Selling reality, and selling image: the Frito Lay campaign.

Frito Lay has a new ad campaign: "We grow the best snacks on earth." Some of the main points of this campaign are:
1. Frito Lay chips are made with potatoes and corn.
2. Corn and Potatoes are grown on farms

NO DUH

Oh thank goodness that the chips I eat are grown on a FARM! AMAZING! ITS LIKE I'M GOING BACK TO NATURE! No longer shall I settle for factory manufactured corn. No longer shall I eat styrofoam chips. Hooray! Frito Lay is growing plants!

OK, now that the sarcastic rant is over, time to look at the facts. I went over to the Frito Lay website, which states that Frito Lay has stopped using hydrogenated oils, and is decreasing their waste. They are doing good things. My question, what does this have to do with their campaign? Although there are some very solid facts, there are also some weak ones. What's weak about their campaign, is that they mix in solid facts with total crap. The following text is from the Frito Lay website, and I give them credit for writing this, so please don't sue me.

"Our snack chips are made in healthier oils like corn and sunflower oil. These oils are low in saturated fats and are higher in polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids, which can help to support a healthy heart as part of a healthy lifestyle." (Frito Lay)
OK, so they've stopped using those bad oils. Good. Now check this out. This is on the same page as the oil blurb.
"Portion Control
To help you in choosing your portion size, Frito-Lay offers our snacks in Single serve and 100-Calorie Packs."
So basically, what they're saying here is: to help you eat less, they offer their chips in small bags. However, a couple years ago, they released, mega grab, which is a bigger small bag than the big grab small bag. (What a mouthful.)

But deconstructing these chip ads isn't the point. Why? Because I LOVE DORITOS. I LOVE THE ARTIFICIAL CHEESE. I DON'T CARE IF THEY ARENT ORGANIC, I JUST LIKE THEM BECAUSE THEY TASTE GOOD!

Remember when cereals used to actually include the word sugar (pardon my french) in their name? Back then ads probably made a lot more sense. Like this: "you should buy this cereal because it has sugar in it and sugar tastes good" (sorry, I sure used the "S" word a lot in that ad.)

It doesn't matter to me, or probably a lot of other people if Doritos or Funyuns are grown on a farm, or if they come in bags with pictures of Sunflowers on them. We're going to buy these chips because they are REALLY FREAKING GOOD! If you are munching on a bag of Doritos and thinking to yourself "boy, these sure are healthy" then, I'm sorry, you are a moron.

Because people are so aware of their health nowadays (That's a good thing) advertisers don't think people will buy something that doesn't pretend to be healthy. But, even if Lays were made with organic potatoes, they would still be potatoes fried in a huge vat of fat.

What I'm saying is, whatever way you look at it, potato chips just arent good for you, and so Frito Lay shouldn't try to sell them like they are.

It is good that people are becoming more aware of their health, but every good thing has a dark side. Mabey that's how it is for fatty chips and sugary cereals. The fact is, that since people care so much about healthy stuff, Frito Lay is promoting itself for something it isnt. So it's your choice, what is better(or worse): That Frito Lay has to adjust their image to the health trend, or that they have, but because of it are promoting their products as something they are not.