absurd marketing bullshittery

[free_electron]

[to op] In the tech industry, we may call this Specsmanship

ah, yeas. you are right. the dreaded first page in a datasheet ...
AD9850 . can do 125MHz ... great. power on . ffff barely goes 100 ... wth ? ah , 125MHz @ 5 volt... 110 at 3.3... %$@#$%%%^##$% LIARS !

[free_electron]

I wonder why you are so irritated by a company adding two words to a label?

it's not the words. it's the size and the positioning. It's in-your-face. " Crispy and crunch. Gluten free"
It just feels ... wrong.. It's not used as a warning for the intended audience. it's used as a marketing slogan ! That's what irritates me.

I would be much more in favor of a uniform logo. Top right corner of any food/medicine packaging. A square of 1inch x 1inch depicting an ear of grain with a cross through it. mandated and regulated. easy to find, always in the same spot and targeting the audience without going for the appeal to the fad followers. you can do the same for peanuts and milk.
How easy would that be for the affected people ?

[free_electron]

Just like the manufacturers that put California Proposition 65 warnings on EVERYTHING that they make.

ah yes. another one of those turds. instead of warning us about it , why don't they remove the crap ?

[wraper]

Just like the manufacturers that put California Proposition 65 warnings on EVERYTHING that they make.

ah yes. another one of those turds. instead of warning us about it , why don't they remove the crap ?

Because in California everything causes cancer. Including your friends, I guess. California should really ban all of those substances from entering the state and obliterate itself into middle ages.

[jasonRF]

I wonder why you are so irritated by a company adding two words to a label?

it's not the words. it's the size and the positioning. It's in-your-face. " Crispy and crunch. Gluten free"
It just feels ... wrong.. It's not used as a warning for the intended audience. it's used as a marketing slogan ! That's what irritates me.

I would be much more in favor of a uniform logo. Top right corner of any food/medicine packaging. A square of 1inch x 1inch depicting an ear of grain with a cross through it. mandated and regulated. easy to find, always in the same spot and targeting the audience without going for the appeal to the fad followers. you can do the same for peanuts and milk.
How easy would that be for the affected people ?

That would of course be fantastic.  But at least in the US we are nowhere near this kind of regulation, either for food or medicines.   These kinds of things don’t easily get through congress, since industry lobbyists throw tons of money at each member to buy their votes I mean support democracy.   In the mean time, I’ll take any “gluten free” label I can get.  If it is large and easy to see then I am much more likely to grab that item instead of a competing item.  I guess some  companies believe that adding the large label will yield a net increase in profit - it’s hard to fault them for that. 

There are some third-party organizations that do certification of products.  So you can find items that have common “certified gluten free” symbols.  We buy those whenever we can. 

[DavidAlfa]

There're lots of BS in the food marketing, but this one isn't.

- Not everyone knows which foods contains gluten naturally?

- You can never be 100% sure, maybe some additive has gluten, so anyone allergic will appreciate the label.

- Of course, crispy and crunch sounds great, but adding gluten-free makes it more inviting, it's a no-brainer for the intolerant, while having to analyze every food looking for gluten must be tiresome!

- If some f*cktrads buy gluten-free because it's fancy, nice for them!

- Someone had too much free time to rant about gluten-free labeling!

[AlbertL]

FWIW if we talk about chips then garbage made from potato flakes may contain plenty of gluten. Layman may not know the difference between real chips and junk like Pringles which often contain more of other components than potato. Not to say even in real chips whatever additive was used may contain grain products. With processed foods made these days it's not as straightforward as it may seem. On other hand things like "cholesterol free" vegetable oils are really lame.

I believe Pringles are a composite of sawdust and glue.

[TimFox]

If you find a restaurant that actually makes potato chips in house, be sure to patronize them!

[tom66]

Just like the manufacturers that put California Proposition 65 warnings on EVERYTHING that they make.

ah yes. another one of those turds. instead of warning us about it , why don't they remove the crap ?

The Prop 65 authors acknowledge the failure of their legislation.

It was very much intended to reduce harmful elements from being used in consumer products, by the notice being a novelty, it would draw attention to it.  The problem is when everything has some level of harm then the liability headaches mean everything suspect gets declared as definitely harmful.

It needs to change but the broad idea of labelling products that contain carcinogens/etc. is a good idea.

[james_s]

ah yes. another one of those turds. instead of warning us about it , why don't they remove the crap ?

Because they can't. Have you looked at the list of substances that Prop 65 covers? It is huge and growing all the time, and it does not take quantity into consideration, trace amount or a majority of the composition makes no difference. On top of that there is no penalty for putting the warning on something that does not contain any of those substances while there is a penalty for failing to place the warning on something that does contain it so the end result is many companies just put the warning on absolutely everything just to cover their bases. The law may have been based on good intent but it is fundamentally flawed and it takes either a special kind of stupid or magical thinking to believe that it actually does something useful. A warning that is on everything tells you nothing, and amuses me to some degree that California seems blissfully unaware that they are the laughing stock of the entire country. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone see that stupid cancer warning and say something like "well, it's a good thing we're not in California! har har"

[james_s]

I believe Pringles are a composite of sawdust and glue.

I quite like them actually, if they're made of sawdust then they're remarkably tasty sawdust. I don't eat them (or any kind of snack foods) for my health and I don't eat that stuff every day.

[free_electron]

If you find a restaurant that actually makes potato chips in house, be sure to patronize them!

i make em at home. peanut oil , russet potato (or "bintje" of you can get it) . Bake for 5 to 6 minutes at 320F. Let them "rest" for 10 minutes. Bake again at 360F until crispy and golden.

[SiliconWizard]

You dare cook your own food? It's almost terrorism.

[DavidAlfa]

360F? That's why they're not so crispy in EU, we have no 182.2°C setting!

[Doctorandus_P]

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[Stray Electron]

ah yes. another one of those turds. instead of warning us about it , why don't they remove the crap ?

Because they can't. Have you looked at the list of substances that Prop 65 covers? It is huge and growing all the time, and it does not take quantity into consideration, trace amount or a majority of the composition makes no difference. On top of that there is no penalty for putting the warning on something that does not contain any of those substances while there is a penalty for failing to place the warning on something that does contain it so the end result is many companies just put the warning on absolutely everything just to cover their bases. The law may have been based on good intent but it is fundamentally flawed and it takes either a special kind of stupid or magical thinking to believe that it actually does something useful. A warning that is on everything tells you nothing, and amuses me to some degree that California seems blissfully unaware that they are the laughing stock of the entire country. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone see that stupid cancer warning and say something like "well, it's a good thing we're not in California! har har"

   They've been putting a health warning on cigarette packages in the US over 50 years yet there's no indication that they ever deterred anyone from smoking. Splashing warnings on every possible package and/or product like the People's Republic is prone to doing is a complete waste of time! Apparently the safety-at-any-cost folks in the People's Republic never learned the lesson from Aesop's fable about the boy that cried Wolf! too often.

  But it is rather amazing at how many people are so diligent about searching out traces of gluten (or meat, dairy or animal products, etc etc) even when they're not allergic to them but billions people world wide completely ignore warnings on a product that is widely known to kills tens of millions of people every year!

[Halcyon]

You also see "Gluten Free" on some packs of bacon... It's used purely as a marketing strategy to appear "healthier", even though bacon never contained gluten in the first place.

They've been putting a health warning on cigarette packages in the US over 50 years yet there's no indication that they ever deterred anyone from smoking. Splashing warnings on every possible package and/or product like the People's Republic is prone to doing is a complete waste of time!

Doesn't that say more about American people, rather than the system? In Australia, since the introduction of mandatory labeling on cigarette packets (and other similar measures), only about 11.4% of the population smoked in 2021 and it's dropping every year. You're basically considered to be an outcast in today's society if you're a smoker. We also have strict laws which prohibit smoking in most enclosed/indoor areas and you can't smoke in a car with children on-board. There are also state-based laws which prohibit smoking in some outdoor areas as well, for example in my state, you can't smoke within 10 metres of a children's playground or swimming pools or within 4 metres of an entrance to any public building or public transport areas.

Some might see it as authoritarian but I disagree, it's about the health of the greater population. If you're silly enough to light up a cigarette and destroy your body, that's on you, but no one else should be subject to it.

[MathWizard]

Motherboard makers pointing to an added CPU power connector, and not mentioning that it's the chips doing all the magic, and 1 8pin connector is enough anyways.

[vk6zgo]

Before the mods kill this as non technical :

just found this one .... 

from the MG chemicals catalogue none the less....
i guess its to guarantee no static in your receiver.

It certainly will do that, by shorting the plates of the tuning capacitor, but it could be useful on the wipers & bearings to ensure that the variable plates are connected to the frame of the cap.

Another case of quite a good idea inadvertently sabotaged by dumb marketing.

[TimFox]

You also see "Gluten Free" on some packs of bacon... It's used purely as a marketing strategy to appear "healthier", even though bacon never contained gluten in the first place.

They've been putting a health warning on cigarette packages in the US over 50 years yet there's no indication that they ever deterred anyone from smoking. Splashing warnings on every possible package and/or product like the People's Republic is prone to doing is a complete waste of time!

Doesn't that say more about American people, rather than the system? In Australia, since the introduction of mandatory labeling on cigarette packets (and other similar measures), only about 11.4% of the population smoked in 2021 and it's dropping every year. You're basically considered to be an outcast in today's society if you're a smoker. We also have strict laws which prohibit smoking in most enclosed/indoor areas and you can't smoke in a car with children on-board. There are also state-based laws which prohibit smoking in some outdoor areas as well, for example in my state, you can't smoke within 10 metres of a children's playground or swimming pools or within 4 metres of an entrance to any public building or public transport areas.

Some might see it as authoritarian but I disagree, it's about the health of the greater population. If you're silly enough to light up a cigarette and destroy your body, that's on you, but no one else should be subject to it.

Quantitative, from CDC website for USA:  "Current smoking has declined from 20.9% (nearly 21 of every 100 adults) in 2005 to 12.5% (nearly 13 of every 100 adults) in 2020."

[free_electron]

360F? That's why they're not so crispy in EU, we have no 182.2°C setting!

?? really. go to belgium and buy a fries maker there. they all can do that.

[wraper]

You also see "Gluten Free" on some packs of bacon... It's used purely as a marketing strategy to appear "healthier", even though bacon never contained gluten in the first place.

Except you can buy bacon which contains gluten due to additives which may not be apparent on a first glance.

[JohanH]

Of course it's gluten free. it doesn't contain any wheat or other grains that contain glutenin.

 

This is definitely not marketing bullshittery. My son's stomach is seriously bad and he can't eat gluten and lactose (at least for now). It is a serious pain in the a*e reading through contents of everything you buy in the store. Because some products have additional ingredients you wouldn't believe. I'm so happy for clear, big labels with GLUTEN FREE and LACTOSE FREE. Saves an enormous amount of time and headache (and sick leave, stomach ache and toilet time for the son).

[james_s]

Doesn't that say more about American people, rather than the system? In Australia, since the introduction of mandatory labeling on cigarette packets (and other similar measures), only about 11.4% of the population smoked in 2021 and it's dropping every year. You're basically considered to be an outcast in today's society if you're a smoker. We also have strict laws which prohibit smoking in most enclosed/indoor areas and you can't smoke in a car with children on-board. There are also state-based laws which prohibit smoking in some outdoor areas as well, for example in my state, you can't smoke within 10 metres of a children's playground or swimming pools or within 4 metres of an entrance to any public building or public transport areas.

Some might see it as authoritarian but I disagree, it's about the health of the greater population. If you're silly enough to light up a cigarette and destroy your body, that's on you, but no one else should be subject to it.

Is it the warning on the packs that is responsible for the reduction or is it overall education or something else? America is hardly unique in having quite a few smokers and we're nowhere near the top, in fact we're not even in the top 30!

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/smoking-rates-by-country

I strongly suspect it is the laws barring smoking in so many places that is largely responsible for the lower numbers. I doubt a warning label on the pack does anything at all, absolutely everyone already knows cigarettes are bad for you, most people that start smoking are teenagers that think they're invincible.

[Zero999]

I don't think labelling on cigarettes has made much of a difference. Rates of smoking have been falling in the UK, US and Australia for 50 years. It's probably a mixture of public health education, tobacco advertising bans, high tax on cigarettes and prohibiting smoking in certain areas.