The Checkout - Consumer Affairs program

[Jessica Berry]

In case anyone hasn't come across this show on the ABC on Thursdays at 8.00pm (the first episode of the new series was this week and had a great story on beauty product claims and also the poor bloke that bought a faulty Jeep!), it is a great consumer affairs show, presented in a tongue in cheek/fun way and you can pick up some great hints and tips about your rights as a consumer, product comparisons and how creative marketing/labelling is used to sell products!

 

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/thecheckout/

 

When we arrived we also subscribed to Choice Magazine (Aussie version of Which) for 6 or 12 months (can't remember exactly as it was a while ago now!) and found as a new arrival to the country it had some interesting/useful articles. You can also read Choice Magazine at the library for free, but at ours you are not able to borrow them.

[NicF]

I really like this show and as you said it has some great tips about consumer rights.

[scooterdan]

Great show! Love the sense of humour!

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

I like most things that the Chaser team do.

Choice is a great organisation and their consumer reports are a must read...thanks for the library tip...didn't know that.

[NicF]

Our library let you borrow the choice magazines (not the latest editions though). If yours doesn't but you are keen to borrow one rather than read it at the library you should be able to put it on hold and have it delivered to your local library, assuming your local library is part of the group lending scheme thing (I think most of them are but not sure if they all are).

[Lazy Cow]

had a great story on beauty product claims and also the poor bloke that bought a faulty Jeep!), it.

 

I loved the Jeep story, and his apology lol!

The Checkout is an excellent mix of info and fun. Well worth watching - and I think Gruen will be back later this year too. I wish the nightly satire show would come back too

 

LC

[Jessica Berry]

I loved the Jeep story, and his apology lol!

 

Yes, that was good. We went to see Housos as part of the Adelaide Fringe and they did a new version of the Jeep advert titled 'I stole a Jeep', it was very funny and we have a laugh to ourselves every time the real advert comes on tv.

[Lazy Cow]

We went to see Housos as part of the Adelaide Fringe and they did a new version of the Jeep advert titled 'I stole a Jeep', it was very funny and we have a laugh to ourselves every time the real advert comes on tv.

 

<squeal!>

 

We also saw the show at the Arkabar!

 

Jimmy's Jeep act was indeed a classic.

 

LC

 

PS. Did you see Tahir's show a week or so later? Very thought-provoking whilst being hilarious

Edited April 12, 2015 by NicF
Fixing quote

[chrisda]

Am going to set the recorder to record the whole series. I have a few of the old series on there already and they are a good watch.

[Rabeah]

Thanks Jessica for the link and NicF for the tip with the library! Just watched 2 clips on youtube, what a great program checkout is! Never came across with it.

This forum is so precious:smile:

[Jessica Berry]

<squeal!>

 

We also saw the show at the Arkabar!

 

Jimmy's Jeep act was indeed a classic.

 

LC

 

PS. Did you see Tahir's show a week or so later? Very thought-provoking whilst being hilarious

 

We sure did!

 

[Jessica Berry]

Interesting article about Channel 9 knocking back the show...

 

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/why-channel-nine-knocked-back-an-early-version-of-hit-abc-series-the-checkout/story-e6frfmyi-1227306040195

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

This was on tonight's show...

 

[h=1]Sports drinks are rotting our teeth and making us fat[/h]

 

 

 

• 4 hours ago April 16, 2015 5:12PM
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[h=3]The Checkout[/h]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ONE bottle is as sugary as a can of Coke and it would take an hour of high-intensity exercise to burn off the kilojoules it contains. Yet we think it’s good for us.

 

Sports drinks such as Gatorade and Powerade are promoted as a smart alternative to water, although they cost 3000 times more.

They’re popular with active young people and children, but research shows it’s unlikely any of us non-athletes are doing enough exercise to make them beneficial.

Sports teams regularly promote Powerade, but non-athletes don’t need it. Source: News Corp Australia

 

 

 

“I was surprised at just how aggressive the marketing was and how long it’s been going on,” Ben Jenkins from ABC’s The Checkout told news.com.au. “It uses spurious science and makes claims about endurance.

“We call this the ‘halo effect’ — making one claim about a food or drink product means customers will make other assumptions, that it’s low in sugar, or healthy in other ways.”

In the 1960s, Gatorade ads made the nonsense claim the drink would get into your system “approximately 12 times faster than water.” Drinks companies don’t focus on hydration so much any more, perhaps because of a crackdown on products — most recently coconut water — purporting to be superior to H2O.

Tonight’s episode of The Checkout, which airs at 8pm on ABC, examines the claims made by the multibillion-dollar industry and the concerning truth about their products.

Ben Jenkins from The Checkout says sports drinks use spurious science. Source: SBS

 

 

 

A recent study in the British Medical Journal said poorly designed tests and small sample sizes meant sports drinks companies’ 40 years of research “did not add up to much”. It also found that conflicts of interest were rarely declared.

The Australian Dental Association says ingesting acidic drinks after exercise poses a high risk of dental erosion. In response to such claims, Gatorade made the bizarre suggestion that consumers should use a squeezy bottle to ensure the drink doesn’t touch their teeth, while Powerade recommended minimising contact time by “swallowing immediately and rinsing your mouth with water regularly”.

“That’s funny, especially as they go on about how tasty it is,” said Ben. He believes sports drinks are “more pernicious than soft drinks” because we aren’t making an educated decision about what we’re drinking.

Unless you’re doing a high-intensity workout for more than hour, you won’t benefit from a sports drink. Picture: Choice Source: Supplied

 

 

 

“A lot of sports stars are endorsing these products and that sends a message to kids,” he said. “In terms of children especially, there’s no real benefit. A kilojoule is a kilojoule.”

Many sports drinks have extremely visible marketing strategies, appearing at major sporting events, and, in Gatorade’s case, even sponsoring the Australian Institute of Sport’s fluid intake guide.

Ben believes the solution is for us to be far more sceptical over the claims made in adverts for sports drinks and other supposedly healthy products. “I think there’s enough evidence that they enhance performance in specific athletic contexts,” he said.

“It’s replacing electrolytes, but you’d have to go pretty hard before it kicks in. If you’re just doing regular exercise, you aren’t going to work it off.”

A spokesperson for Gatorade told news.com.au: “Gatorade is an electrolyte drink which is specifically designed to rapidly replace fluid, carbohydrates and electrolytes. Sports drinks like this are most beneficial for athletes and people who lead active lifestyles, and it is marketed as such.” Powerade has not yet responded to news.com.au’s request for comment.

 

Watch the full episode of The Checkout on ABC at 8pm tonight.

Strangest of all, both Gatorade and Powerade recommend using squeezy bottles and rinsing your mouth out to minimise contact time between their drinks and your teeth. Source: Supplied