Does the Purple Mattress Live Up to the Hype? Investigation Puts It to the Test

The now-viral commercial promises the mattress will pass the "human egg drop test."

The Purple Mattress is famous for the hilarious commercial featuring what's known as the “human egg drop” test, a stunt designed to show the mattress is so supportive and comfortable that eggs won't break when a person falls on top of them.

Inside Edition’s Chief Investigative Correspondent Lisa Guerrero wanted to see if the human egg drop test really worked, so she tried it out herself.

Supervising the test was Prof. Ali Sadegh of New York's Grove School of Engineering, as well as stuntman Bob Cotter. 

Straight away, Cotter realized there was an issue. “This mattress is not thick enough to be dropped," he said.

The mattress in the commercial has extra layers of padding. The mattress delivered to Inside Edition did not have those layers. 

“It's not exactly what the consumer will get,” Sadegh said. 

“So what we saw in the commercial is slightly deceiving?” Guerrero asked.

“Exactly,” responded the professor.

Before the test, Guerrero asked the stuntman: “You're saying I could get hurt because I could hit the hard ground below?”

"You're gonna hit the hard ground," Cotter affirmed.

The experts advised Guerrero that she could break her back without protection, so Inside Edition added a second mattress underneath for her safety.

Professional wrestler Brian Milonas of Ring of Honor Wrestling was on hand to assist. First, he attached the eggs to Guerrero using Velcro and she was dropped from above. All three times, none of the eggs broke.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Milonas said. 

To prove we used uncooked eggs, Guerrero smashed the raw egg on Milonas' head.

Milonas, with egg on his face, told Guerrero, “You’re lucky I like you."

Then came a more challenging test — this time with Milonas, a 400-pound wrestler. The harness could not hold him so he did the human egg drop his own way, falling backward from a ladder.

One of the three eggs attached to his back did not survive his weight as he dropped onto it.

The mattress you see on TV may pass the human egg drop test, but as for the mattress you actually get, our experts say forget about it.

Purple Mattress sent the following statement to Inside Edition: “Great to hear how well your experiment turned out! One out of 8 eggs is great for this un-scientific experiment! Regarding your questions: We did not use the same mattress we send to customers. We filmed with a prototype. However, there is a layer of foam between the polymer and the coils on the consumer models."

For the record, the Purple Mattress actually did better than that, with only one out of 12 eggs breaking.

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