CHOICE has announced the much anticipated winners of this year's Shonky Awards, recognising the worst of the worst products and services from the past year.
The 2024 CHOICE Shonkys are:
- Meta – for failing to protect Aussies from scams
- The Acerpure Clean Lite stick vacuum – for being the worst stick vacuum we've ever tested
- NIB – for charging single parents more than couples for health insurance
- Daily Juice Co – for using food colouring instead of vegies in its 'green' juice
- GroundingWell grounding socks – for making unearthly promises
"As we approach 20 years of the CHOICE Shonky Awards, it's clear they're needed now more than ever. This year's winners, both big and small, prove that shonky products and business practices are still rife," says CHOICE CEO, Ashley de Silva.
"Meta has failed to take adequate action on scams despite social media scam losses reaching record numbers in 2023. NIB is squeezing single parents during a cost-of-living crisis with the price of health insurance. Acerpure is selling a stick vacuum that's the worst our experts have ever tested, Daily Juice Co is using food colouring instead of vegies in their 'green' juices, and GroundingWell's socks don't even come close to delivering their claimed health benefits," says de Silva.
Meta – for failing to protect Aussies from scams
"In 2023 scam losses from social media reached $95 million, an almost 250% increase from 2020. Accordingly, you'd think a huge company like Meta would be taking adequate action to protect people from scams. Unfortunately, despite scams on the Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounting for 76% of all reported social media scam losses last year, Meta hasn't stepped up," says de Silva.
"When CHOICE reported three suspicious Facebook ads as scams to Meta, one remained live for at least four days. The other two were taken down within 24 hours, but one of these accounts was allowed to quickly re-post an almost identical ad and continue to promote other suspicious ads. Meta was a clear choice for a Shonky Award this year," says de Silva.
The Acerpure Clean Lite stick vacuum – for being the worst stick vacuum we've ever tested
"The reason this Acerpure vacuum is receiving a Shonky is plain and simple – it's the worst stick vacuum we've ever tested in our labs. Despite costing $199 and claiming 'great suction power', this vacuum really sucks at sucking. The Acerpure bombed in our main performance test, which measures how well the vacuum can pick up cornflakes, potting mix and flour from a hard floor. It scored a measly 10%, the worst performance ever recorded for this test," says de Silva.
"To make matters worse, our experts found the Acerpure gets clogged up pretty quickly. While most stick vacuums need their filter cleaned after picking up fine dust, it's usually quick and easy to do. The Acerpure's filter, however, became completely clogged after sucking up flour from the hard floor, and had to be smacked against a hard surface for around five minutes to clear some of it out," says de Silva.
"The Acerpure stick vacuum fails at its one job, creates more work for you, and is outperformed by stick vacuums half its price – we think maybe Acer should stick to computers," says de Silva.
NIB - for charging single parents more than couples for health insurance
"NIB is receiving a Shonky Award this year for seemingly attempting to price single parents right out of health insurance. If you're a single parent who has Gold Top Hospital cover, with Basic Extras and a $750 excess, your premiums will double if you add your child. If you're a couple, you'll only pay about an extra 4% to include your child on the same policy," says de Silva.
"If you're looking again at NIB's Gold Top Hospital cover, the single parent policy also costs more than the equivalent couples policy. In NSW, it's $760 per month for a couple with no kids, and $770 for a single parent. That means if you're single, it'd be cheaper to add a romantic partner to your policy than your own child," says de Silva.
"NIB is the worst of a shonky bunch, with other health insurers adopting similar pricing practices. If health insurers can add children for free, or very little cost, to a couple's policy, they should do the same for single parents," says de Silva.
Daily Juice Co - for using food colouring instead of vegies in its 'green' juice
"You'd assume green juices would contain at least some vegetables, but this is not always the case – as we've seen in this year's Shonky winners. When it comes to Daily Juice Co's 'green' juices, there's not a vegie in sight. Their 'Daily Juice Green Mix' and 'Daily Juice Green Juice Blend with Folate' only contain fruit juices, and rely on added colourings for their green label," says de Silva.
"We suspected the Daily Juice Green Mix was only green because of the added colouring, so we conducted an experiment to be sure. We bought every item on the juice's ingredients list, and mixed our own version. The result looked more like an orange juice, with no green to be seen. It's clear that without food colouring, there's nothing green about these juices," says de Silva.
GroundingWell grounding socks – for making unearthly promises
"GroundingWell are receiving a Shonky this year for their 'grounding socks', which for $40, claim to alleviate pain, reverse the effects of ageing, improve sleep, and much more. While the socks do 'ground' you by connecting to the grounding socket of an electrical outlet, we couldn't find any evidence that they deliver on any of the promised health benefits," says de Silva.
"GroundingWell's socks are also really poorly made. The connection pin, which is hard to detach from the grounding cable, tore off the socks after just two uses. $40 for a pair of socks that quickly fall apart and can't make good on their health claims? We think that's pretty shonky," says de Silva.
Photos, video and graphics available for media use here: https://sites.google.com/choice.com.au/choiceshonkyawards2024
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
