Confession: the following items downsized in 2012, but we did not get a chance to feature them all on these pages last year.
*MOUSE PRINT:
The old reliable 18 ounce bottle of Kraft barbecue sauce dropped in size by one-half an ounce. Thanks to John O. for the tip on Kraft.
*MOUSE PRINT:
We lost a quarter of an ounce in the large size Old Spice deodorant sticks. The top of the stick says “Same Palm Tree, New Look,” but they somehow omitted that they were also giving the customer less. Should we say that stinks?
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Following the lead of other big brands of orange juice, Minute Maid also downsized its punch drinks by a full five ounces. Less sugar for the kids, just as well.
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This is not what you think. In a twist, the makers of Hefty bags UPsized their 44-count tall kitchen bags to 50-count, but only at Target (and they kept the price the same).
As we always say, downsizing is a sneaky way to raise the price of products because you are getting less for your money, and you may not realize it unless you scrutinize the fine print on the package .
When product manufacturers want to cut costs or increase their profits, they can do one of several things. Many don’t want to raise prices because of the consumer backlash and possible reduction in sales. So, many choose to downsize the product as we have demonstrated here. Others take a less conventional approach and reformulate their product so that it is cheaper to produce and distribute.
Breyers downsized their half-gallons of ice cream first to 56 ounces and then again to 48 ounces around 2008.
Now they have taken a new tack. They are reformulating many of their flavors.
Take a look at “old” Breyer’s Vanilla Fudge Twirl ice cream:
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Now take a look at the new package of “Vanilla Fudge Twirl”:
The new one is no longer even called “ice cream” but is now “frozen dairy dessert.” It is no longer “all natural” either. And the vanilla ice cream claim has been replaced with a “vanilla flavor claim.”
*MOUSE PRINT:
Under federal law, to be called “ice cream”, a product must meet a certain standard of identity, which in this case requires that there be at least 10% milk fat in the product. That generally would come from the cream in the product. If the product does not meet the federal “recipe” for ice cream, it has to be called something else. In this case, they are calling it frozen dairy dessert which has no federal definition (other than it does not meet the standards to be called ice cream.)
Here are the ingredients statements from both vanilla fudge twirl packages:
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The old real ice cream product has milk and cream as the first two ingredients. The new version has cream listed as fourth (with milk, sugar and corn syrup predominating over cream). The new product also has half the fat as the old. While dieters might rejoice, the calories are nearly the same, and the taste is not likely to match the original.
The Breyers’ website spins why they changed many of their ice cream flavors to “frozen dairy dessert”:
Since 1866, Breyers products have consistently delivered high-quality ingredients, great flavors and smooth creaminess that our fans love, and we remain committed to that Pledge. Our Ice Cream and new Frozen Dairy Dessert varieties continue to use fresh milk, cream and sugar. What distinguishes our Frozen Dairy Dessert from our Ice Cream is that it’s blended in a whole new way to create a smoother texture.
Hmmm. They seem to have left out the fact that using less cream saves the company a lot of money.
January is the month when well-intentioned consumers buy exercise equipment hoping to lose all the pounds they put on during the holidays. It is not surprising, therefore, that equipment manufacturers are now advertising their latest contraptions heavily on TV, and making all kinds of claims for them. This week, we examine the claims being made for the Bowflex TreadClimber — a combination stepper, elliptical, and treadmill all rolled into one.
Here is one of their recent commercials. Listen in particular for their calorie burning claims and the amount of weight that people claim to lose using the machine:
Their primary claim is that you can burn “up to 3.5 times the calories of a treadmill.”
*MOUSE PRINT:
The fine print indicates that their claim is based on a 2011 study by the University of Wisconsin. MrConsumer tracked down the professor at that school who conducted the actual study, asking for a copy of it. The professor wrote back:
“I am not at liberty to share the final report of the study, since the data and the results belong to the company. Please contact the company for a final report.”
So we did. And Bowflex’s PR spokesperson said:
“Our corporate policy does not permit us to disclose proprietary studies.”
MrConsumer also asked the professor a series of pointed questions about the study and the claims being made. The only one he responded to, before leaving town for 10 days, was to disclose that the company paid for the study. (And as Seinfeld would say, “not there’s anything wrong with that.”)
Having run into a roadblock at the University, Mouse Print* turned to the company for answers to some tough questions.
For example, we found a graphic on the company’s own website that seemed to contradict the 3.5x claim and burning 612 calories in 30 minutes:
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So we asked the company which was it — 3.5x the calories/612 calories burned or twice the calories/321 calories burned?
[that graphic was] “from a study conducted in 2004 with older technology, in which participants burned up to 321 calories. Since then, we have redesigned our TreadClimber® machines and have conducted new independent research from a university which determined users can burn up to 3.5 times (612 calories) on a TreadClimber® machine vs walking on a treadmill.”
The company also makes extremely large weight loss claims in their commercial.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Despite depicting users whose weight loss ranged from 24 to 88 pounds in their commercial, the fine print disclaimer told a different story:
“In a recent modality study average weight loss for participants was 18.8 lbs. Average weight loss was 17.4 lbs.”
Mouse Print* asked the company whether they thought it was fair to depict people with 50-70 pounds or more of weight loss, when the average was actually around 18, and whether they thought a tiny disclosure that appears on the screen for just a couple of seconds could actually be read and understood by the average viewer.
“Our disclaimers are positioned after every individual testimonial in our television ads. These appear up to 4-5 times over the course of each :120 spot. Like any weight loss program, all results may vary …. The 50, 70 or more pounds weight loss you reference are real results taken from testimonials from actual customers. In many instances the users state “in about 3 months” or “in my first year I lost” etc… ” — Bowflex spokesperson
In fact, none of the participants who claim weight losses above the 18-pound average states how long it took them to lose the weight in the above commercial.
So what are we as viewers to make of the TreadClimber commercial and claims? Feel free to offer your opinions in the comments.
