New Blog Entry! Now With More Interesting Subject Matter!
You know, since I've had this blog, I seem to go through the day noticing little quirky things worthy of blogmentary (blog+commentary). And it's astounding how much of what I come up with has to do with advertising. I could easily have double the entries I have so far by just commenting on the insane sales pitches and product claims that I encounter.Here's another advertising-based piece of blog-fodder: the "new and improved" label.
It seems like every food company out there likes to slap this claim on the front of its packaging now and then—just to try and drum up more interest. But rarely is there anything significantly different about the food. Nothing that you'd ever notice, anyway.
Not surprisingly, the companies rarely even explain what makes it "new and improved." Occasionally they do. For instance, a bag of chocolate chip cookies may boast, "Now with more chips!" But most of the time, the package says something vague, like, "New! Improved Flavor!"
Improved based on what? A new formula? (Highly unlikely, considering it usually tastes exactly the same.) Better ingredients? (Even more unlikely, considering most of these kinds of foods are highly processed, bad-for-you stuff that is cheap and made to taste great, even if it will make you fat and/or unhealthy.)
To quote Jim Messina, I think "it’s the same old wine in a brand new bottle."
Well, the particular product I saw recently that spurned this thought was the half-gallon of Friendly's brand ice cream in my freezer. It said something like, "New and Improved! Better Taste!"
Better according to whom? I think it tasted pretty good before. And I think it tastes exactly the same today.
Still, whether it's better or not is somewhat unimportant. The bigger question is, does it even matter? In other words, is anyone affected by this claim?
Did anyone say, "Whoa! We could get the Breyers or the Edy's—the latter of which happens to be on sale—but the Friendly's brand has a 'better taste' to it. It's 'new and improved.' Let's get that one. In fact, I will bypass the sale item and bypass my known preferred brand, because this one has been improved! It may become my favorite, instead of my 4th favorite, which is where it stands now. But how would I possibly know?"
Personally, I think we see that "new and improved" thing so often that we don't even notice it most of the time. When we do, we pay no mind to it. It has become meaningless. Kind of like a car alarm. I mean, when you are at work and you hear a car alarm outside, do you run to the window at break-neck speed yelling, "Oh my God! Someone's car is getting broken into!"? Or do you simply ignore it and think, "Someone alarm is going off. That's so annoying," assuming that it was an accidental alarm.
posted by Steve @ 11:23 AM
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