Apparently, the tough economy is leading food companies to take off the gloves (were they ever really on?) and go on the attack against their fellow food competitors, so says the Wall Street Journal. Since the “Eat More” strategy can only go just so far when consumers’ wallets are empty, the companies have gone on the attack.
Burger King tastes better than McDonalds. Campbell’s soup has more MSG than Progresso’s. Domino’s subs kick the pants off of Subway’s. You know, that kind of thing. At issue is whether the data backs these claims up, ensuring lots of work of lawyers and testing firms.
What do these nasty campaigns do for consumers? Not much, really. Aside from whether the Big Mac received a 49% share to the Whopper’s 51% (or whatever the “facts” may be), there is the real issue. Who cares? To us, this mud-slinging just reinforces that
we need to wake up and think for ourselves.
Even if most consumers like canned soup, should you? That depends on you, not what others think, right? Remember, food marketing, product advertising and food companies’ consumer “”research” are just ways to make us forget that it’s our responsibilityto think for ourselves and eat accordingly.