Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Not my Health Police...


After reading about PepsiCo's hire of Derek Yach, a former executive director for the World Health Organization and expert nutritionist, a glimmer of hope twinkled within me. Upon hire, Yach unveiled his vision for PepsiCo and their growing team of Mayo groomed PhDs. In response to the growing demand for "healthy" snack alternative and the increasing scrutony descending upon the snack food industry, Yach hopes to create a new force within PepsiCo. With the help of his PhD army and the utilization of new technologies, Yach plans to develop PepsiCo's "healthy" foodstuffs portfolio significantly over the next 10 years (all this while admitting that people aren't going to give up their guilty pleasures which they happen to specialize in).

PepsiCo's most recent self described technological "success" has been the development of an "all-natural" zero calorie derivative of the stevia plant. This cutting edge sweetener is one that can go into multiple products. Which raises the question in my mind, "Isn't that what got us in this mess in the first place?" Why are we developing more empty calories that trick our bodies into storing more when we finally do decide to eat something with caloric value? Maybe I am a closeted granola loving hippie just waiting to come out in a organic food gloried frenzy, but I don't thing so.

The most frightening thing to me is that "all-natural" has lost it's meaning. How can something derived using technology be all-natural? Natural by definition means unprocessed, unrefined, pure.

PepsiCo had the right idea with their Thowback campaign. Not only is the Throwback campain a perfect answer to their rivals success with Mexican Coke(who's success can be attributed to the fact it is made with real sugar), it's much more affordable. An 18 pack of Throwback Pepsi cost me $4.99. A case of Mexican Coke would have cost $18.00. I don't buy Pepsi and I certainly don't buy regular pop. However, Throwback Pepsi's hip retro label caught my eye, and then I saw it was made with real sugar, and then I bought it! I figured, what the heck? I'll give my body a break from whatever it is in Diet Coke that is slowly killing me and give it a shot. I drank some. I enjoyed it. This is important because in my 27 years of life, I have NEVER purchased a Regular Pepsi(or Regular Coke for that matter), EVER.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_04/b4164050511214.htm



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