Unhealthy Products Marketed as Healthy

It seems to be a common occurrence to see an obviously unhealthy product marketed as healthy. This type of advertising is what I call a “Marketing Scam”. You will see these ridiculously cheesy advertisements on TV commercials, radio, and even grocery store coupons! You will see the sugar infested products touted by Celebrities and Perfect Moms alike. The Marketers will tell you exactly what you want to hear. You want to think that sugar coated cereal is high in fiber and that it is now healthy for you, so the Marketing companies will tell you it is a great breakfast for you and your family.

Unfortunately, a spoon full of processed sugar with a carefully placed multivitamin on top in a glossy print ad doesn’t make the sugar become healthy.

I have listed just a few products that are extremely unhealthy but they are marketed to you as healthy! Some of them are  just overkill. I really hope none of these are a surprise to any of you, but if it is, I am glad you have come to this website to learn a thing or two the marketers would hope you never learned. And that just puts a smile on my face : )

Carnation® Breakfast Essentials

Hey Parents! Did you know that “Mornings are a lot easier…when they’ve had a good breakfast” ? Oh! This chocolate shake also has twice the protein as a single egg, twice the calcium of yogurt, and 21 Vitamins and Minerals!

With a slogan like “Good nutrition from the start™”, this has got to be a great choice, right? Here’s the truth: It’s full of sugar and other junk that’s really unhealthy for your body.

If you really want to give your kids (or yourself!) a “Complete Nutritional Drink”, you should consider giving them an Isagenix® Shake, which is actually healthy.

Pop•Tarts

Just because a product has SOME real fruit in it, doesn’t mean that it’s healthy. These are full of enriched bleached flour and sugar. Even the new Pop•Tarts that are advertised as “whole grain” and more fiber, it’s still not healthy. This product has nothing in it that will help your kids grow up healthy and strong.

V8 Splash

What? A V8 drink that isn’t healthy?! It’s amazing how much sugar and high fructose corn syrup is in this juice. Don’t feel too bad about this product not being healthy since it tastes more like a cheap fruit punch than actual fruit juice.

Nutella

We could only dream that this chocolate and hazelnut spread was actually healthy for us. “Lucky” for us,  marketing campaigns for Nutella says that it’s a great way to enjoy a “balanced breakfast”! Just slather Nutella on your whole wheat toast, and you can have a delicious and healthy start to your day! What do you get with this “healthy” breakfast? In just two tablespoons (one serving), you get 21 grams of sugar and 200 calories – half of which come from fat. Not so healthy, is it?

Does anyone fall for these ridiculous ad campaigns? Apparently so! A Mom from California by the name of Athena Hohenberg believed the Nutella ad campaigns, so she fed her 4 year old daughter Nutella for breakfast! Luckily, this women had great (smart) friends that told her to read the back of the label, which shows that the first ingredient is sugar and the next is palm oil. Athena alleges in her legal complaint that the only reason she started to feed her daughter Nutella was once she saw the ads that represented the product as “nutritious” and a “healthy breakfast”.

My personal opinion? We should know by now that marketing is around to sell a product-nothing more. Take some accountability and learn how to read the labels.

7-Up Advertisements

Is this some type of new revolution in marketing? Nope! There is evidence that this type of marketing started as early as 1955! Seven-Up headquarters had an ad campaign that encouraged mothers to give their babies 7 Up soda!

“…7-Up is so pure, so wholesome, you can even give it to babies and feel good about it”

In the 7-Up ad, it also encouraged parents to add the soda to milk if their toddler wasn’t drinking enough milk. Really?! Go ahead and click on the ad to enlarge the image and read it for yourself.

What other marketing campaigns make you slap your forehead and just think “REALLY?!”

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