Monkeyleg
Member.
Did anyone ever believe this wasn't coming? Italicized comments and bold type are mine.
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Slimming Down Oreos
Kraft Plans to Make Its Food Products Healthier
Kraft plans to reformulate any existing products, such as Oreo cookies, that don't meet its new nutritional guidelines, and it will stop using the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile at schools.
Yeah, we don't want kids to start thinking about phallic symbols too early, do we?
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 2, 2003; Page E01
Kraft Foods Inc., an international icon of snack food, yesterday announced plans to revamp its food products to make them healthier -- and, in some cases, smaller in portion size -- to address concerns about obesity, particularly among children.
The nation's largest food company -- maker of Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, Kool-Aid, Jell-O and Oscar Mayer lunch meats -- also said it will no longer market its products in schools and will try to limit sales of certain products in school vending machines.
How many people get fat eating Jell-O? I mean, you'd have to eat about sixty pounds a day to gain a pound! Oh, and about that lunch meat: how about some tofu?
Kraft said it was responding to rising obesity rates around the world. "We recognize we have a role to play since food is part of the equation," said Kraft spokesman Michael Mudd. "Kraft wants to be part of the solution."
Food is part of the equation? Did this guy have to go to school to learn that food causes weight gain? Let's hope that, as part of his doctoral thesis, he went to Liberia to find out that the lack of food causes weight loss.
Any solution might be slow in coming. Kraft is still assembling an advisory council that will ultimately recommend appropriate single-portion sizes as well as sugar, fat and caloric content for the targeted Kraft products. The recommendations will not be implemented until the beginning of 2004 and are to be phased in over three years.
In the past year, attention has been drawn to childhood obesity, particularly as government statistics show that 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight, up from 11 percent in a little more than a decade.
Attorneys who successfully sued tobacco firms have made it clear that their next targets include food firms, although, so far, their attempts -- such as a lawsuit by overweight teenagers who blamed McDonald's Corp. for their obesity -- have been unsuccessful.
Read: we haven't found a kid who died yet. Give us time, though. Ghouls have nothing but time.
Kraft was also the target of litigation in May, when a San Francisco lawyer tried to block the company from selling Oreo cookies to children in California. That lawsuit has been dropped.
If they found a sane judge in SF, what makes these vultures think they'll find an insane one in flyover country?
Meanwhile, several states and cities, most recently San Francisco, have banned the sale of soda, candy and other junk food in schools.
That strategy may just work. After all, they've banned independent thought in SF, and that concept seems to be working all too well.
"Are we aware of litigation? Of course," Mudd said. "We made these commitments because it's the right thing to do -- for the people who use our products and for our business. If, along the way, this discourages a plaintiff's attorney or unwarranted legislation, well, that's just fine."
Aware of the litigation? Yeah, sure. Just like Jimmy Hoffa was "aware" of the Mob.
Food-industry experts predicted that other companies will soon follow Kraft. "It is one of the early changes, and you will see more of them coming from food producers, restaurants and all sorts of food companies," said Dennis Lombardi, a restaurant analyst at Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based firm that tracks the food industry. "There is an awareness that a growing percentage of consumers are making more decisions based on nutrition."
A "growing percentage of consumers are making more decisions based on nutrition?" Gee, how come they weren't making those "decisions" yesterday? Who got to you?
Even children are changing their attitudes, said Dave Siegel, president of Wonder Group, a Cincinnati-based youth marketing and advertising firm. "It's a nice move and could work in Kraft's favor. It will certainly help parents feel better about their products, and kids today seem more open to nutritional claims." Siegel said children used to be turned off by nutritional claims because they thought the foods wouldn't taste good. But recent kids' focus groups indicate that's no longer the case, he said.
Oh, for Christ's sake. Will somebody just say this guy is lying through his teeth and put a stake through this claim?
Some of Kraft's rivals say they are already doing a lot to create healthier food. Frito-Lay Inc., for example, said it has begun to eliminate certain fats in many of its snack foods and has just introduced Reduced Fat Cheetos.
What's next? Reduced-flavor Cheetos? I think some folks would call those Matzoh.
Nearly a decade ago, McDonald's touted its McLean Deluxe, a reduced-calorie, reduced-fat hamburger. But the burger flopped. Now McDonald's, which reported its first-ever quarterly loss for the last three months of 2002, promises leaner fare for adults.
Everyone repeat: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.
"What distinguishes the Kraft announcement is that it says what it won't do," said Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale University Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. "All the other announcements are companies saying what they will do [such as introducing new products]. . . . . What I see in the Kraft statement is a philosophy of doing business that is consistent with public health. . . . . Time will tell if the substance matches it."
No, I see Kraft trying to do a pre-emptive retreat. Even the French never succeeded with that strategy.
Julie Walsh, a registered dietician and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said none of these changes will make a difference unless people change their eating habits. "We already have a lot of healthy foods available," Walsh said. "But Americans don't buy and eat those."
Something tells me that the reporters didn't have to make too many calls to get this kind of opinion.
To implement its healthier food program, Kraft said it will appoint an advisory council of experts in nutrition, exercise, human behavior, public health and youth marketing to draw up nutritional guidelines for all its products. Those guidelines will cover calories, fat, cholesterol, sugar and sodium and will be used to help the company develop new products as well as reformulate any products that don't meet the guidelines.
Read: We're stalling the sharks as long as we can.
The advisory council will also determine what is an appropriate serving size for products that are packaged and sold to be consumed in a single sitting. "If we exceed those levels, we will reduce the product size," Mudd said. Any product that is reduced in size will be priced competitively, Mudd added.
No, Mutthead. I will decide what's an appropriate serving size for me. If your's is too small, I'll buy some other brand.
In no longer marketing to schools, Kraft will eliminate its promotions, abandon its free posters and colorful book covers and end contests, such as Oscar Mayer's popular School House Jam in which schools compete for up to $15,000 by singing an interpretation of Oscar Mayer jingles.
Heaven forbid that kids should sing marketing jingles. From now on, they'll be confined to singing the "Horst Wessel Song."
"Anything that has a marketing message in it, we won't be doing in schools," Mudd said. He added that Kraft will also try to work with vending-machine distributors to limit the sale of any products in schools that the advisory council deems inappropriate.
So, what's your marketing strategy going to be? Have a young Henry Hill selling Oreo's on street corners?
However, he added, "the company will be ultimate decision-maker on what we do and don't do."
Um, no. It looks like you let the lawyers cut off your you-know-what's.
Some nutritionists and children's advocates expressed concern that Kraft's plans do not go far enough. "It's a nice first step, but what Kraft really needs to do is to stop marketing directly to kids; that's what would make a difference," said Susan Linn, associate director of the media center at the Harvard-affiliated Judge Baker Children's Center.
I love first steps, if only because it's so much fun trying to anticipate what the next step will be.
Mudd said that wasn't likely to happen. "Marketing to children, if done responsibly, is appropriate. We'll make a real, concerted effort to make sure our advertising and marketing do not implicitly or explicitly encourage over-consumption or overly sedentary behavior." But, he said, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile he added, "is fine, just not in schools."
Stop kvetching about the Wienermobile. Just run ads that very explicity show sexual organs, and tie the visual into your sales pitch. All the clothing stores that cater to pre-teens are doing it, and nobody seems to be suing them. I mean, like, just think of all the fun you could have with a photo of a young boy or girl with a wiener! Your are, like, so December, Mr. Mudd!
***********************
Slimming Down Oreos
Kraft Plans to Make Its Food Products Healthier
Kraft plans to reformulate any existing products, such as Oreo cookies, that don't meet its new nutritional guidelines, and it will stop using the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile at schools.
Yeah, we don't want kids to start thinking about phallic symbols too early, do we?
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 2, 2003; Page E01
Kraft Foods Inc., an international icon of snack food, yesterday announced plans to revamp its food products to make them healthier -- and, in some cases, smaller in portion size -- to address concerns about obesity, particularly among children.
The nation's largest food company -- maker of Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, Kool-Aid, Jell-O and Oscar Mayer lunch meats -- also said it will no longer market its products in schools and will try to limit sales of certain products in school vending machines.
How many people get fat eating Jell-O? I mean, you'd have to eat about sixty pounds a day to gain a pound! Oh, and about that lunch meat: how about some tofu?
Kraft said it was responding to rising obesity rates around the world. "We recognize we have a role to play since food is part of the equation," said Kraft spokesman Michael Mudd. "Kraft wants to be part of the solution."
Food is part of the equation? Did this guy have to go to school to learn that food causes weight gain? Let's hope that, as part of his doctoral thesis, he went to Liberia to find out that the lack of food causes weight loss.
Any solution might be slow in coming. Kraft is still assembling an advisory council that will ultimately recommend appropriate single-portion sizes as well as sugar, fat and caloric content for the targeted Kraft products. The recommendations will not be implemented until the beginning of 2004 and are to be phased in over three years.
In the past year, attention has been drawn to childhood obesity, particularly as government statistics show that 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight, up from 11 percent in a little more than a decade.
Attorneys who successfully sued tobacco firms have made it clear that their next targets include food firms, although, so far, their attempts -- such as a lawsuit by overweight teenagers who blamed McDonald's Corp. for their obesity -- have been unsuccessful.
Read: we haven't found a kid who died yet. Give us time, though. Ghouls have nothing but time.
Kraft was also the target of litigation in May, when a San Francisco lawyer tried to block the company from selling Oreo cookies to children in California. That lawsuit has been dropped.
If they found a sane judge in SF, what makes these vultures think they'll find an insane one in flyover country?
Meanwhile, several states and cities, most recently San Francisco, have banned the sale of soda, candy and other junk food in schools.
That strategy may just work. After all, they've banned independent thought in SF, and that concept seems to be working all too well.
"Are we aware of litigation? Of course," Mudd said. "We made these commitments because it's the right thing to do -- for the people who use our products and for our business. If, along the way, this discourages a plaintiff's attorney or unwarranted legislation, well, that's just fine."
Aware of the litigation? Yeah, sure. Just like Jimmy Hoffa was "aware" of the Mob.
Food-industry experts predicted that other companies will soon follow Kraft. "It is one of the early changes, and you will see more of them coming from food producers, restaurants and all sorts of food companies," said Dennis Lombardi, a restaurant analyst at Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based firm that tracks the food industry. "There is an awareness that a growing percentage of consumers are making more decisions based on nutrition."
A "growing percentage of consumers are making more decisions based on nutrition?" Gee, how come they weren't making those "decisions" yesterday? Who got to you?
Even children are changing their attitudes, said Dave Siegel, president of Wonder Group, a Cincinnati-based youth marketing and advertising firm. "It's a nice move and could work in Kraft's favor. It will certainly help parents feel better about their products, and kids today seem more open to nutritional claims." Siegel said children used to be turned off by nutritional claims because they thought the foods wouldn't taste good. But recent kids' focus groups indicate that's no longer the case, he said.
Oh, for Christ's sake. Will somebody just say this guy is lying through his teeth and put a stake through this claim?
Some of Kraft's rivals say they are already doing a lot to create healthier food. Frito-Lay Inc., for example, said it has begun to eliminate certain fats in many of its snack foods and has just introduced Reduced Fat Cheetos.
What's next? Reduced-flavor Cheetos? I think some folks would call those Matzoh.
Nearly a decade ago, McDonald's touted its McLean Deluxe, a reduced-calorie, reduced-fat hamburger. But the burger flopped. Now McDonald's, which reported its first-ever quarterly loss for the last three months of 2002, promises leaner fare for adults.
Everyone repeat: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.
"What distinguishes the Kraft announcement is that it says what it won't do," said Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale University Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. "All the other announcements are companies saying what they will do [such as introducing new products]. . . . . What I see in the Kraft statement is a philosophy of doing business that is consistent with public health. . . . . Time will tell if the substance matches it."
No, I see Kraft trying to do a pre-emptive retreat. Even the French never succeeded with that strategy.
Julie Walsh, a registered dietician and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said none of these changes will make a difference unless people change their eating habits. "We already have a lot of healthy foods available," Walsh said. "But Americans don't buy and eat those."
Something tells me that the reporters didn't have to make too many calls to get this kind of opinion.
To implement its healthier food program, Kraft said it will appoint an advisory council of experts in nutrition, exercise, human behavior, public health and youth marketing to draw up nutritional guidelines for all its products. Those guidelines will cover calories, fat, cholesterol, sugar and sodium and will be used to help the company develop new products as well as reformulate any products that don't meet the guidelines.
Read: We're stalling the sharks as long as we can.
The advisory council will also determine what is an appropriate serving size for products that are packaged and sold to be consumed in a single sitting. "If we exceed those levels, we will reduce the product size," Mudd said. Any product that is reduced in size will be priced competitively, Mudd added.
No, Mutthead. I will decide what's an appropriate serving size for me. If your's is too small, I'll buy some other brand.
In no longer marketing to schools, Kraft will eliminate its promotions, abandon its free posters and colorful book covers and end contests, such as Oscar Mayer's popular School House Jam in which schools compete for up to $15,000 by singing an interpretation of Oscar Mayer jingles.
Heaven forbid that kids should sing marketing jingles. From now on, they'll be confined to singing the "Horst Wessel Song."
"Anything that has a marketing message in it, we won't be doing in schools," Mudd said. He added that Kraft will also try to work with vending-machine distributors to limit the sale of any products in schools that the advisory council deems inappropriate.
So, what's your marketing strategy going to be? Have a young Henry Hill selling Oreo's on street corners?
However, he added, "the company will be ultimate decision-maker on what we do and don't do."
Um, no. It looks like you let the lawyers cut off your you-know-what's.
Some nutritionists and children's advocates expressed concern that Kraft's plans do not go far enough. "It's a nice first step, but what Kraft really needs to do is to stop marketing directly to kids; that's what would make a difference," said Susan Linn, associate director of the media center at the Harvard-affiliated Judge Baker Children's Center.
I love first steps, if only because it's so much fun trying to anticipate what the next step will be.
Mudd said that wasn't likely to happen. "Marketing to children, if done responsibly, is appropriate. We'll make a real, concerted effort to make sure our advertising and marketing do not implicitly or explicitly encourage over-consumption or overly sedentary behavior." But, he said, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile he added, "is fine, just not in schools."
Stop kvetching about the Wienermobile. Just run ads that very explicity show sexual organs, and tie the visual into your sales pitch. All the clothing stores that cater to pre-teens are doing it, and nobody seems to be suing them. I mean, like, just think of all the fun you could have with a photo of a young boy or girl with a wiener! Your are, like, so December, Mr. Mudd!
