Honest Tea Tests Americans' Honesty

Posted by Sheila Shayon on July 22, 2011 11:00 AM

In the midst of the sweltering heat across America this week, Honest Tea conducted a little experiment.

On July 19th, the Coca Cola-owned beverage brand set up unattended kiosks in 12 cities, inviting the public to enjoy a chilled drink, but to also leave $1 on the honor system — to test Americans' honesty (a riff on the brand's name).

The winner?

Chicago, according to Ustream hidden cameras that provided live feeds of each location, as tracked on HonestCities.com during the social experiment.

“We wanted to challenge people to think about how honest Americans are as a whole, particularly when no one is watching,” said Seth Goldman, president and TeaEO of the company, which boasts the top-selling organic bottled tea brand in the US. “It was refreshing to see that most cities were in the 90% range.”

Honest Tea is donating the nearly $5,000 collected this week to three non-profit organizations: Share Our Strength, City Year, and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

The cities' rankings:

Chicago 99% honest, 1% didn't pay

Boston 97/3%

Seattle 97/3%

Dallas 97/3%

Atlanta 96/4%

Philadelphia 96/4%

Cincinnati 95/5%

San Francisco 93/7%

Miami 92/8%

Washington, D.C. 91/9%

Los Angeles 88/12%