Illustration: Connor McCourtney
Is everyone’s favorite fact source really telling us the truth? What if everything that it has been telling us has been a lie? How many arguments would we have embarrassed ourselves in for quoting this not-so-reputable source? Does the average person really use 150 gallons of water a day for personal use?
Many of these facts seem logical; however, several seem downright unreasonable. For example, most people would never think that fish can drown or that Atlantic salmon are capable of jumping 15 feet high.
“All the facts are true, that’s why they’re called facts,” fist-year studen Brittany Domagalski said.
Snapple was founded by Hyman Golden, Arnold Greenberg and Leonard Marsh in 1972. There are four different types of Snapple available including tea, juice, lemonade and water. Snapple’s “Real Facts” was used as a marketing campaign to add excitement to purchasing Snapple.
Snapple’s official website boasts the healthy benefits of the drink but not particularly the Snapple “Real Facts.” Snapple–in its effort to come out with a new marketing campaign– began creating a whole new set of facts so now there are more Snapple facts out there than one could possibly find just by drinking Snapple.
After looking up a numerous Snapple facts online, one can figure which are true. One such Snapple fact said “The Mona Lisa” has no eyebrows. Another claims that frogs never drink. A third fact stated that the eye makes 50 movements every second. These were easy enough to check out and, as it turns out, they were exactly right. Further researched concluded that blackboard chalk contains no chalk. While being completely true, it still puts as a damper on many of our childhood memories of school.
Delving even further, Wikipedia dispelled some of the facts that were not entirely true. One such fact states: “A duck’s quack doesn’t echo.” The ducks’ quack does echo, it is simply very difficult to distinguish. Fact No. 162 says that the temperature of the sun can reach up to 15 million degrees Fahrenheit, when in reality temperatures can reach up to 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. This is technically a moot point, because the sun can in fact reach up to 15 million degrees, it can just be hotter than that.
Then there are a select few that have outdated information that is not correct. No. 77 says that no piece of paper can be folded more than seven times. “MythBusters” came to the rescue on this one and did indeed prove this is wrong. However, this fact is true if paper that the average person can get his or her hands on is used. No. 31 states that the average person will eat an average of eight spiders a year while asleep. This turns out to be an urban legend and was widely believed for a long time until a 1993 study was done, and its sole purpose was to disseminate urban myths. Also, a recent Cracked.com article relayed the same information that there is almost no truth to eating spiders while sleeping.
Public opinion on this matter parallels this.
“I think that they are all true,” sophomore Laura Vollmer said of Snapple caps. “If they weren’t true, people would know, and the company would be discredited.”
People have had a hard time finding fault with the truth behind the caps, which translates to a high level of credibility behind them. That is why, after reading that the silk of a spider is stronger than strands of steel of the same diameter, it may have seem believable. Maybe Snapple truly is made from the best stuff on Earth like its ad campaign promises.
Parting advice: Use all the random facts in conversations, because they make you seem smarter. If you can back up your facts with just a little bit of evidence, you can win most arguments. After all, 66 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.
