Core77

With plenty o' healthy fruit on the label

By Steve Portigal - January 27, 2007

in Object Culture

Another grocery packaging ethics story. A recent study found many food products with fruit in the name or illustrated on the packaged contained no fruit:

Airheads (take the factory tour here...mmm, sugar) Berry Berry Kix Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries Dannon Danimals XL (Strawberry Explosion) Froot Loops Fruity Cheerios Juicy Fruit Gum Life Savers (Wild Cherry) Nestle Nesquik milk and drink mix (strawberry) Post Fruity Pebbles Push Pop (cherry) Ring Pop (cherry) Starburst Tang Trix cereal Trix yogurt (strawberry kiwi) Twizzlers Yoplait Go-Gurt yogurt (Strawberry Splash)

Yeah, maybe this doesn't surprise you and you don't expect there to be fruit in tasty deadly crap like this, but then maybe one should step back for a moment and marvel at the dissonance we've become comfortable with.

o

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Wellfellow

17 years ago

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Todd,

I hear ya. I swear, marketing departments need to do a lot better job of caring for my kids.
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DC1974

17 years ago

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I guess that should be upsetting, but I actively HATE things that are supposed to be fruit flavored that use real fruit. Minute Maid grape soda -- disgusting. Nehi grape soda -- awesome. If I wanted real fruit -- I'd eat an actual fruit.
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Todd Zerger

17 years ago

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It's also notable that most of the listed products are marketed at children. An audience in the process of developing the ability to make discerning decisions. With 50 percent of children anticipated to be classified over weight by 2010 (in addition to a host of other alarming statistics) it is way past time to demand that ethics play a role in marketing. If we want to lay claim to any sort of compassion or wisdom it is time to start to calculate the "greater good" as a business factor.
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M

17 years ago

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YES!!!! ShockTarts isn't on the list!!
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Brian

17 years ago

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I have just come to expect that nothing has good stuff (fruit) in it unless it is a piece a fruit. But I believe most consumers assume/know that many products that sound fruity contain none. It's just become a norm.
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wellfellow

17 years ago

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You forgot apple computers. I was livid when I found it didn't contain any apples. The other day I bought some hair dye, but lo and behold it did not include the woman featured so prominently on the cover. Furthermore, my puma shoes were not even made from real pumas! It's a good thing Bear Naked removed the image of the bear, people were bound to think it was made of bear. They should change the name, though.

Just wrong indeed!
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Charles Edward Frith

17 years ago

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It's just wrong.
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