Food Advertising Wars

Here is an observation. Advertising wars. Or more precisely, advertising using products as adversaries. Case in point:

Campbell’s vs Progresso. Campbell’s has a television ad proclaiming that their Select Harvest Soups have no MSG. The blindfolded actor then recites the mouthwatering ingredients in the Select Harvest Soup (soon to have 33 varieties). When she tastes a spoonful of the Progresso soup, she announces she tastes MSG. A bit of an exaggeration, perhaps. Nevertheless, Progresso now is countering with ads on television for its new light soups (very tasty, by the way) saying that now there is no MSG in their selections.

Another side-by-side challenge comes when the maker of the cereal Total, throwing down the gauntlet to Kashi, declares that Total has 100% of everything a body needs, while Kashi's Go Lean Crunch doesn’t. Total has long taken this approach, stating that you would need say, 20 bowls of some other brand of cereal to equal one bowl of Total. There are a few ways of looking at this. One is, “Okay, give me the Total since I don’t plan on eating anything else for the rest of the day.” Or you can choose whichever cereal you like for other reasons and just eat it and get on with your day and the rest of your life.