Sugar Advertising: Are Alternative Sweetners a Threat?

It’s Sweet, Just Like Nature!

I’ve been hearing adverts for sugar on the radio on my daily drive to Portland. They start out talking about how things smell, “oooh, smell that aroma of fresh baked peach cobbler,” says one. First, that’s dumb. You can’t get fresh peaches this time of year so invoking the sense to think of peach cobbles is like creating an itch that can’t be scratched. Whatever.

Then they go on about the smells, yummy, yummy, and finally they get to the point. Sugar! They baked something with real sugar! It’s natural, the ads say, and it’s sweet, just like nature. Okay, so what?

So I’m wondering does anyone who’s innocently driving along suddenly hear one of these ads and go, “Well, maybe I should try that sugar sometime. Think I’ll pop off to my local Safeway and grab a bag to surprise the kids.” Nah, I doubt it.

I can only assume they are trying to make up for lost sales to sweetener alternatives such as Splenda (TM), the lesser known Stevia, Lo Han (haven’t tried the latter myself as of yet), and the newly introduced ZSweet(TM), but they haven’t quite figured out how to say what they think; that sugar is better. I can’t see how they’d have anything to worry about since sugar is in everything from toothpaste to ketchup to cleaning products.

Here’s an article with the short and snappy title, “Sugar: Leaving a Legacy of Dental Decay, Obesity, and Dysfunctional Immune Systems for our Children.” I like his mention that a breakfast cereal with 50% sugar is not cereal but candy. I agree totally on that count. That’s why when I eat cake for breakfast and people look at me funny I say, “You ever eat Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks?” For the record, they changed the name to remove the word “sugar.” Wonder why they did that? Maybe one day we’ll see Sugar-Free Smacks.

Check into ZSweet(TM) when it comes to the market early 2006. It promises to really shake of the sugar industry.