Apr
03
Talking About The Nice
Jack is at my mother’s and I am toasting hot cross buns. (Some people use their child free time to get work done or have sex. I use mine to eat wheat and dairy.)
I am standing in front of the toaster, waiting for the pop, and I’m drawn to the empty package. I read their little list of bun features and benefits, and then I come to this:
Less than 3% Fat!
I’m amused. Of course there’s less than 3% fat. It’s a bun, for Christ’s sake. It’s made from white flour, sugar, and raisins. I’d be pretty damn concerned if there was more than 3% fat.
And it hits me. This is what marketing is about. Talking about the nice things, talking less about the not-so-nice things. Let’s face it… hot cross buns will slowly kill you if you let them. They’re golden brown type 2 diabetes with a pretty little white X on the top and Easter bunnies on the packet.
So the bun people figured they wouldn’t mention that this shit will make your kid so hyper his head will spin off his neck and they would mention that there was lower fat.
Have you thought about your nice things lately? Or are you too busy worrying about your not-so-nice things?
When we used to live on the Left Coast, I loved all the products that were labeled “all natural”. I used to observe to my wife that dirt is all natural, as is lead.
I’m going to have to spend some time thinking about what my nice things are. This will cut into the stalking time, but it’s worth it.
For me, it’s this chicken producer here in Canada that talks about their “vegetable grain fed” chickens. I *really* appreciate their marketing efforts, because I’m all about avoiding the animal grains… (wtf?)
Perhaps it should frighten me that that’s their nice thing…mad chicken, anyone?
Focusing on nice things (as opposed to spinning the negatives positively) is an important skill. Nice post, Naomi.
Have you ever seen that bread which is “suitable for vegetarians” in the supermarket? I thought that was a stroke of genius.
My favourite is “natural yoghurt”. Whenever I see it, I wonder where the “unnatural yoghurt” comes from. I’m not sure I’d like to eat any though.
@sonas – chickens are fed on feed containing meat & bone meal.
Their natural diet includes worms and insects, so it’s not such a bad thing. Unless the meat and bone meal is ground up bits of chicken.
That’s just wrong.
I’m amazed that a UK product said that. More common would be “97% fat free” as in whole milk :-)
Do you remember the old Canadian ads for Shredded Wheat, with the Smothers Brothers? “Shredded Wheat is 100% grain with no sugar or salt”. The other brother looks in the box “And no broccoli!” “What” “Shredded Wheat contains no broccolli” baffled look on first brother’s face “I hate broccoli” 2nd brother pours himself a bowl.
(Also, geniously, this was almost always run right before the milk board ad for cheese with the little kid staying for supper until he finds out they are having broccoli “Mom puts cheese on it”, which apparently makes all the difference)
I can see how “talking about the nice” would be much more effective than not. I’m thinking back to my early days of coaching when I would actually tell prospective clients, “Well, you *should* get good results. But it’s hard work. And some people don’t see great results.”
Yeah. That was effective.
Thanks for writing this post.
I seriously hate hot-cross buns, so much so that they make my buns all hot and cross, if you know what I mean (I sure don’t).
It’s the raisins. They remind me of pickled baby’s toes.
That said, is this just about positioning your product or service so that people see what’s special about it, or is it part of the whole feature/benefit thing?
I’m trying to focus on the “nice things.” I do tend to lean the other way, but I’m working on this habit. Havi has taught me many lessons in this area.
When I focus on the negative I try to counteract it with a “nice thing,” putting myself in the direction of abundance. If hot cross buns can do it, I sure can too.
And also it’s how you present certain things. For instance, many times, when they say 97% fat free, or 3% fat, they mean it by weight, not calories. So, it’s possible that 35% of the calories come from fat, but since it only takes up 3% of the weight, they tell you it’s 3% fat. Tricky, tricky.
I guess it’s a matter of seeing the glass half full. Or less full, if it’s full of chicken fat. Chicken fat, where did that come from? This isn’t about chicken fat at all.
And what about the fact our bodies metabolize carbs as sugar, which we then store as fat. They don’t mention that, those carb-peddling sticky-bun people. HA!
Okay, now I’m totally confused.
I’m also confused. How did hot cross buns and talking about the nice turn into a truly warped version of Havi’s Friday Chicken?
They are sneaky filthy liars. LIARS.
Mmm. Chicken fat. Mmm.
Rather than talking about the nice, how about commit to only selling the nice?
A large percentage of what we sell to each other is toxic. I personally could not live with myself if my job was to market dangerous or unhealthy products while talking up their positive features.
“I personally could not live with myself if my job was to market dangerous or unhealthy products while talking up their positive features.”
I can understand that to a point. Personally, I probably couldn’t work for a cigarette company. But I could totally live with myself if I was marketing something like, say, Chick-Fil-A. Is it healthy? Not as healthy as fruits and veggies, for sure. But it is the most delicious fast food that you will EVER have in your life.
Unless, of course, you don’t like chicken.
@ Duff — Of course. But sometimes really positive things have negative aspects.
Add to that the subjectivity of Nice vs. Not Nice and we’ve got a communications nightmare on our hands.
It’s like… bananas. Most would say bananas are on Nice. Yummy vitamins. Kids will eat them. Go well with ice cream.
But paying 69 cents a pound for something shipped in from Costa Rica makes me seriously wonder about how much the farmer got paid, not to mention the environmental impact of flying them across the world. Many people I know consider eating a banana to be a very Republican act. They would call the banana Not Nice.
My mother, on the other hand, wonders why people feed their children anything other than bananas, as they are pretty much the ultimate food in her opinion. The prototype of Nice.
So the banana makers talk about the potassium and how great their product tastes with peanut butter and they call it a day.
Reminds me of a pasta box I saw the other day that said it was “good carbs”. How can something made with flour, water, and salt be a “good” carb?
And milk has different varieties of less fat because they add water to it. It’s still the same milk, just with water added.
And grain fed animals, what the heck? Why is feeding animals grains a good thing? What do chickens eat naturally? Not grains. Cows don’t eat grains either.
I get accentuating the good, but I hate when they try to fool people making them think things are healthy that aren’t.
Ok, I’ll stop. Touched a nerve. I’m going to relax now, hee hee.
It is nice to have nice things to say yet difficult to seek the truth to find answer.Great articles.
As with so many things you can talk about the nice in a really sleazy way (making people think things are healthy that really aren’t) or in a really morally upstanding way. Your choice.
The point remains. Talk about the nice. Don’t apologize for the other stuff.
Shirt! Shirt! Shirt!
“Many people I know consider eating a banana to be a very Republican act.” Miss Naomi
(Unfortunately, the image that comes to mind could not be posted here on this type of family-friendly blog.)
I’m amazed at what can be put on a label. You have to become such a detective as a consumer. Another area is skin care – what amazing things those clever marketers have done in this arena as well.
Great post.
Thanks.
I’m amazed that my favorite (and, sadly, apocryphal) marketing story hasn’t made an appearance here: the tale of a competition between tuna canneries. One cannery started having trouble getting the pink tuna they usually sold, and were only getting shipments of white tuna. Their solution? Market the white tuna with the slogan “Won’t turn pink in the can!”
Naturally, the other cannery fought back: “Our tuna: never bleached!”
Naomi, thank you for this reminder to think about what we’re bringing into our lives – the Nice and the Not Nice.