Word Memoirs.
Now here’s a random fact for you that’s actually true:
Larry Smith of SMITH Magazine is the Larry of “Piper and Larry” from Orange is the New Black (and also from real life, I suppose).
Full circle.
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