"Hot dog water" sounds like something you couldn't pay people to drink, but a man in Vancouver just got unsuspecting festival-goers to fork over $38 for a bottle of the stuff. According to signs all over the Hot Dog Water stand at last weekend's Car-Free Day festival, the wiener in water is a health drink. Here's everything the vendor claims it does: increases brain function, makes you look younger, helps you lose weight, and increases your vitality. Oh, and p.s., apparently it's keto-compatible and gluten-free.

Multiple Twitter users spotted the insanity and shared it with everyone outside of Vancouver. You can see pictures of the stand, a snapshot of the person serving water (dressed in a full-body hot dog suit), and the water itself. The drink looks like it's in a repurposed Voss bottle, with a new Hot Dog Water label and a disarming, wiggly hot dog floating inside. Also at the stand, according to Global News: lip balm, breath spray, and body fragrance.

Unsuspecting chums bought into the idea, but Hot Dog Water's creator, Douglas Bevans, ultimately revealed it was a stunt. The point was to make people think harder about the health products they purchase and use. The message was there, in fine print on the bottle, the entire time: "Hot Dog Water in its absurdity hopes to encourage critical thinking related to product marketing and the significant role it can play in our purchasing choices."

In a statement to Global News, Bevans added, "From the responses, I think people will actually go away and reconsider some of these other $80 bottles of water that will come out that are ‘raw’ or ‘smart waters,’ or anything that doesn’t have any substantial scientific backing but just a lot of pretty impressive marketing."

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