HFCS- But you were doing so well!

I was skimming through my mom's copy of Everyday Food (more or less a mini recipe book plus tips for noobs like me) and I came across a print ad in the same campaign as those cheesy but ultimately successful ads I wrote about a while ago. I was sorry to see this:


What the heck, guys? I saw it and immediately though, "But those other ads told me something else. Who is THIS ad from?" Whereupon I looked down, saw the logo, and realized I better re-read the headlines.

"OOOOOOhhhhhh, it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek..."

Knowing that consumers are more likely to read just the headline than they are the headline + the body copy, this ad did little to educate, which seems to be the purpose of the campaign. Certainly its ok to attempt some humor, but it was much easier for me to respond to just the headline and skip the body copy, which explains the sarcasm. Maybe it was just the speed at which I was paging through, but that just puts me as a typical consumer. Had I not been attuned to the campaign in the first place, I probably would have taken the "fact," turned the page, and never given it a second thought. Especially because the "fact" given is the common misconception that they're trying to reverse, it didn't quite hit the mark.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have used humor, or made an attempt at more creativity in their education, but I think the ad was poorly done and ineffective, and possibly might set them back further.

High Fructose Corn Syrup campaign- comparison with tech industry

So, I saw one of the new commercials for the Corn Refiners Association new campaign, and while the ad itself was painfully hokey (check out the background music and the giggling in "Two Bites,") it actually reminded me of me. I have no idea why high fructose corn syrup is bad. It sounds bad because of the "high," and anything ending in "-ose" always seems suspect when I've learned various nutritional facts, but beyond that, I have no idea. I know people who cut high fructose corn syrup completely out of their diet. But I still don't really know what it's all about.

I went to the website (Success! A commercial that actually drove a consumer to the website) and got a whole lot of information--truthfully, a bit more than I wanted. I did a bit of digging to see where the bad rap may have come from, and this is what I found:

"According to the USDA, high fructose corn syrup accounts for roughly 41% of all caloric (nutritive) sweeteners consumed in the US.

Around the world, high fructose corn syrup accounts for about 8% of all caloric (nutritive) sweeteners consumed."

OK, so sure, high fructose corn syrup isn't any worse than table sugar or honey, but we Americans simply suck at moderation. So while the commercial is just meant to inform that its no different from other caloric sweeteners, it still doesn't change the fact that unless we abstain from SOME of our desires, we're still going to be as obese as ever. HFCS has just unfortunately won the worst reputation, even though it is considered a natural food according to the FDA, no different than honey or sugar.

In terms of the website layout, it was a little information heavy, and could have benefited from more visuals, as it was quite technical and comparisons often had to be made by crossing from one page to the next and back again. It also goes back to the discussion of Apple--I don't care if HFCS is made up of HFCS-55 and HFCS-42, I just want to know what that means for me. The one cool bit about the site: there's a FAQ section on all artificial sweeteners, so I got to learn more about sweeteners, the alternatives, etc.