“Enough for your meal”
“You’re not fat enough to be an American.” I heard this statement recently on the BBC’s “Top Gear.” And it was funny. Even the young, not-at-all-fat American woman laughed, albeit uncomfortably, when it was said to her. According to the World Health Organization, the US falls at #3 worldwide in percentage of obese adults, behind the Pacific Island nations of American Samoa and Kiribati. Not that the Brits have all that much to celebrate – they’re at #10. There has been a lot of discussion in the last decade about why we’re getting fat and how to stop it. The first question seems pretty simple.
You may have noticed a billboard for Coca-Cola with the tag line, “Enough for your meal.” It is touting the new twin pack of 50 ounce bottles of Coke, implying that previous packages have been inadequate. That’s right, those old 2-liter bottles do not hold enough for a single meal. When feeding your family, you need a full 100 ounces of Coca-Cola to be sure you don’t run out. Really?
Now, I don’t even like soda, so this concept is completely alien to me, but EEW. How many people are at this “meal” for which 100 ounces is “enough”? Are we feeding octo-mom’s brood? God forbid someone should have to drink water, and whatever you do, don’t give those children milk. (Sorry, octo-mom, I’m sure you don’t pour cola down their gullets.)
As of the 2000 census, the average family had 3.14 members – up about a half point from the previous decade – so let’s say that families have grown slightly faster and presume that today the average family has 4 members. That’s 25 ounces, or just over 3 servings, of Coke for each person. The billboard shows two bottles of regular Coke, so we’ll use that in our example… According to Coca-Cola’s Website, that’s nearly 300 calories and 90 grams of carbs – presumably all from sugar.
I know I’m not the only person flabbergasted by this campaign. I know this because I’ve marveled with my friends and seen others marveling, too. One woman even posted a picture to Flickr. So, I guess the only question left is, “How do we stop it?”
2 Responses so far
Valuable Internet Information » "Enough for your meal"
January 4th, 2010
5:45 pm
[...] Go here to read the rest: "Enough for your meal" [...]
batgrl
February 2nd, 2010
11:52 am
Hey there! I’m the one that posted that billboard photo in Flickr and am still shaking my head over it. Even more so because it seems to (in our area of southern CA anyhow) be targeting the Hispanic/Latino community, judging from where I see the billboards and where I don’t. Which makes me wonder if the “enough for your meal” is based on any demographic info on family size in certain zip code areas. Once I figured out the volume of soda that it seemed to sell for just one meal I’m really noticing these billboards when I see them. I would love to hear what the marketing dept folk said in the meeting that came up with this sales pitch.
And I suppose I should add that I’m one of those folks who does drink soda daily, and enjoys it. But there’s such a thing as too much of anything. Not to mention questionable marketing, which is always worth critiquing.