CHOICE Shonky Awards 2024: Calling Out the Worst in Products and Practices
By Ian Rogers
The CHOICE Shonky Awards, now in their 19th year, continue to spotlight the most misleading, disappointing, and outright shonky products and business practices in Australia. This year’s awards shine a light on five standout offenders that failed to deliver on their promises—or fairness.
The 2024 CHOICE Shonky Award Winners
- Meta – Failing to Protect Aussies from Scams: With social media scam losses hitting a record $95 million in 2023, Meta earned its spot by not adequately addressing scams on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. CHOICE reported suspicious ads to Meta, but poor response times and loopholes allowing repeat offences highlight a lack of commitment to user safety.
- Acerpure Clean Lite Stick Vacuum – The Worst Stick Vacuum Ever Tested: Acerpure’s $199 vacuum promised “great suction power” but delivered abysmal results in CHOICE’s performance tests, scoring just 10% on hard floors. Prone to clogs and requiring excessive maintenance, this vacuum creates more work than it solves.
- NIB – Unfairly Charging Single Parents: Health insurer NIB imposes significantly higher costs on single parents compared to couples for equivalent policies. Single parents face nearly double the premiums to add a child, with their policies sometimes costing more than those for childless couples—exposing systemic inequity in health insurance pricing.
- Daily Juice Co – Misleading ‘Green’ Juice Claims: Daily Juice Co’s “green” juices contain no vegetables and rely solely on food colouring for their green hue. CHOICE’s experiment with the listed ingredients revealed the juice’s true colour—orange—proving there’s nothing “green” about it.
- GroundingWell Grounding Socks – Unsubstantiated Health Claims: GroundingWell’s $40 socks promised to alleviate pain, improve sleep, and reverse aging but failed to provide evidence for any of these benefits. Worse, the poorly constructed socks fell apart after two uses, making them doubly shonky.
CHOICE CEO: Shonkys Still Needed More Than Ever
“As we near 20 years of the Shonky Awards, it’s clear they remain essential,” said CHOICE CEO Ashley de Silva. “From Meta’s inaction on scams to NIB’s inequitable pricing, and products like the Acerpure vacuum and GroundingWell socks, shonkiness is alive and well.”
CHOICE urges consumers to remain vigilant and encourages regulators to hold companies accountable for misleading practices.
Visit CHOICE Shonky Awards to learn more about this year’s winners and how to protect yourself as a consumer.
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