How Did Snapple Come Up With This L.A. Car ‘Fact’? Reading Tea Leaves?
Just how car-crazy is L.A.? Well, Snapple contends, “The city of Los Angeles has three times more automobiles than people.” That’s what “Real Fact No. 137” says inside the bottle cap of one of the company’s iced tea drinks. It’s part of a series of oddities that Snapple offers in that miniature reading area.
My first reaction was that the “Real Facts” person had been drinking something stronger than tea. I don’t think there’d be room on the roadways for that many cars unless drivers started piggy-backing, like the couple spotted by Keith Johnson (see photo).
In fact, the DMV says there are just 7.9 million vehicles (of all types) registered to the 9.5 million residents of L.A. County, so it doesn’t figure that there’d be a 3-to-1 ratio in L.A. city. I asked Snapple to check its figures.
“Real Facts” (cont.): But then I started to think about Snapple’s statistic and some of the photos I’ve collected.
I suppose there are company-owned cars in L.A. that could be registered somewhere else -- models for scary driving schools, for instance.
Besides, Snapple doesn’t use the word “registered.” What about the innumerable cars that tearful owners have buried in their yards or that owners have affixed to their roofs and walls?
Maybe Snapple was counting the L.A. vehicles in works of fiction, such as the high-flyer on the cover of Ron Goulart’s sci-fi SigAlert classic, “Brainz, Inc.”
Parallel investigation! By coincidence, the Washington Post just printed a piece on Snapple’s “Real Facts,” revealing that the company has had to recall some misstatements.
For instance: “Broccoli is the only vegetable that is a flower.” Oh, yeah, what about cauliflower! (Actually, I wouldn’t have spotted that error.)
A breakthrough? A day after I queried Snapple, the company told me that the car statement was taken from the book “Do Fish Drink Water?” by Bill McLain. That’s where my investigation stood late Tuesday. Not only had I not cleared up the Angeleno cars question, but now I’ll be lying awake nights, wondering about the drinking habits of fish. And broccoli.
