March 17, 2011
Once again they’ve changed the way they present calorie information on packages. Until recently it was good enough if it was on the package in a standardized nutritional display. Now the push is to put it on the front of the packages. Soda bottles are leading the charge.
What’s the point? No one drinks Coke for their health, and if they’re worried about calories they drink diet soda. I have no problem with displaying the nutritional information but it comes to a point where it simply gets insulting. Is it too hard to turn the bottle? Do we really need it shoved in our faces? Has anyone complained that one inch and 90 degrees is too far away?
Of course, all of this assumes that the bottle will be facing you in the cooler. If isn’t, then what happens? Will they design a bottle that rotates itself?
HL Mencken once said the no one has gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the public, and I’ve done my share of it too. And I’m about to do some more. The label, in nice big figures, says 110 calories/250 ml. So for every 250 milliliters there are 110 calories. Fair enough, but it is in a 591 ml bottle. Therefore, the bottle is not 110 calories, as they hope the public will think, it is really 260. A more honest label would tell you the total calories in the bottle. Like it or not, no one will do the math. and if they do, who measures out 110 milliliters?
Remember when you could go out and buy a soda in a small cup that was actually small? Today a small, if you find one, is about the size of a Volkswagen.
Again, I think it is great to give people all the nutritional information they need to make informed decisions. I dislike the fact that this label assumes we are too stupid to figure it out without having everything brought down to the lowest common denominator and shoved down out throats. I find it insulting.
The bottle of the future.
Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride 
This was after they realized that they couldn’t have the Late Sam Kinison Pop out of the bottle after opening, so he can grab you by the ears and scream the caloric value in your face.
LikeLike
Nice.
Aflac just fired Gilbert Gottfreid so he’s available. He doesn’t scream as loud but his voice is more annoying.
LikeLike
“Hello Mr. Grocer, could I please have 1763 calories of assorted foods? I’m having some friends over tonight.”
LikeLike
“Would you like generic taste or unflavored? We have a special on Soylent Green.”
LikeLike
“No Soylent Green, thanks, last time I had some I’m sure it was my recently deceased neighbor, and he was SO fat I put on 27 grams… I prefer to watch my clories intake, you know.”
LikeLike