Knorr Vie (misleading advertising)

fluppet

If I remember correctly, Knorr Vie used to advertise their 'Vie' drink with the message that it contained almost 50% of your recommended daily allowance of fruit and vegetables.

During the summer I heard ads on the radio for Knorr Vie making a claim that seemed so ridiculous that I was sure I must have mishead it, but today I received a leaflet from Knorr Vie with the same message on it:

Boosts your daily fruit & veg intake by almost 50%

I find it hard to believe that someone could be so silly, and that no one else at Knorr or their marketing company seems to have noticed that this statement is completely incorrect.

(In case you don't see what is wrong with it - to tell you by what percentage drinking a Vie would increase your daily intake of fruit and vegetables, they would first have to know how much fruit and vegetables you personally eat everday. If you currently don't eat any fruit and vegetables, then even a small bit would increase your intake by an infinite percent. If you eat 1 apple everday, then drinking it would supposedly be the equivilant of almost half an apple, but if you ate 5 apples everyday then it would be the equivalent of almost 2.5 apples.)

They don't even say that it increases it by 'up to' 50% (which would still be incorrect - eg. if you didn't eat any fruit, but at least a bit of an improvement).

It seems to me that whoever came up with this statement somehow thinks that it is equivalent to what the original message was (see top of post), but it's hard to see how someone could be so stupid.

whiskeyman

http://www.asai.ie/complaint_view.asp?CID=136&BID=8

you'll find that interesting

aidan_walsh

The tag line was that it contained 50% of the recommended fruit and veg. Indeed, from this page:

Our delicious new Knorr Vie shot – made from concentrated fruit and vegetable juices and purees – provides half of our daily fruit and vegetable requirements.

Nody

fluppet wrote:

Boosts your daily fruit & veg intake by almost 50%

I find it hard to believe that someone could be so silly, and that no one else at Knorr or their marketing company seems to have noticed that this statement is completely incorrect.

This is usually backed up by pointing to survey on the average intakeand then 50% boost that.

fluppet

Even if that were the case, the way they have phrased it is still incorrect. They should say something like boosts the average intake of f&v by almost 50%, instead of saying boosts 'your'...

But they don't even mention any survey or anything like that. I have scrutinised the leaflet thoroughly. And they certainly didn't say anything like that on their radio ads.

haz

The food industry are starting to suffer from these kind of nonsense claims. A portion of fresh fruit juice used to be included in the five portions of fruit or veg per day, but it is being removed because no consumer can identify fresh juice any more.

They had a very active nonsense group called the Nutrition and Health Foundation that worked on these phrases, and on the "consumers are obese because they are lazy junk-food addicts" argument, but that has lost them favour.

In the UK (and no doubt here by corporate extension) the food industry is launching a campaign to sabotage the new "traffic light" RDA food labelling scheme, and will spend four times as much as the health agency on negative advertising. Pity they can't just be honest about their food and spend 4 million on health education. Example: a portion of breakfast cereal contains 25% of the recommended daily amount of salt, i.e. high, but people who eat breakfast (any breakfast) are physically and mentally healthier.

NextSteps

I saw this poster myself yesterday and it is ridiculous. Love to see them try to prove it!