Sunday, November 25, 2018

Truth in Advertising


This morning I decided on CoCo Wheats for breakfast. My only problem with the hot cereal (besides its lack of whole grain goodness) is that by the time I’m done eating, I’m rather sick of it. Perhaps next time I’ll cut back the serving size from three tablespoons of the dry granules down to two.

A Wintertime Treat
At any rate, while waiting for the next thirty second interval to stir again, I read the label. It was a pleasant surprise finding farina wheat and cocoa as the first and second ingredients, with the rest all (I think) either flavoring or vitamin supplements.

What made this worthy of a blog post was the warning that followed. Contains wheat. You don’t say.

That cracked me up. It shouldn’t surprise me, though, considering all the people with food allergies and our US society’s litigious tendencies. Talk about a ‘first world problem’, having to admit a product contains what its name states.

A friend amused me with that apt saying, by the way, when an acquaintance complained about his neighbor’s loud heat pump. That dude actually wrote about it for a poetry slam! Now I’m encountering the phrase all over the place.

Have you heard anyone refer to a petty complaint as a first world problem?

-

18 comments:

  1. I think we have a lot of First World problems but its sure better than confronting third world problems.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well in others life their problem might be considered a world problem...I however would not see it that way! haha....Contains wheat....interesting since that word seems to be big enough in the title of the packaging. Maybe when we need to worry is when things like that are not posted I guess...who knows! That would be like posting on raw meat...cook first! But, you know that there are folks out there that never bothered to learn this sort of stuff. SCARY! SO SCARY!!! Maybe you need to write the wheat thingy in your next story. HAHA.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But, there ARE notices on raw meat to cook them thoroughly and up to a minimum temperature! In fact, I just checked my frozen ground beef, and there's a small sticker with a lot of warnings! One is "Keep hot foods hot."

      Delete
    2. I like the way you think, Pam. It's funny how many real life little tidbits make it into story.

      I've seen those, too, Lisa. Included among the nonsense are instructions on how to microwave a frozen dinner followed by the words, 'contents may be hot upon removal from the oven' or something like that. Crazy. Heh...

      Delete
  3. The dumbing down of America. It's been going on for a very long time. If it's not clearly mapped out I truly believe some folks won't know what to do or not to do. Bless their hearts.

    Have a fabulous day. ♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So true! And I think *I'm* naive sometimes. Heh...

      Delete
  4. Yes, I've heard people say that, in answer to someone's complaining about some trifle.

    I've never heard of CoCo Wheats though! I had to look it up to see how it differed from chocolate Malt O Meal. The regular chocolate Malt O Meal has sugar too. So, at least you aren't getting added sugar! It's an old type of cereal I read. Mel Blanc voiced the birds!

    What I find ridiculous are the signs in stores pointing out foods that are "gluten free." It's important to some people, but so many are jumping on that band wagon of "glutens are bad" when they have no medical reason to avoid them. So... the stores have signs on products that would obviously have no glutens, like packages of meat! Shows me people don't even know what glutens are or where they come from!

    As Homer Simpson said, hearing that a ticket should "not be taken internally, "See? Because of me, now they have a warning." Like my deodorant... it has a warning that it's for external use only. Like, really, who'd eat a stick deodorant? Besides Homer, who eats those round decorative bathroom soaps... (Allergies are serious things though, so it's good they warn people if machines are also used for tree nuts etc.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh... I think I get the warning now! Someone may think they could use a deodorant "internally" in ways that wouldn't be eating it. I am embarrassed...

      Delete
  5. Oh, the Simpsons quote made me laugh out loud. I'm so thankful not to have any food allergies. Be well!

    ReplyDelete
  6. A morning radio show does this thing with first world problems. They have someone call in to complain. Then they find a truly awful story of poverty or such. Then they ask the caller if they'd rather keep their problem or trade. You know which one they pick.

    I'm sure you can actually catch the radio show as they all are now online. If you care to.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That is funny. I say that a lot a out first world problems. I am glad to have them as opposed to actual ones :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know allergies can be a really serious problem but some commonsense needs to be applied. Last year supermarket Lidl had to withdraw packets of peanuts because the label failed to state the packet may contain nuts. Now, that is just crazy!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ha! A Wheat packet containing wheat? Surprising! And a peanut packet not labeled as containing nuts...now this is outrageous!

    ReplyDelete

Hope you enjoyed stopping by and please drop a line. I love comments.

Any and all will be published upon approval. Thanks!