I kinda have a theory, if there is words I cannot easily say or it has more than 2-3 syllables in it, I generally don't eat it.
Cedar
Back in the 1970's, Pringle's New Fangled Potato Chips got introduced to the American market. Their key selling points were
1) the tall can is neat and convenient and reclosable
2) their design and packaging means virtually zero chips are broken
3) they tend to be grease-free and don't leave a smeary, crumb-laden mess on your fingers.
Here's the first Pringke's TV spot. It's less than 2 minutes long and safe for work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHkedT1aN8YPringle's immediately became a huge hit in the American snack food market. But the traditional potato chip manufacturers came back at them with an entirely new ad campaign the likes of which hadn't been seen before.
I regret I do not have that (anti-Pringle's) TV ad. I have searched the interwebs in vain for it. All I can do is describe the ad as I remember it.
The traditional potato chips manufacturers same up with a TV commercial where two quiet little boys were passively sitting side by side in a playground, looking up dutifully at an unseen off-camera adult. The hands of the unseen adult reached forth into the frame and handed the two boys each one pack of potato chips. One was Pringle's Chips, and the other was (I think) Wise Potato Chips. The adult said "Okay, kids, here are the rules: You can't open your chips until AFTER you read the entire ingredient label out loud. Then you can eat all the chips you want." The two boys nodded. Then the unseen adult said "Ready, set, GO!" The two boys began reading their ingredient labels out loud. The one boy with the Wise Chips quickly recited "Potatoes, vegetable oil, salt." Then he tore open his bag and started eating. But the boy with the Pringle's Chips was floundering around with impronouncable words and the abbreviations for various chemicals. He then stopped in dismay at the enormity and futility of his task, looked longingly at his peer who was munching happily away, then he looked with pleading eyes to the adult and asked if he could have one of those bags too.
The parting line of the TV Ad, featuring a closeup of a bag of Wise Potato Chips was "Wise, the natural choice."
This was not only the first time ANY ad pitted "all natural" against checmical-laden crap in a blatant showdown, but it was also an astonishingly effective ad. People responded to the simple wisdom that if a child can't even read the ingredients, then perhaps a child shouldn't even be eating it. This ad changed the way Madison Avenue thought about the very concept of "all natural." Prior to this ad, it was assumed that the "all natural" consumer was an entirely niche and specialty market of the hippie college student health nut type, with SOME crossover of novelty and fad purchasing among the young urban professional crowd. But the reaction to this ad --as evidenced by the sudden slump in sales of Pringle's-- proved that everyday housewives from the ranks of middle-class America were freaked out about the idea of their kids ingesting unknowable and impronouncable mystery ingredients. Mom's concerned about their kids being fed chemicals?? Who knew?
Madison Avenue used to think that the housewife prioritized time-saving devices, and time-saving products -- get the housework and the cooking done faster and cheaper and she'll be happy. As for nutrition, housewives were thought to be eager for foods with more bells and whistles to them -- food with more levels of technology behind it to make her life easier and make Junior healthier. The George Jetson-style food of tomorrow was sold to her as being time-wise and nutrition-wise far superior to the low-tech/no-tech foods of her grandmother's day. But this was the first time that technology in our food was revealed to be deemed "bad" by housewives. For the first time, the "all natural" market was shown to be a mainstream desire.
