Food/Groceries

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Fair Trade? — Free Box of Wheat Thins for Access to Your Twitter Account

MrConsumer prides himself on being privacy insensitive (if a store wants to track my shopping habits, for example, fine). However, more and more marketers want access to either your Facebook or Twitter account to see what’s posted and who your friends are. And MrConsumer finds that invasive.

The latest example is a promotion by Wheat Thins promising you a free box. The catch: there are limited numbers of boxes available daily, and you have to sign up for it via Twitter. And it is not a matter of simply tweeting something to the company, but rather you have to give them access to your account.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Wheat Thins

While the things they are seeking to do any member of Twitter might be able to do, there is still something uncomfortable about giving the company permission to see who you follow and what you are interested in.

In additional fine print, however, there is a disclosure that explains how to stop them from doing this after you sign up.

*MOUSE PRINT:

“You can revoke access to any application at any time from the Applications tab of your Settings page.”

So you can register to get a free box at FlavorProtection.com , but don’t have to give up your privacy in return.

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When the Chips are Down(sized)…

Snacking just got more expensive. Various brands of popular snacks like potato chips and tortilla chips have just been downsized. In these cases, the price remained the same, but the new packages contain less. In other words, it is a hidden increase. On the bright side, you also get fewer calories per package.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Lays

Here, regular Lay’s potato chips were reduced by half an ounce. While a half ounce may seem negligible, multiply that by millions of bags, and Frito-Lay has saved a fortune.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Doritios

Here too, the company lopped-off half an ounce per bag. And they did the same thing to some of their other brands and varieties.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Ruffles

Lays Wavy

What is particularly deceptive about the downsizing of both Lay’s and Doritos is that the net weight statement is virtually at the bottom of the bag, just above the seam. When these bags sit on the store shelf, the bottom is compressed, and the net weight cannot be seen. Even picking up the bag, often the seam gets folded over the net weight statement, at least partially obscuring it. Could this just be careless placement of the disclosure by Frito-Lay or something more sinister? And what about that light colored font on the new Doritos bag? It is almost illegible.

Lays

Frito-Lay did not respond to a request to comment on their recent downsizing. Thanks to Richard G. for the tip on the chips.

Lastly, not to be outdone, Kellogg’s has downsized its chips too.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Pringles Orig      Pringles

For the product on the right, there’s another example of a company using a non-contrasting typeface to disclose the net weight of the product.

Thanks to Christian M. for the Pringles tip.

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Dumb Coupon Fine Print

Last fall, Boston Market sent out an email offer to people on their mailing list promising a free rotisserie chicken. Of course, once you open the email, you learn that you have to buy a “family meal” in order to get it.

Worse, the coupon was geographically limited:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Boston Market

Considering those stores are 3000 miles away from MrConsumer… thanks, but no thanks.

Two days later, the company realized its blunder and sent out an apology, including a coupon:

Boston Market

*MOUSE PRINT:

The coupon requires “no purchase”, but the fine print indicates that you cannot use it if you buy one of their heavily discounted meals. In other words, buy nothing and dessert is on us, but buy something cheap, and like the soup Nazi might say, no dessert for you. Huh?

Clearly, the company merely copied over its standard exclusion language for other coupons without thinking. This is the most minor of issues, but there are other times when standard language in other companies’ coupons can be used wrong-headedly against a customer by an over-protective cashier.