CR7-sponsored brand of mineral water raises concerns over false health claims

The website ‘El Comidista’ says the water brand, URSU9, sponsored by Ronaldo, falsely claims to have various health benefits.

On one of Cristiano Ronaldo’s most recent trips to Spain, the football star presented his latest business venture. The Al Nassr forward has sponsored the mineral water company, becoming one of the faces of URSU, a brand that is based in Ávila, north-west of Madrid.

Defined as ‘much more than water’, the company employees assure that with the drink they intend to “improve the quality of life for the population in general”. On their website, the company claims that, due to the location of the base, among the porous rocks of Ávila, their product is protected from “external aggressions, guaranteeing stable and permanent characteristics, without suffering human or chemical contamination”.

El País have exposed the lies behind the URSU campaigns

However, all is not as it seems. According to El Comidista, a branch of Spanish newspaper El País, which specialises in gastronomy, warn of the large quantity of lies behind the promotions from URSU. For example, they show that there is not evidence whatsoever that the water from Ávila is any better than other and that all scientific studies on the matter have concluded that it is “of low or doubtful quality”.

To make matters worse, there are no references in the form of permission for Ávila water in the official Spanish governmental ruling regarding what can and cannot be said by companies in terms of health benefits. Of course, there is no comment from the ruling regarding ‘Antioxidant water’, one of the supposed benefits of the drink, as water’s capacity to be antioxidant is virtually inexistent - so much so that water is used as the control substance in tests to measure antioxidant properties in other products.

The advertising campaign put out by the company shows images of a huge quantity of water, supposedly coming from the El Oso lagoon in Ávila. A quick scan through Google Maps shows this not to be the case: the images shown in the promotional material from URSU9 have nothing to do with Ávila.

URSU is not all it is said to be...

In another advert, a waterfall appears that is actually a location in Portugal, known as Serra do Açor, a four hour-long drive from Ávila. La Cascata da Fraga da Pena, another location shown, is 20km west of Serra do Açor, even further from Ávila.

If the video that promotes the water is not entirely accurate, the story behind the supposed tale of the water is not all true. According to the company’s version of events, the region where the water comes from owes it name to the bears that frequent the area to drink. However, this is not the case, as specialists from the region have confirmed that the name has nothing to do with this, and that it is completely false.

The last of the lies that El Comidista present comes from a detailed analysis of the pH count of the water inside the bottles. Despite the fact that the company claims the pH level of their product is a 9, the highest number collected in the data was 8.62, meaning that the true pH level is three or four times lower than suggested.