Meta, health insurer, and veggie-free green juice win Shonky Awards
Facebook owner Meta and insurance giant NIB have been called out for failing Australians as consumer group Choice unveiled its 2024 Shonky Awards.
Published on Thursday, Meta headlined this year’s honours for the worst products for leaving its millions of Australian users vulnerable to scams, despite repeated warnings it must do more.
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Scam losses from social media soared to $95 million last year, Choice chief executive Ashley de Silva said, with Meta platforms – including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – accounting for 76 per cent of all reports.
“Meta hasn’t stepped up,” de Silva said.
“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,” de Silva said.
Insurance giant NIB is the other household name headlining the Shonky Awards this year for charging single parents more than couples for health insurance amid cost-of-living woes.
“NIB is receiving a Shonky Award this year for seemingly attempting to price single parents right out of health insurance,” de Silva said.
“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 four per cent to include your child on the same policy.”
Choice said that while other insurers are adopting similar pricing practices, NIB was the “worst of a shonky bunch”.
Another winner is the Acerpure Clean Lite stick vacuum, a product that is so poor Choice said it’s the worst stick vacuum it has ever tested.
The consumer group said that despite costing $199 and advertising “great suction power’, the vacuum “really sucks at sucking”.
The Acerpure Clean Lite stick vacuum. Photo: Choice
“The Acerpure bombed in our main performance test, which measures how well the vacuum can pick up corn flakes, potting mix and flour from a hard floor,” de Silva said.
“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.”
Daily Juice Co.’s popular “green juice” – which is stocked in supermarkets nationwide – has received a Shonky for using food colouring instead of veggies.
Customers might assume their green juices would contain some vegetables, but the Daily Juice Green Mix and Juice Green Juice Blend only contained fruit juice and relied on colourings to appear green to consumers.
This juice got its colour from food colouring and not vegetables. Photo: Supplied
“We bought every item on the juice’s ingredients list, and mixed our own version,” de Silva said.
“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.”
The last winner of a Shonky Award this year was sock company GroundingWell.
The company sells so-called ‘grounding socks’ for $40 a pair that make unverified health claims, including that they reverse the effects of ageing.
GroundWell’s socks received a Shonky in 2024. Photo: Choice
The socks come with a cord that connects them to the grounding socket on an electrical outlet, but Choice couldn’t find any evidence that they deliver the claimed health benefits.
“GroundingWell’s socks are also really poorly made,” de Silva said.
“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.”
