Food and beverage remained relatively unscathed by consumer advocacy group Choice's annual Shonky Awards which were announced today, with a couple of exceptions.
Arnott’s peanut butter flavoured Tim Tam earned an award, because, according to Choice, it contained no peanuts (with paprika being a surprising inclusion) and because the pack contained fewer biscuits and weighed 35g less, despite maintaining the same price and package size.
S-26 Gold Toddler and Junior powdered milk also copped a Shonky Award, because although health professionals advise that toddler and junior milks aren’t needed for healthy kids over the age of one, it used the following wording in marketing to retailers in an industry trade magazine: “Keep mums buying with our extended range of nutritious milk drinks”.
Other Shonky Award winners were Commonwealth Bank, Amazon Kindle, Kmart and Thermomix.
“The Choice Shonky Awards put the spotlight on products and services that are sneaky, slippery, unscrupulous and sometimes unsafe. The risk of receiving an infamous Shonky encourages businesses to sharpen up their act and put consumers first,” says Choice chief executive, Alan Kirkland.
