Would You Fall For That? Power Drink

Vacationers drinking club soda labeled as energy drink demonstrate the Placebo Effect.
8:42 | 08/02/13


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Transcript for Would You Fall For That? Power Drink
Hi, I'm nick watt from abc news and I'm here with my friends sasheer and scott. Tonight, we're going to venture out into the real world to unlock the secrets of human behavior. So, psychological experiment. On people that happen to pass us by. Exactly. Hi, my name's nick. And I work for the wyfft power energy organization. Would you like to look for this? What's inside this bottle could make you feel strong. Twice the energy, zero calories. It's our new wyfft power energy drink. We set up a booth on the boardwalk at the beautiful jersey shore, one sweltering hot day. We told vacationers we're shooting an infomercial for a fabulous new energy drink. We had t-shirts and posters. We even had our very own banner plane. Oh, and one tiny little secret. Wyfft is nothing more than club soda. You see, we're demonstrating the power of the placebo effect. So, all we did was tear the labels off of club soda bottles and stick on our own. Wyfft. "Would you fall for that"? Would you actually feel stronger after a few gulps? You will be amazed. What we got going on right now is the wyfft energy challenge. It shows immediate results. Who wants to step up and take it? Totally free. Strong. First up, we inviolate our passers by to test their strength at a classic carnival high striker. Swing the mallet, try to ring the bell. Seven. Seven. That's respectable. Is a sleer is going to give you some wyfft right now. We'll see if you are stronger. So, he chugs it and I tell him some highly convincing nonsense about what's in it. It was discovered by phillip MONROE WHO WON THE TOUR de France in 1998. Then, we get him to shake his thing, get it pumping through his veins. Distractions out of your life. Don't punch me. Punch everything else out. We see just how much stronger wyfft has made him. Will he get a better score? Stand back, boys. Keith is on fire! Yeah! Ten, ten, ten! Just like that, kooelt has become a strong man. Felt pretty good. Yeah. Burst of energy. Muscles, mind, where were feeling this? A bit of both. In the mind. If you are wondering if we rigged that high striker, the answer is absolutely not. It's the placebo effect at work and keith fell for it. If you believe a pill will make you better, then it just might. If you believe an energy drink will make you stronger, it just might. Even if that energy drink has absolutely nothing in it to make you stronger. Even if it's just club soda. It's a great trick our minds play on us. But to get the trick to really, really work. We had to make people really believe in our product. We had to hype this up. Yeah. This is pure. This is drained through a glacier in switzerland. It is pure electrolytes the carpathian mountains in eastern europe. It is filters through a slovenian volcano. The more mysterious the ingredients, the better. It's extract of serbian pear. It goes straight to your muscles, works within 60 seconds and lasts for one hour. And then, I ladle on some fake but science-y sounding statistics. 28% increase in lab tests in power. Then sasheer really gets them shaking it. To really make them feel more powerful. We're climbing up to greatness. Let's raise the roof. Push it higher. Ooh, I got wyfft. I'm wyfft-ed up. Are we supposed to do these exercises before? Oh yes. You want it out there in all your muscles so we, we need to pump it round the body. She's buying it. But will wyfft make her stronger? We're trying to beat a four. Yeah! Five and a half. There you go! There you go. Talk me through the difference you felt between pre-wyfft and apres-wyfft. Pre-wyfft I felt like I was just like, slugging it. Uh-huh. And then after the wyfft, i felt like I had -- I like to call it apres-wyfft by the way. Apres-wyfft? Apres-wyfft. Okay. Yeah yeah. I felt like I had more oomph. You're going to hit this, we're going to see how high you get, you're going to drink a bottle of wyfft, you're going to come back and you're going to beat your score. Wow. She got an eight. She got an eight. All right, sasheer is going to give you some wyfft and we're going to watch you beat that score. Oh, the power of club soda. I mean, wyfft. I mean, the placebo effect. Now, cynthia had to beat an eight. Yeah! That's a nine. That's a nine. After you had it, how did you feel different? I felt like an extra boost in my body. Double the trouble. Could wyfft work on a pair? In came molly and ian. Right off the bat, she's questioning his masculinity. Can he ring the bell -- um -- uh-oh. Ah! All right, prove her wrong. Clearly molly does not think you can ring the bell. I had to come up with ingredients so extraordinary that ian couldn't help but fall under the spell of the placebo effect. All that is in it is pond weed that grows on the eastern end of lake geneva. That is it. There's no kof phone. Pond weed? Pond weed. That is it. I can taste it. Really? Did he just say he can taste it? I can taste it. Wyfft power energy drink. Now flavored with pond weed. All right, we got a nine to beat. We got a bell ringer on our hands. Yeah! Come on. Ring that bell! Ring that bell! Yeah! And it works on molly, too. Yeah! A five! You got a five! What did the wyfft do to you? Bubbles good. Got me all pumped up and jittery. It even works on kids. You scored a three and a half and then you went up to a six. Where did you feel it? In your arms? Your core? Where is it? Head. You feel it in your head? Yeah. He's absolutely right, it is all in your head. But would jeff realize it's all in his head? Yeah! Jeff! You're the man! You're the man! I told you you were good for this. Where do you feel the wyfft? Everywhere, it's in my chest. It's everywhere! Nearly every single person who took the wyfft challenge beat their original score. The placebo effect is that good. It felt pretty good. It did? Yeah. Little burst of energy. I felt like I had more oomph. I feel it through out my body just like more energy. I felt like an extra boost in my body. Bubbles really got me all pumped up and jittery. Remember, they're just drinking club soda. So, how did our pumped up winners take the truth? I think I've got a secret to share with you, that what you just drank there is club soda. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. Really? Really. That's all it is? Club soda. Because you know what, your power is in there. You're strong. It's all in the mind. It's called the placebo effect. You think it's working on you so it does work on you. It's in there. It's all in your head. I tricked you? You fell for it. But you know, in a good way. Is it still zero calories? Yeah don't worry. That's all you care about? Yeah. We just got wyfft-ed. You got wyfft-ed. Ah. Wyfft energy drink -- &#9834; would you fall for that &#9834; we're on twitter right now with #wyfft. Wyfft. What does that stand for? "Would you fall for that," our show? We have a show? Wyfft.


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