JKR

The agency spy blog carried this rather brazen piece of disingenuous communication. I’m not sure what all the facts are, although the site commented “It’s bad enough that Hershey’s has the audacity to make health-benefit claims on a bottle containing chocolate syrup. But by some oddity of logic, the nutrition facts lists the daily calcium percentage at “0%”. During a recession, flat is the new up?”

I think, example aside, this is further evidence that in the digital age everything gets scrutinised, and if there is evidence of duplicity it can travel far and fast. This isn’t in the same league as the bad image Nestle picked up for its promotion of bottle milk in Africa, nor potentially the feel-bad factor Maclaren has acquired over the alleged risk of infants severing digits on its products. On a hard-headed level, it makes good sense to do the right thing -  trust is a priceless commodity. How crazy in this case to squander it for the sake of a dreary “added value” pack claim.

Is the pack’s designer to blame? One could argue they were certainly an (unwitting?) accomplice here. The onus is arguably on the design company to be as wary of the information they are asked to artwork as a consumer watchdog would be. But in the real world trust is important not just towards brands but towards clients.