Statement Analysis: 5 Hour Energy Drink Commercial

Statement Analysis is a great tool to use in advertising, as well as for investors reading annual reports from companies. It gets to the truth, as the principles are applied evenly, from statement to statement. 

Recently, a commercial for "5 Hour Energy Drink" had a woman holding her hand over a huge stack of paper. 

73% flashed before the screen. 

Here is the company statement from the commercial.  In it, there are no direct lies.  

"We asked over 3,000 doctors to review Five Hour Energy. 
And what they said is amazing. 
Over 73% who reviewed 5 Hour Energy said they would recommend a low calorie energy supplement to their healthy patients who use energy supplements. 73%. "

Now, look at it again.  Did 73% of the doctors who were asked to review 5 Hour Energy drink recommend it?  Statement Analysis is in bold type. 


"We asked over 3,000 doctors to review Five Hour Energy. 

This is a straight forward statement, with the pronoun, "we", as the actress was speaking for the company.  The company asked over 3,000 doctors to review the product.  What number over 3,000?

We do not know.

We do know that when someone is going to deceive, and choose a number, it is often "3"

With the small print that ran across the screen, we will not be able to verify the doctors, their degrees, or professions.  At the end of this sentence, there was a pause, indicating a new sentence: 


And what they said is amazing. 

When the word "and" begins a sentence, it means that there is missing information in between the sentences, as "and" is a word used to connect. 

Note that they "said", and not "reported" indicating verbal response, which may or may not be recorded. 

Over 73% who reviewed 5 Hour Energy said they would recommend a low calorie energy supplement to their healthy patients who use energy supplements. 73%. "

The key, however, to the entire analysis, is found in one single tiny word, made up of a single letter:

"a"

More than 73% of those who reviewed 5 Hour Energy drink said that they would recommend "a" low calorie energy supplement to their healthy patients. 

They did not say that they would recommend 5 Hour Energy drink to their "healthy" patients.  

"A" supplement and not "the" supplement advertised. 

Notice also that they added the word "healthy" patients. 

This helps protect them from law suits as unhealthy people, no matter how defined, will not be recommended to take "a" low calorie energy supplement. 

The conclusion:

They were unable to get the doctors to say they would recommend 5 Hour Energy Drink, so they parsed their words (editing process) just enough to make people believe that more than 73% of doctors recommend their product. 

It is not true. 

Deception indicated in spite of technical truthfulness.  

This is often the case.  The intention to deceive is what we pick up in the language.