Food and beverage giant PepsiCo claims to be “investing in a healthier future for people and our planet.” But how is that possible when their top-selling products include Mountain Dew and Doritos?
Check out my article on PepsiCo over at AlterNet. Please post comments there, if you’re so inclined, since editors love that.
In case potato chips lovers had no idea where their favorite salty snacks came from, America’s largest chip maker has launched a new ad campaign clearing up the confusion once and for all.
As explained by the New York Times this week (in the advertising section, not food, and rightly so) the ads appear to stem from recent concern over the high salt content and other nutritional challenges of the likes of Lay’s. To quote columnist Stuart Elliot, the campaign “is intended to help consumers think of Lay’s as a food rather than a snack” and is “centered on farmers who grow potatoes for the maker of Lay’s, the Frito-Lay unit of PepsiCo.”
Not to miss out on the current “love your local farmer” movement, the campaign features ads of regional farmers in local markets, along with an online “Happiness Exhibit” photo gallery at lays.com.
The Times describes why the stakes are so high. Lay’s is PepsiCo’s third best-selling product, second only to the company’s Pepsi-Cola and Mountain Dew brands. Total Lay’s sales topped $2 billion last year. Yet, growth is the key to continued success, and according to the Times:
Sales growth for Lay’s had slowed to less than 1 percent from 2005 to 2007, raising concern among executives at Frito-Lay as well as PepsiCo.
Surveys revealed that Frito-Lay had a perception problem on its hands. Apparently, a third of respondents thought the ingredients were “not real potatoes.” That’s when the marketing machine sprung into action. New ads were designed to convey the “three simple ingredients” in the main variety of Lay’s, called Lay’s Classic: potatoes, “all-natural” sunflower oil and “a dash of salt.”
The addition of farmers to the ad campaign is an aim, says Gannon Jones, vice president for portfolio marketing at Frito-Lay, “to put the hometown face on it, and the hometown face is our farmers.”
How touching. Funny the company didn’t put the “hometown face” of the local factory workers who pulverize the potatoes, and then douse the mixture in salt (more than a dash) along with many gallons of (“all-natural”) oil. Or the other numerous local factory workers who must work very hard turning those “simple ingredients” into fried chips. Then there are even more local factory workers on the assembly line where all of those many chips are put into bags. Hmmm.
Oh wait, they also left out the local factory workers who put the bags into boxes, seal the boxes and get them ready to leave the factories. And who can forget all the local truckers who have to drive the big trucks to the regional distribution centers before they can be delivered by yet other local truck drivers to all those local stores. Nope, just gonna focus on the local farmers. Wonder why?
I thought this local angle sounded familiar. Indeed, when Frito-Lay first tried to go the “Local Lay’s” route last year, there was plenty of skepticism to go around. (See for example, Frito-Lay Embraces Local Movement, But Movement Does Not Embrace Frito-Lay.)
Also, I was interviewed for this article in Ad Age at the start of the campaign and called it disingenuous then. (That was an understatement.) Here’s what else I had to say about it:
Let’s be honest: It’s processed junk food. It’s just companies scrambling to save themselves as they see the trend happening as people are waking up and getting a clue that maybe packaged food isn’t good for you.
Then I got the last word in that story:
They have factories all over the country so they’re locally processed? Give me a break. That’s hilarious. You might as well say ‘I rolled this cigarette in my backyard so it’s local.’
Sorry for recycling old quotes, but if it still works, why not?
Thanks to my esteemed colleague Marion Nestle who pointed me to this story. Her clever name for it? Farmwashing!
The opening of the next installment in the blockbuster Iron Man franchise may still be a few weeks away (May 7), but the promotions are in full swing. As Advertising Age describes today, the movie has attracted more than $100 million in media buys, retail tie-ins, and giveaways. Of the ten brands listed in the Ad Age article, five promote foods that are are not exactly conducive to Iron Man’s heroic image. But who cares about the disconnect, with so many dollars up for grabs. And of course, with so many youngsters likely to see the film, the brand loyalty-building potential is key.
Here, as Ad Age describes them, are the five shameless product placements / co-branding deals:
BURGER KING
A returning sponsor from 2008 (and a co-star in a key scene in which Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark requests a cheeseburger that happens to come from the home of the Whopper), Burger King is upping its “Iron Man” marketing machinery this time around with a major company-wide push that kicks off April 26. The fast-feeder will feature an “Iron Man 2”-branded sandwich, the “Whiplash Whopper,” and eight film-related toys — four for boys and four for girls. A bevy of TV ads targeted separately toward adults and kids will roll out as well, in addition to a heavy online presence at ClubBk.com.
7-ELEVEN
Another repeat partner, 7-Eleven, is executing several marketing firsts on Marvel’s behalf, including its first movie tie-in TV ad to promote its custom “Iron Man” straws, Big Gulp cups and other merchandise, as well as a Live Like a Billionaire Sweepstakes for slurpee.com. The initiative will be supported with radio and web ads as well as a presence on 7-Eleven’s in-store TV network.
LAND O’FROST
Tony Stark sandwiches? Land O’Frost lunchmeats are back with a major two-and-a-half month push that will feature “Iron Man” sweepstakes, TV ads, print placement in major titles such as Family Circle and Ladies Home Journal and an in-store blitz that includes 10 million Land O’Frost packages and point-of-sale materials such as life-size Tony Stark standees.
DR PEPPER
Dr Pepper has already kicked off a three-month ad and retail campaign that includes 14 collectible cans and a series of TV ads featuring “Iron Man” creator Stan Lee. Mr. Fleming told Ad Age that “Iron Man 2” represents the brand’s first big movie partnership since 2008’s “Indiana Jones & the Crystal Skull.” Even the movie’s director, Jon Favreau, got with the program, posting pictures of the cans on his Twitter feed.
HERSHEY’S
For its first “Iron Man” campaign, Hershey’s is using its Reese’s brand to engage fans in the Marvel universe, much as it did with Warner Bros. for 2008’s “The Dark Knight.” The peanut-butter cup is sponsoring a sweepstakes offering fans a chance to win a walk-on role in an upcoming Marvel movie, and is using “Iron Man 2”-branded packaging in the U.S. and over a dozen global territories. The extensive effort will continue through the end of September.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, that venerable organization that never seems to tire of studying the same problems over and over again, has once again demonstrated that food and media companies are failing miserably when it comes to improving its marketing practices toward children. The report gives 3/4 of companies reviewed a failing grade for either having weak policies or having no policy whatsoever. The report’s poster child (so to speak) is shown here, Chuck E. Cheese’s “pizza maker,” which doesn’t actually make pizza, thankfully.
From the press release is this horrifying product description:
Candy company Topps also got an F. That company makes, among other things, Baby Bottle Pop, a powdered candy sold in a miniature baby bottle, eaten by dipping a candy nipple in a sugary powder and licking it off. Over the years Topps has retained the services of the Jonas Brothers and the Clique Girlz singing groups to convince children to purchase that infantilizing product, whose 140 calories all come from sugar.
Gross. Since this is hardly earth-shattering news, the real question is when we are going to see any political will to do something about it. While Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program is admirable for its emphasis on school nutrition and food deserts, it’s painfully silent on junk food marketing. No amount of exercise can overcome the food habits being pushed on America’s kids by Corporate America’s billions of advertising dollars. Let’s move on that.
