Another day, another crazy food trend! This time, our neighbors to the north are getting in on the fun and what they’ve come up with is crazier and more disgusting than we ever could’ve imagined.
At the Car Free Day festival in Vancouver, Canada, last week, there was a booth for something called Hot Dog Water. As the name suggests, the item featured a glass bottle filled with water and a free-floating hot dog inside. This “special” water retailed for 38 Canadian dollars (about $28) and claimed to provide health benefits such as the ability to help you lose weight, improve your brain function and look younger.
“We’ve created a recipe, having a lot of people put a lot of effort into research and a lot of people with backgrounds in science really creating the best version of Hot Dog Water that we could,” Hot Dog Water CEO Douglas Bevans told Global News. “The protein of the Hot Dog Water helps your body uptake the water content, and the sodium and all the things you’d need post-workout.”
Festival-goers weren’t sure what to make of this strange new trend, and dozens of people were very eager to try it. However, you might be relieved to know that Hot Dog Water isn’t a real product, nor can it improve your health. “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,” the fine print at the bottom of the sales pitch read.
Bevans, a tour operator and an artist, said he came up with the concept of Hot Dog Water after observing the “snake oil salesmen” of health marketing. As he explained it, this stunt was “a commentary on product marketing, and especially sort of health-quackery product marketing.”
He told Ad Age, “The message is the next time you have the urge to buy the latest quantum toilet paper or Gwyneth’s magical health stickers, take a moment to reflect and ask yourself, is this Hot Dog Water?”
Though Bevans fooled some people with his elaborate ploy — the booth went through a whopping 60 liters of Hot Dog Water — many were pleased to learn he was actually calling out the health industry as opposed to marketing something so ridiculous. Wrote one Twitter user: “I couldn’t love this story more.”
