Will Consumers Really Fall for This?

Yesterday I blogged about how certain companies advertise their soft drinks as including antioxidants-which I personally think is a bunch of hogwash. We all know it-drinking tons of soda is not the optimal health move.

Today I saw an article from the LA Times with a similar theme. Apparently there is a non-profit "nutrition" organization that has set parameters for which food will receive a large check mark labeled "Smart Choices". Apparently companies can pay $2, 500 to have their products reviewed and have the "Smart Choices" mark of approval.

This sounds great, doesn't it? Healthy food labeled as a "smart choice". Well, think again.

There has been a tad bit of criticism about this project. Certain cereal has been "Smart Choices" approved, including cereal such as Lucky Charms that contains 12 grams of sugar. Excuse me, but given the epidemic in childhood obesity and diabetes-since when has 12 grams of sugar first thing in the morning been a "Smart Choice"?

I'll tell you who is really making a smart choice, and it's not the consumers. This advertising is a slick move on the part of the corporations to manufacture the myth that this crappy food is actually good for us. They even had the non-profit organization change their criteria as to how much sugar can be included in order to qualify.

This is so disgusting. It reminds me of the same thing that happened with "low-fat" food. They market it as "low-fat" and healthy and then we find out that it has tons of bad stuff in it that isn't even healthy. These companies are just preying on people who are trying to make healthy decisions and don't realize that what the companies are selling them is practically the same old shit that has been making us unhealthy in the first place.

You can read the LA Times article here.

Selling the Lie

Today I saw something on television that really ticked me off and annoyed me.

There I was, minding my own business, trying to relax after my nice, long, relaxing four mile walk. I was chugging down a cold glass of water when a commercial on television came on.

I can't recollect if it was a Sprite or a 7up commercial, but the whole commercial's tagline was "Get your antioxidants". It showed a picture of a clear soft drink with something red in it and was flashing "antioxidants" in red across the screen.

Antioxidants? Um, I don't think so!! Rather, how about...pink corn syrup with a little itty bitty splash of cranberry concentrate. Sugar, sugar and sugar. And whatever else crap they put in those drinks.

It's bad enough that this country has a major problem with obesity and poor health, and now advertisers are repackaging what is bad for us and slapping a healthy label on it?

On a positive note, one thought that went through my head was, "Well people must want to get healthy if the large corporations are using health terms to market their poison to us". Yep, I said it. Poison. You know it's not good for you; I know it's not good for me, but we still have a problem with drinking all that crap, right? But do we really want children being brought up on the idea that these drinks are healthy for you?

Here's another diet coke video that I found online with a similar theme: