What Were They Thinking? — Energy is not Medicine

“What Were They Thinking?” highlights products and presentations which just don’t make sense.

For a while, we were seeing Jetset brand energy drink at the local Grocery Outlet.  They are long gone from there now — that’s how that chain goes — but they were pretty cool because they are intended as mixer, not a nasty tasting soda.  They come in Club Soda, Tonic Water, Ginger Ale, and Original (sort of Red Bull-esque) flavors, so having a “gin and (energy) tonic” was kind of cool.

The weird thing was when I noticed the “warning” on the back:

This product has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  This product is not intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent any disease.

WTF?  Other energy drinks don’t have this warning, and there’s nothing about the labeling that would imply a health product.  This page says this wording is used for dietary supplements, but this product doesn’t seem to be one.  (Possibly the “Tonic Water” flavor doesn’t actually contain quinine and thus can’t be used to treat malaria, and they just put this label on all the cans instead of just that one?)