Advertising Targets Morons - and Finds Them!

Heard this on the radio driving in to work this morning - it was a Seattle jazz station - Jenise, this must be an American thing

They were advertising fresh cherries as being 'fat free'.

I can just hear the sheep now - Hey, Martha, make sure you only buy those fat free cherries, we don't want none of them other kind...."

God help us! A miracle the sugar manufacturers haven't jumped on this band wagon - "Feed your kids all the sugar they can choke down - they won't get one ounce of fat in it"

Heaven knows the powers that be, particularly in the US, regulate what you can say about foodstuffs. Why don't they prevent nonsense claims about things like this?

[Jenise]

That's funny! I've heard such claims about carrots and things, but it's usually when trying to sell the item as a snack and pointing out the benefits of the item as a snack vs. packaged so-called snack foods.

I wish I could say this was new. The grocery store is full of "cholesterol-free" vegetable-based products.

I think it is funny. Like fat free half & half.

There is nothing funny about fat-free half and half. It's a travesty.

Bill
Too late - I can recall fat-free touted on sugar-based products over here. Marketing weasels will get away with whatever they can, but as you grow older the filtering becomes much more efficient.
regards
Ian

Actually, this is really common. For years, I have seen cookies touted as "caffeine-free", soda pop touted as "fat free", etc.

For jollies, compare the nutrition labels on low-fat yogurt and fat-free yogurt. You'll find that the fat-free has more sugar added (presumably, to make it palatable to people accustomed to rich food).

Sigh.

I think it is funny. Like fat free half & half.

"Fat-free half & half" is not funny. It's criminal label fraud.

"Half & half" means half cream, half milk. By definition there is no way it can be fat-free. If this concoction IS fat-free, it by definition can't be half-and-half.

And actually, fresh cherries technically, biologically speaking, are NOT fat-free. They can't possibly be, as all cells, be they plant or animal, contain triglyceryl lipids (i.e., fat). Albeit the fat content is in trace amounts, and it probably meets the Agriculture Department's standards for labeling as "fat free".

-Paul W.

I can just hear the sheep now - Hey, Martha, make sure you only buy those fat free cherries, we don't want none of them other kind...."

Some people will believe anything they hear on the radio or view on the tube. Its those same people who refuse to read a label or buy 'whole' foods.

On a sidebar note: I asked a grocery clerk at our local 'supermarket': "Say what variety of cherries are these ?" The genius said " red " .

[Jenise]

On a sidebar note: I asked a grocery clerk at our local 'supermarket': "Say what variety of cherries are these ?" The genius said " red " .

Made me laugh, but last week I actually noticed a sign over the cherries that said "Red Cherries", and that's vs. the Raniers which were right next to them. Kind of clever solution even if it further mediocritizes things, in that the store no longer has to worry about whether these are lapins vs. bings vs. whatever. Kind of like what's happened to potatoes: red, yellow, white, etc.

Puts me in mind of the section in Fast Food Nation where Schlosser is touring the flavoring plants in New Jersey.

He mentions the same foodists, in the same plants, in the same labs are working on "natural" and "artificial" flavors. Both are man made.

Interestingly, the flavor manufacturers do not have to disclose the ingredients in their flavors - to the public - as long as they assure the government they are Generally Recognized as Safe. Artificial strawberry, for instance, has 50 (literally) ingredients.

The government often sets standards for what you have to have to call a foodstuff by a particular name (they don't always drop the ball as badly as with the half and half), but the accepted additives aren't always specified, if, as you said, they are not harmful.

So we get peanut butter that must be at least 90% peanuts (and IMNSHO should be 100% peanuts) that can have 10% crap in it, as long as the crap ain't considered to be harmful. It could have 10% sawdust, or 10% sugar and still pass muster.