See-through swimwear, a bank account that lures in kids and peanut butter biscuits with zero peanuts.
These are some of the shonkiest products of the year, according to Choice.
The consumer group has recognised seven companies from a field of more than 1000 at its Shonky Awards - an annual celebration of the slippery and the unscrupulous.
The winners include:
- Biscuit-maker Arnotts, recognised for withholding any trace of peanuts from its peanut butter Tim Tams, and for stripping packets of two biscuits while leaving the price and package size unchanged.
- Kmart, for selling see-through swimwear that came with a warning to avoid "excessive contact" with suntan lotions.
- Vorwerk, maker of the popular Thermomix all-in-one kitchen appliance, for attempting to milk more sales of an older version by providing no notice about its first new model in seven years.
- Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite e-book reader, for advertising eight days of battery life when the reality with regular use is closer to 28 hours.
- Aspen, for promoting its S26 toddler formula in spite of experts and international guidelines holding that such products aren't necessary for healthy youngsters after the age of one.
- Commonwealth Bank, which apologised for financial planning failures while lobbying to water down consumer protections.
- Bankwest, for offering a high, teaser interest rate for children before slashing it after 12 months.
Choice says the awards do not mean the companies are breaking laws or breaching regulations.
Rather, award winners are "sneaky, slippery, unscrupulous and sometimes unsafe", said chief Alan Kirkland.
The threat of an award, he said, encourages companies to "sharpen up their act".
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