Possibly the most controversial product in this year's awards is Medalist's rope, which was found to be "stuffed with nothing tougher than tissue paper". Chef Curtis Stone fronts Coles's $10 meal campaign. Coles won its Shonky for its under $10 meal promotion, which was fronted by celebrity chef Curtis Stone and promoted during MasterChef. Choice said: "The deal claims you can feed four people for less than $10. The catch is you have to already happen to have some of the ingredients in your pantry, which aren't included in the price." The Commonwealth Bank picked up an award for its Standard Awards card, which was criticised "for its poor and sneaky rewards".

Choice claims the bank's customers, who spend $12,000 a year under the scheme, will earn only $20 in flights rewards. Nurofen's Shonky came courtesy of some clever marketing after offering "painkillers labelled for specific pain types such as back, period, migraine". Choice claims Nurofen painkillers actually contain identical ingredients from product to product. "The shonkiest aspect of this type of marketing is that the fast-acting painkillers labelled for specific pain types are more expensive," Choice said. Power Balance bands - which claim to increase an athlete's performance through increasing the natural energy flow - is simply just a rubber band bracelet with a plastic hologram, Choice said.

Choice said the bracelet, which is "endorsed by sporting pros" and sells "for a mere $60 alongside claims it somehow makes you stronger, more poised and just better. The band was tested at Choice under controlled lab conditions, which showed it did little else than empty purchasers' wallets". In an award that is bound to cause much debate, Choice criticised the quality of olive oil in Australia. Choice claims it "tested 28 brands of extra virgin olive oil and found half were nothing of the sort due to poor storage". LG was also named for wrongly stating how much energy one of its fridges uses. The companies have been approached for comment.

- Commonwealth Bank spokesman Steve Batten said the scheme criticised by Choice was only one of several offered by the bank. "The Commonwealth Bank has a number of credit card and credit card award schemes and we encourage our customers to look for their product that best suits their needs," he said. - A spokeswoman for LG said the company made an error when calculating the energy consumptions for the offending fridge. "LG Australia acknowledges that this may have affected the ability of consumers to accurately compare the energy efficiency of affected LG fridges. To address these concerns, LG Australia has offered consumers a number of options which are a rebate, a refund or a replacement," she said. - Coles media relations manager, corporate affairs, Jim Cooper said: "Our 'Feed Your Family for Under $10' recipes have been a huge success and over nine million recipe cards have been picked up by customers since the latest campaign began in April. We’ve been completely upfront about how we have created and costed the recipes.

"In terms of Choice's claims around pantry item exclusions, we've clearly stated that we assume households have basic ingredients such as salt, pepper and oil already in their pantry to help create these recipes. "We believe the vast majority of our customers are comfortable with the recipe calculations, especially as we’ve had only a handful of customer queries about pantry exclusions out of the millions of Australians who have tried a recipe." Loading - Managing director of Medalist, Allan Prager, said: "It is cheap rope but we do not state on there that it meets Australian standards. That's misleading; we don't claim that all. Most of the ropes on the market, the only ones that meet Australian standards, are ropes used for lifting purposes. It is ony a cheap rope, no question about that. It's ideal for household and outdoor recreational use. "It is only cheap rope, we don't deny that, but it's us and a lot of other brands out there that are the same."