Spanish Water Scam -- the epic ballad -- teaser post :)

Hi guys, gals, and NB pals! Boy, have I got a story for you.....

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It all started one afternoon in my AP spanish class.

My teacher and I were watching one of the videos on Collegeboard’s website and working through the practice problem. One of the materials happened to be an interview. It was about water, or something. It wasn’t really about anything at all (it was a very poorly done interview) although they talked about water a lot. Nothing in the video was explicitly incorrect (so far as I could tell, given that I am still learning spanish), but something about it was off. Very off.

Maybe it was the appearance of the man being interviewed. Maybe it was the fact that he had no discernible credentials. Maybe it was the YouTube channel’s weird name. Maybe it was the fact that the interviewee used no scientific language; rather, strange keywords and altogether unnatural phrases. Most likely, all of these little signals combined to create a big red flag. It was eerie.

I decided to look into the video further because of the language. It sounded similar to the language used on a news segment. The segment was covering a company that sold unfiltered water at exorbitant prices with promises of spiritual and physical healing -- the usual sort of fake-science scam. As soon as the video was done, we paused class so I could do just a quick mini-investigation into this company, and their so-called “water-expert”.

Well, from the title you already know the outcome. But as maddening and exploitative as these scams are, I find the whole situation quite funny. So I thought I’d share with you some of the buffoonery I uncovered.....