Marketing. Making mountains out of molehills, and 'eating solutions' out of food

Quote of the day comes from an online 'magazine' I read this morning. It's not research, per se, just a particularly egregrious example of marketing-speak. It made me wave my hands incoherently, though, before emailing a couple of friends with some choice descriptors and ranting, so I'll share with y'all as well.

'cause, after all, ranting at empty pontifications is one of the things stealthflowers do best. Or most frequently, anyway.

The magazine is a functional foods publication, and they interviewed the maker of a brand of 'raw food' bars. She says:

'The American consumer is always looking for the next solution in terms of eating'.

...

The last time I looked, the best 'solution' for eating was to chew.

Preferably on healthy food, in amounts that are good for your body.

Since when has the idea of something so basic as digestion been conceptualised to the point that we need 'eating solutions'?? Come on, people! There are no 'eating solutions'. There's food!

If you are disempowered enough that you think that someone else is going to have a solution for your life that comes in a food bar, well, welcome to disillusionment. Food manufacturers can't make your health choices for you. And they won't. What they will do is package things up as attractively as possible, no matter what the contents, and leave you to flounder in the morass of conflicting half-stated claims.

Note: I am not in the least suggesting that this particular manufacturer is doing anything even vaguely questionable. I've never seen, nor eaten the bars in question, as I don't think they're available here in Aus-land. Looking at the ingredients, they sound pretty good for you.

However, they aren't an 'eating solution'. They're a food. Get over it.