Stimulus: HydraMax Pro influencer post and laboratory trial

1: The viral social media post

Account: @FitWithRhys_CW (148,000 followers) · Posted 2 days ago · #Ad #HydraMaxPartner

“STOP wasting your training sessions drinking plain water! My followers know I only recommend products backed by real science. Last Saturday I tested HydraMax Pro Berry Blast on 6 athletes at my gym after a 15-minute treadmill run. Every single person drank one 500 ml bottle of HydraMax Pro and rated how energised they felt 20 minutes later on a scale from 1 to 10. Their average energy score jumped from 5.0 to 7.0: that is a massive 40% faster recovery! Look at the bar chart below from the HydraMax website showing 400 m sprint recovery times: the HydraMax bar towers over plain water! Grab your crate today for £2.80 a bottle using code RHYS15 for 15% off!”

Fine print at bottom of post: Paid partnership with HydraMax Performance Ltd. Creator receives a 10% commission on sales using code RHYS15. Gym mini-test had no comparison drink group; participants knew they were drinking HydraMax Pro.

2: Independent laboratory trial (Cardiff Sports Science Laboratory)

Six months earlier, sports scientists at an independent university laboratory tested HydraMax Pro against two comparison drinks. The study was funded by a public university research grant, and neither the runners nor the timers knew which drink each bottle contained (a double-blind controlled trial). All three drinks were flavoured with sugar-free berry drops and served in identical opaque bottles so they looked and tasted the same.

Group (20 runners each)	Baseline 400 m sprint mean (s)	Recovery 400 m sprint mean (s)	Time improvement (s)	Mean blood glucose 20 min after drink (mmol/L)
Group A: Plain water (negative control)	50.0	49.5	0.5	4.5
Group B: Diluted orange squash + pinch of salt (positive control)	50.0	49.1	0.9	5.7
Group C: HydraMax Pro Berry Blast	50.0	49.0	1.0	5.8

Group (20 runners each)

Baseline 400 m sprint mean (s)

Recovery 400 m sprint mean (s)

Time improvement (s)

Mean blood glucose 20 min after drink (mmol/L)

Group A: Plain water (negative control)

50.0

49.5

0.5

4.5

Group B: Diluted orange squash + pinch of salt (positive control)

50.0

49.1

0.9

5.7

Group C: HydraMax Pro Berry Blast

50.0

49.0

1.0

5.8

Laboratory note on repeatability: Between Groups B and C, the 0.1 second difference in mean recovery sprint time (49.1 s versus 49.0 s) was within normal runner-to-runner variation and was not statistically significant.

3: Nutrition and cost comparison table

Notice the column headings carefully: HydraMax Pro prints its nutrition label per 100 ml even though it is sold in a single 500 ml bottle. NHS guidelines state that teenagers (aged 11 and over) and adults should have no more than 30 g of free sugars per day.

Drink	Carbohydrate (all free sugars) per 100 ml	Sodium (electrolyte) per 100 ml	B-vitamins added?	Retail cost per 500 ml serving
HydraMax Pro (500 ml bottle)	7.2 g	50 mg	Yes (excess is excreted in urine if diet is normal)	£2.80
Homemade sports drink (500 ml diluted orange squash + 0.6 g table salt)	4.4 g	48 mg	No	£0.14
Plain tap water (500 ml)	0.0 g	0 mg	No	£0.00

Drink

Carbohydrate (all free sugars) per 100 ml

Sodium (electrolyte) per 100 ml

B-vitamins added?

Retail cost per 500 ml serving

HydraMax Pro (500 ml bottle)

7.2 g

50 mg

Yes (excess is excreted in urine if diet is normal)

£2.80

Homemade sports drink (500 ml diluted orange squash + 0.6 g table salt)

4.4 g

48 mg

£0.14

Plain tap water (500 ml)

0.0 g

0 mg

£0.00

4: How the same lab data was plotted on two different graphs

Both bar charts below use the recovery sprint times from Section 2 (Water: 49.5 s, Squash: 49.1 s, HydraMax Pro: 49.0 s). Instead of starting the vertical axis at 0.0 s, the HydraMax marketing team plotted Graph A on an inverted, truncated axis starting at 49.6 s at the bottom and running to 48.8 s at the top.

Graph A: HydraMax Pro promotional chart (truncated y-axis starting at 49.6 s)	Graph B: Honest scientific chart (full y-axis starting at 0.0 s)
Y-axis baseline: 49.6 s (0 mm bar height). Scale: every 0.12 s faster than 49.6 s = 10 mm of bar height. Group A (Water, 49.5 s): bar height = 10 mm Group B (Squash, 49.1 s): omitted from the promotional advert! Group C (HydraMax Pro, 49.0 s): bar height = 50 mm Water (49.5 s): (10 mm) HydraMax Pro (49.0 s): (50 mm) Notice two tricks: Group B (diluted squash, 49.1 s) was left off the chart completely, and starting the axis at 49.6 s makes the HydraMax Pro bar 5 times taller (50 mm vs 10 mm) when the real difference is only 0.5 s (1.0%).	Y-axis baseline: 0.0 s (0 mm bar height). Scale: every 1.0 s = 1 mm of bar height. Group A (Water, 49.5 s): bar height = 49.5 mm Group B (Squash, 49.1 s): bar height = 49.1 mm Group C (HydraMax Pro, 49.0 s): bar height = 49.0 mm Water (49.5 s): (49.5 mm) Squash (49.1 s): (49.1 mm) HydraMax Pro (49.0 s): (49.0 mm) When the axis starts at zero and all three groups are shown, the visual difference between HydraMax Pro and homemade squash is 0.1 mm: barely visible to the human eye.

Graph A: HydraMax Pro promotional chart (truncated y-axis starting at 49.6 s)

Graph B: Honest scientific chart (full y-axis starting at 0.0 s)

Y-axis baseline: 49.6 s (0 mm bar height).
Scale: every 0.12 s faster than 49.6 s = 10 mm of bar height.

Group A (Water, 49.5 s): bar height = 10 mm
Group B (Squash, 49.1 s): omitted from the promotional advert!
Group C (HydraMax Pro, 49.0 s): bar height = 50 mm

Water (49.5 s): (10 mm)

HydraMax Pro (49.0 s): (50 mm)

Notice two tricks: Group B (diluted squash, 49.1 s) was left off the chart completely, and starting the axis at 49.6 s makes the HydraMax Pro bar 5 times taller (50 mm vs 10 mm) when the real difference is only 0.5 s (1.0%).

Y-axis baseline: 0.0 s (0 mm bar height).
Scale: every 1.0 s = 1 mm of bar height.

Group A (Water, 49.5 s): bar height = 49.5 mm
Group B (Squash, 49.1 s): bar height = 49.1 mm
Group C (HydraMax Pro, 49.0 s): bar height = 49.0 mm

Water (49.5 s): (49.5 mm)

Squash (49.1 s): (49.1 mm)

HydraMax Pro (49.0 s): (49.0 mm)

When the axis starts at zero and all three groups are shown, the visual difference between HydraMax Pro and homemade squash is 0.1 mm: barely visible to the human eye.