While the above ad wasn’t the first offensive ad I saw by the Corn Refiners Association, it is probably the most patronizing and misleading. In it, the actor is in effect calling the audiences “dufuses” for believing that high fructose corn syrup is bad for you.
The problem with ads like this is that the public really does know better in the age of the internet. While a strategy like this may have worked in the eighties, now I’m sure these ads encourage quite a bit of Googling on the subject. Once you do, you find out that there has been a huge backlash against the ads on YouTube and the rest of the blogosphere.
It is worth bringing up again because the Corn Refiners Association is still airing the ads, which must mean that they have some degree of efficacy. While we could blog about all of the reasons the ads are wrong, we found a video that does a great job:
Tags: corn refiners association, hfcs advertising, high fructose corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup ads
Comments (2)
The problem is that a lot of people know better, but there are also many people who don’t. There are people who are not very active online and who get a lot of information from TV and trust it.
What about kids, what about our elderly? They are being fed by these commercials that it is safe to poison themselves and they shouldn’t be concerned. To me it is so unethical, that I think anybody involved in those commercials should be ashamed of themselves. When America is struggling from diabetes they feed us lies just to get our money.
I do not know if hfcs is bad for you or not – the trouble is that no body does with out additional research proving other wise. The studies that are referenced are not proven, flawed or even non existent. It is true that America is faced with growing health concerns. It is true that there is too much sugar intake. What is not proven true is that there is any direct link to hfcs versus that of other sweeteners. I think that is the point of the advertising. Not to say that too much of any sweetener is ok, but that too much of any sweetener is bad. And that hfcs is no worse or better than other sweetening agents. These articles, videos etc, never have conclusive proof, only what has been referenced by others or “believed to be the case”. Where are the absolute facts, not opinions or theories!