It’s no secret that I’m pretty anti-advertising. Many people think I’m strange for taping over company logos in my house, getting rid of our TV due to ads, and avoiding internet ads with browser addons… but that’s a topic for another blog.
One thing that really annoys me is sneaky, devious, and misleading advertising. It’s everywhere. It’s like propaganda – it takes logical shortcuts in order to convince you of something.
I saw this a few days ago:
Yay, a healthy snack! No corn syrup! Being a food shopper who tends to avoid corn syrup, this would convince me to buy. But then I read the ingredients:
So the filling, which is like half the bar, is mostly corn syrup. Nice.
While it IS made with real fruit, it has more corn syrup and sugar than real fruit.
Secondly, I am pretty sure the size of Nutri-Grain bars has decreased. This has happened to a lot of grocery products – companies keep their prices the same but quietly reduce the content. This is called the “grocery shrink ray” and it’s everywhere. This also enables more misleading advertising:
It’s healthier because you’re just not eating very much. People like me just make up for it by eating four of the bars, which of course Kellogg’s loves because I just ate half the box.
“Well, so what, Ben… they’re not healthy. Just don’t buy them!” Right, lesson learned. What I object to is the misleading advertising. They should have a picture of corn syrup on the front instead of strawberries… this just strengthens my resolve to question any advertising, label, or claim on any and every product.
Here’s another blog on the same topic.
Ridiculous…
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