
Rebranding Carrots as Junk Food - tortilla
http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2010/9/1/rebranding-carrots-as-junk-food.html
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catone
Brilliant! And fitting, since baby carrots are already the sort of "junk food
of the carrot world." At least, insofar as that they're the lazy alternative
to buying and cutting your own damn carrots.

(Baby carrots are just big carrots that have been pre-cut and marked way up.
Info here: [http://www.wisebread.com/baby-carrots-the-frugal-idea-
that-i...](http://www.wisebread.com/baby-carrots-the-frugal-idea-that-isnt)
... which also brings to mind the semi-related issue of America's aversion to
non-"perfect" produce. That's one of the reasons small, local producers have a
hard time selling to big grocery chains -- they can't afford to cull their
produce of the "ugly" carrots, tomatoes, peppers, etc.)

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megablast
This aversion to ugly fruit and veg invaded UK and Australia year ago as well.
So now, when you go to a supermarket, you will have beautiful tastless food,
whereas when you go to Spain or Italy, you have ugly delicious fruit and veg.

~~~
kentosi
I totally agree. I live in Australia, and I didn't realise this until I went
to India a little while ago.

The fruit there seemed smaller, but far, FAR more tastier.

So it's not just the looks, but also the size that seems to matter in
Australian supermarkets.

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orangecat
Clever idea. I subscribe to the wacky theory that kids prefer junk food to
vegetables because it tastes better rather than because they've been
brainwashed by evil advertisers, but either way this will provide useful data.

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StavrosK
While I agree with you, I notice that I eat disproportionately few carrots
than their taste would suggest (they are pretty delicious), and it's mostly
because of the inconvenience of cleaning them and their relative
unavailability. If I had a vending machine with carrots, I'd definitely choose
them over the other snacks most of the time.

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devonrt
Is it really that inconvenient to clean a carrot? Just peel it and eat it. I
can peel a carrot quicker than most people can even decide what to have at a
vending machine.

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ashu
You don't need to peel carrots, really. They are nice to eat just like they
are!

~~~
patrickaljord
How about all the pesticides though?

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whimsy
Carrots are roots. Even if the plant has been sprayed, you're not eating the
part of the plant that got sprayed.

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blintson
This "rebranding" is obnoxious. If I was kid I'd be pissed. Kids can tell when
you're bs'ing them. They're exposed to enough propaganda already.

The path to healthy food isn't in telling kids what to do, but exposing them
to something better. Look at what Japanese kids eat. I _know_ kids would
prefer salmon-roe onigiri and fried rice to potato chips and twinkies.

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petercooper
Is Japan a good example? If any country is second to the USA in packaging
products to appeal to kids (or, as you put it, "BSing them"), it's Japan:

<http://japanfix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DSC_0019.jpg>
<http://s7.thisnext.com/media/largest_dimension/23448865.jpg>

(I think this is a _good_ thing if, and only if, the food is healthy and
worthwhile to eat - as here. It's easy to rail against branding and
advertising - it's harder to prove it doesn't work.)

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blintson
Yes. Yes it is. Just because they have lots of fancy candy packaging doesn't
mean that Japanese kids eat tons of it.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_obesity#Japan>

Just look at photos of what the Jap kids eat for lunch:

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/lunchinabox/1378172475/>

This is actually what they eat for lunch everyday. It's amazing.

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petercooper
I think I misunderstood your message. What Japanese kids eat seems to be
excellent and I support healthy food choices. What I sensed, however, was an
unfair antagonism towards branding and packaging design as a way to achieve
that. If my inference was wrong, apologies!

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sanj
My favorite bit about carrots is the idea that they'll help your night vision
is propaganda from WWII:

<http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/carrots.asp>

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ars
If carrots actually tasted like they were supposed to, sweet and carroty, it
wouldn't be so hard to get kids to eat them.

Especially baby carrots, which are the junk of the carrot world, do not taste
good.

~~~
yummyfajitas
Why do baby carrots taste different from regular carrots? I thought they were
regular carrots, just pre-peeled/cut.

~~~
ars
Because they use the lowest quality carrots to make them (since they are
usually sold cheaply), and because by cutting and peeling they can hide
defects.

Also peeling them causes them to deteriorate somewhat.

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whimsy
They also bleach them for color and tumble them to round the edges.

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hugh3
I think it's a silly idea for children since children aren't _quite_ dumb
enough to buy the idea that carrots are tasty just because you advertise 'em
(I didn't buy my parents' assertions that cleaning up my room was fun, either,
and teenagers don't seem to buy the "abstinence is cool" message).

But I have to admit that it _did_ make me go to my fridge and get some
carrots.

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kgermino
Interesting idea, although I think the slogan (Eat 'Em Like Junk Food) might
be so corn that it turns kids off of the product. If you want to reach kids
you have to speak their language and whens the last time you heard a 12y.o.
say anything like that?

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jcl
For me, the corniness of the phrase isn't as much a turn-off as the fact that
it validates gorging on junk food.

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pointillistic
1\. Nice packaging has a marketing merit no matter the product. Think how a
beautiful gift wrap elevates an average gift. So why no have a nice packaging
without the "Junk" logo?

2\. Never a good idea to assume that the kids are stupid.

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pbhjpbhj
>Think how a beautiful gift wrap elevates an average gift.

Beautiful gift wrap always makes me think "what a waste of resources" it's
even worse if it's plastic.

I don't think we should be trying to trick people into following what we've
decided they should eat.

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jamesbressi
Reminds me of "Veggie O's"

Ever see Daddy Daycare with Eddie Murphy? Carrots and Broccoli Cereal.

Enjoy:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7tjFE6QMcE&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7tjFE6QMcE&feature=related)

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Tichy
Several diet books I read actually advise against carrots (maybe they are high
in fructose? forgot the reason), so I was expecting this to be serious.

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muyyatin
Nice, but it may be more effective to limit advertising of unhealthy food
during cartoons and shows targeted directly at children.

~~~
blintson
No, no it wouldn't. It would be more effective to stop subsidizing unhealthy
food. The long-term effects of such legislation are almost guaranteed to be a
net-negative because of edge cases. There are already way too many laws. You
should always look first at what can be removed, rather than what can be
added.

~~~
hugh3
No, what would be effective is if the parents of children stopped letting 'em
eat junk food all the fricking time. "Mummy, I want a Snickers". Bad fricking
luck, kid, eat your fricking vegetables.

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smallblacksun
No kidding. If parents would do their damn job and not let kids eat junk just
because they want it, we wouldn't have an issue.

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hugh3
In fairness, "we" don't have the issue.

It's somebody else's issue, and I refuse to accept any responsibility or worry
over the fact that somebody else's kids are fat. I have enough problems of my
own, I've got better things to do than accept part-ownership of the easily-
soluble problems of others.

