Just about every chemistry blogger—including me—has lamented the increase in the number of businesses that advertise their products as “chemical free”. This rampant war on chemicals is as distressing to our field as it is to common sense—no product is free of chemicals.

But while I’ve seen plenty of anti-chemical ads, I’d never seen an anti-chemistry ad…until now:

My fabulous labmate Megan snapped this photo at the Jamba Juice on historic Colorado Blvd in Old Town Pasadena. For those who might not be familiar with Jamba Juice, it is a fast food chain that sells overpriced fruit drinks to people who want to pretend they are living a healthy lifestyle. Imagine a less successful, fruity version of Starbucks. The slogan on their trough reads:

“ALL THE ENERGY, WITHOUT THE CHEMISTRY.”

Well, hot damn. No chemistry…whatever that means. And here I thought “chemistry” actually had a positive public image (e.g., “that football team has good chemistry”). Oh well. Not for long.

Jamba Juice even has a handsome anti-chemistry commercial too:

Oh no! Taurine? Inositol?! I don’t want anything to do with those!

Give me real fruit juice (for $6.99 + tax) and I’ll forget about the fact that real fruit juice naturally contains inositol, and taurine naturally accounts for 0.1% of our body weight.

Argh! I’ll stick to soda to wash down this stupidity.