UPDATEDx2 with video: Sneaky beverage company tested Dallasites’ honesty on Tuesday

by Sarah Blaskovich

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Will you do the right thing?

On Tuesday, Downtown Dallas pedestrians will find a pop-up shop with bottles of Honest Tea for sale. Bottles are $1, but there's a catch: No one will be on site to collect the money. Passersby are given the option to place money in a jar or walk away with the drink scot-free -- but they'll be tracked by hidden cameras and footage will be streamed live online.

This could get embarrassing.

Sure, it's a big marketing ploy for Honest Tea, but it's also "pretty brilliant," according to The Next Web. The same campaign was done in seven cities in summer 2010. People in Boston were most honest, with 93% of passersby paying up. Los Angeles residents were least honest at 75%.

For this year's go-round, Honest Tea will be available for the taking in 12 cities on the same day: Dallas, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Cincinnati, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Though the money will be donated to a charity, the spokesperson said they will not reveal which one. The focus is on people's levels of honesty (or lack thereof), and they believe the results could be skewed if people knew their money would benefit a charity.

Drinks will be available at a corner in Downtown Dallas from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 19 -- and they've asked us not to identify which intersection. We'll be watching.

UPDATE: As of noon, Dallas has received a 90% honesty rating. That's a middle-of-the-pack rating: It's less honest than Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York, but more honest than Philly, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Cincinnati, and L.A.

UPDATE x2: Dallas finished the day with a 97% honesty rating, which tied it for second place with fellow 97-percenters Boston and Seattle. Chicago won with a 99% honesty rating.

If you didn't watch the live stream at least once on Tuesday, you missed out on some fun.

Should you wonder where your money went, it was donated to three nonprofit organizations: Share Our Strength, which connects children with nutritious food; City Year, which focuses on high-need schools to get at-risk students back on track; and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a group trying to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines.

Here's a two-minute video of the shenanigans on Tuesday:

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