Skillful Advertising Is Mostly Just Lies And Deceit

I was eating a granola bar the other day and the ingredients included “RBST-Free milk”. What the hell is RBST and how many milk products don’t tell you they contain RBST? So I looked it up and apparently it’s a BGH (Bovine Growth Hormone). So then I wonder why they just don’t say BGH free, and then I start to wonder that maybe it’s not BGH-free, maybe the milk product in my granola bar is technically RBST-free and not BGH-free.

I question things to an annoying degree. But the truth is, advertisers will go to any length to mislead customers, at least any length that won’t end them up in the clink, which leaves them a real wide berth. They have no intention of being honest with you, they just have to technically be able to say they didn’t out and out lie.

I was eating jalapeno jelly on crackers recently, and I’ve got to say these Flip Sides are pretty good. I know it’s what passes for ingenuity nowadays, blending two different snacks to get a “new” snack, but these are a winning combo. And as I ate, I thought I’d check the nutrition facts to see how much I was hurting my diet.

When I was a child I’d read the cereal box as I ate and the habit has stuck. But packaging for adult food isn’t about amusing the reader, it’s about manipulating them. Look at that package, how much relevant information does it provide? There’s plenty of room, it’s a big box. Plenty of opportunity to alert you to important information, right? I get that they want to show the product in a good light and maybe add a recipe to entice people to use more crackers, but maybe there might be useful info people want to know. Like this, for example:

I think most people would like to know if the food they’re eating is bioengineered. I know I do. That might be a bit of information they could squeeze in amongst all the other mostly useless waste of space. And they do, I must give them credit.

How’s that for honesty? I mean, it’s technically in the place least likely to be read, but it’s there. It’s below the Trademark info, which is somewhere almost nobody would ever go, because who reads the Trademark info? And for the love of God, why would anyone ever think to read what’s below the Trademark info? Who would have enough time in their day to do such a thing when we have things like smart phones and Netflix and funny cat videos?

Well, me, I guess. I like to read packaging and advertising carefully because I’m interested in the way corporations and marketing firms like to manipulate our awareness. It’s an advanced art. The typical person may say I’m making too big a deal of it, but people get paid good money to create impressions. And it is very telling that something so important to many people is so relegated to the absolute least likely to be read spot on the box.

These people know what they’re doing. The typical grocery store clerk knows that the product the store most wants to sell is placed on endcaps. And that the product on the endcap they most want to sell is placed at eye level so everyone sees it. If the side of the box can be compared to the endcap, the one side is simply advertisement while the other side is the government mandated ingredient list and nutrition facts. At what passes for eye height, is written in a very contrasting white against the red background: NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS OR FLAVORS. Pretty healthy, right? You can feel safe knowing there’s nothing artificial in this cracker. It’s all natural. Right?

Now compare that to the lettering that tells you you’re eating a bioengineered food item. It’s not written in all caps like the brag about no artificial colors or flavors. It’s not written in all caps like the question “CRAVING MORE?” Not only is it written in a black that blends quite well against the dark red background, it is literally the smallest print on the entire box. Smaller even than the notice that the image is enlarged to show texture, and they don’t want you to read that, either. AND EVEN THE NOTICE THAT THE PICTURE IS ENLARGED IS IN ALL CAPS.

There are people who get paid good money to make sure you see what they want you to see and don’t see what they don’t. There are focus groups and surveys done about this sort of thing, and the conclusion was people don’t want to eat bioengineered food. How do I know this? BECAUSE THEY PUT THE INFORMATION IN THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE PRINT ON THE MOST UNLIKELY PART OF THE BOX IN A COLOR THAT BLENDS IN AGAINST THE BACKGROUND. That’s how.

The more you study this sort of thing, the more you see the patterns. Because these patterns are all over the place. They’re not just on cracker boxes, they’re everywhere they try to sell you something. It’s in the news programming and on your smart phone. The same sort of people selling you bioengineered crackers are selling you engineered politicians, as well.

The average person won’t catch something like this. As long as the percentage of discontents and awake people is small, they can be discounted. The goal is to keep the majority in the dark about issues that, if they were aware, would cause them to speak up and perhaps even make different choices.

Look for the patterns. Look for the sneaky ways that seek to mislead you or keep you in the dark. They know what they’re doing. It’s a profession. It’s a science. There are no accidents. They’re not doing it for your benefit. They’re doing it to sell you things you don’t want. It shouldn’t be this way but it is. The burden is on you and on each one of us to be more aware, and being aware it is our burden to tell others how they are being manipulated and lied to by the most skillful liars on the planet. And even if you think hiding the truth on bioengineered food is a small matter, it is still deception. If we accept it, even on a small level, it will grow to all areas of our culture. As if it hasn’t already.