Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Since When Does 100 Equal Zero?

Whomever was the marketing genius that thought up the 100 calorie pack should get the next Nobel Prize for marketing. I thought it was a great idea to package snacks into 100 calorie bundles. When it started out, it was things like baked crackers and pretzels. I could live with that (as if I had a choice.) 100 calories is not going to kill any diet, so long as you don't eat a dozen packs in a sitting.

I started to notice the creep of some less healthy 100 calorie packs in the past few months. I've seen packs of Doritos and Baked Cheetos.

It gets to a point that you have to look beyond the calories into thought behind all of this. You can now buy Oreo crisps, Chips Ahoy crisps and Nutter Butter granola bars. All for the small price of 100 calories. The fine folks at Nabisco, who sell these not-so-bad-for-you-if-you-can-eat-just-one cookie packs will even tell you how to burn those 100 calories off. Just click here to find out that 28 minutes of dish washing will burn those 100 calories. (My dishwasher runs a 2 hour cycle -- does that mean that I burn 400 calories by pushing that start button?)

I had to laugh last week when I was in the 7-11 and I saw Milky Way bars packaged into 100 calorie packs. No, not bars, but packs. Two bars, a little bigger than Halloween sized, in a box. Each BAR is 100 calories, each pack has two servings. Is it possible for anyone to eat just one?

My point here is that the people that sell this stuff are playing on our desire for lower calories and it's to the point where 100 calories is nothing. What's 100 calories, after all. It's almost zero!

They're playing on our desire for healthier kids. Do we buy some of these for our kids, well, yes, at least for the snack stuff, not the candy, but I'd rather them eat 300 calories of carrots than 100 calories of Milky Way bar.

Can't wait to see the 100 calorie Thanksgiving Dinner! I'm just saying. . .

L'Chaim!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I had to laugh last week when I was in the 7-11 and I saw Milky Way bars packaged into 100 calorie packs. No, not bars, but packs. Two bars, a little bigger than Halloween sized, in a box. Each BAR is 100 calories, each pack has two servings. Is it possible for anyone to eat just one?"

Stop making my head hurt with all the rationality, please.

Cheryl said...

Definitely NOT possible to eat just one. And, have you noticed those 100 calorie packs of teeny tiny cookies cost more than the regular sized cookies? Sheesh, they can market anything to us who are desperate to lose weight!

Roger S said...

And how much sugar in those 100 calorie packs?? Sugar - the WORST thing for you. Like a doctor once told me - "if it tastes good, spit it out."

Kim Herring said...

I have to chuckle to myself when I see people buy those packets thinking that it will help them lose weight. What happened to buying the box of crackers and packaging them yourself into little baggies. Just because they come in tiny little bags doesn't mean that you won't eat too many of them.

I prefer 100 calorie packs of fruit - oh wait - nature already does that - it's called an apple and banana.....just saying....

Unknown said...

Kim said what I was gonna....

100 calories is 100 calories, no matter how you eat them. Excellent marketing ploy though, they have found yet another way to hook the American public and help them fool themselves. Of course you have to be uninformed enoguh to fall for it.

Pokey said...

Well, it's for our convenience-based society...which I'm embarrassed to say I sometimes fall victim to. However, I'm a educated victim....I dont do it because I dont know better...I just do it sometimes because I have no will power.

bigmike600 said...

Thanksgiving day is going to be tough for me too. I plan on drinking 2 gallons of water about 10 minutes before I eat and hopefully that won't allow me to eat a 10 pound meal. That 100 calorie pack thing is a scam. There aren't enough chips in there. You have to eat like 5 bags to satisfy the craving. Not worth it.