In Canada, a man has been selling bottles of medicinal hot dog water (opens new window) for $38. The organic beef hot dogs were boiled before being added to unfiltered water and poured into a vial shaped like a test tube. The seller, Douglas Bevans, said that the water would:

"lead to increased brain function, weight loss and a youthful appearance, even erasing crow's feet"

Douglas backed up his claims with testimonials and pictures of success stories - including regrown hair. He also used a lot of nonsense scientific jargon:

"Because Hot Dog Water and perspiration resemble each other so when you drink Hot Dog Water it bypasses the lymphatic system, whereas other waters have to go through your filtering system, so really, Hot Dog Water has three times as much uptake as coconut water."

Thankfully, in this instance we're not talking about a con man but a performance artist. Douglas wanted to show people how easy it is to sell a ridiculous health product using marketing techniques like slick packaging, bold claims and testimonials. His stand, with a banner for the company (Hõt Dõg Water), featured a microscope and other scientific looking paraphernalia.

Douglas managed to sell 60 litres of his water to unsuspecting punters at a car-free event - a day where people pledge not to use their cars in an effort to highlight the environment. Presumably an environmentally friendly event has an ideal target market for this kind of alt health nonsense. Hopefully this stunt will help some people to realise that there are a lot of products out there that do absolutely nothing, like hot dog water does, but that that doesn't stop people making silly claims about their abilities.