Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Badvertising: Pop Tarts vs. Toaster Strudel - Fight!

Because you know, anything baked is good for you, right?

Tale of the tape for these heavyweights?

In the blue corner we've got Pop Tarts! 47 ingredients including, "THBQ for freshness" (mmmm, THBQ) yielding 200 calories, 0gm trans-fat and 4.25 teaspoons of sugar per baked tart.

In the red corner, Toaster Strudel! 17 ingredients yielding 190 calories, 1gm trans-fat and 2.25 teaspoons of sugar per fried strudel.

And the winner is?

Does it really matter?

Do people really eat this garbage thinking it's good for them? That a frosted, candy sprinkled baked glop of sickly sweet, remotely strawberry flavoured jam is, "the right choice"?

Trying to pick between Pop Tarts and Toaster Strudel in terms of health would be like picking between getting kicked in the groin or being punched in the groin in terms of pain, or between being hit by a car doing 50 or a car doing 40 in terms of injury.

And while I'm sure some folks are savvy enough to see through this intensely stupid ad, and while other will say it helps them pick between two bad choices, I guarantee you there are folks out there who read the ad to mean that Pop Tarts are healthy good for you breakfast choices.

And I bet many of those folks have kids.