Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Andrew Baker Telegraphs his HERSHEYs Punch

It's nice to see that, slowly, social media is grumbling against Hershey's. There are petitions on websites. There's hashtags on Twitter. There are even semi-salty editorials like this one from Andrew Baker of the Telegraph, wondering why deprived Americans who want to pay more for an import...can't.

Indeed, it's an embarrassment for Hershey's that the truth is being told: their version of a Cadbury bar doesn't taste good, and the first ingredient is sugar. It has half the cocoa of the British one. Hershey's makes "candy" and not "chocolate."

IF I'M BEING HONEST, it's been decades since I had a Hershey bar. My tastes have been refined (I don't give a damn about Cadbury either) to pricier imports, dark chocolate only. The idea of eating some popular candies, is sickening. It's junk for kids, that's all. That applies to Yorkie bars.

As mentioned on this blog a few days ago), most of the bullying from Hershey's is absurd. Nobody can mistake a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup for the obscure British item they've banned or a Yorkie for a York Peppermint Patty.

The only reasonable excuse I can think of for this idiot behavior is "it's bad for business." Which is why Tower Records never sold bootlegs. "Hey, Tower, why not sell bootleg VHS tapes and CDs that The Beatles won't release?" Because it's illegal. This is why eBay doesn't allow what is called "parallel imports." Italy and Russia can sell bootlegs in their country but can't import them. Likewise, pot is legal in Colorado but you can't drive across the border with it.

But to ban "Maltesers" or whatever they are? IF I'M BEING HONEST, I've never even seen 'em for sale. Where's this big market that Hershey's is so worried about? What are their damages? How can they even prove that people have eaten a Yorkie bar mistaking it for a York Peppermint Patty which isn't even the same shape?

Candy bars are expensive now. You damn well make sure what you're buying before throwing your dollar (or more) down. People know what they like and what they don't. What next, banning BOUNTY bars because they actually do look and taste like MOUNDS bars? Again, we're not talking about cheap imitations, but expensive imports.

Hopefully Hershey's execs and lawyers will be sweating a bit seeing social media's "boycott Hershey" campaign. Just the other day, Go Daddy pulled a stupid TV commercial because dog lovers and PETA protested. The jokey 30 second spot that they paid a fortune for, and were set to run during the Super Bowl, showed a jerk buy a puppy, then boast how he wasn't going to keep it, but that he sold it online (thanks to his GoDaddy website).

People began bitching (!) that this was supporting "puppy mills" and the cynical procedure of idiot dog owners buying an animal not based on rapport, but on fancy breed.

GoDaddy's ad backfired. Hopefully the Hershey legal victory against imports has backfired, too, and drawn attention to how absolutely shitty and unhealthy their products are.

Once in a while social media can do something against the "food entertainment" world as well as the jerks like GoDaddy who run companies that waste money on "edgy" promotions. It's not like GoDaddy is so big that they give people truly great discounts. How can they when they waste millions on stupid "infotainment" TV ads?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.