Monday, January 4, 2010

Unbelievable!

One day last week, I saw a blurb on twitter about something to do with Taco Bell and hoping it didn't catch on. I didn't follow up with the tweet, not thinking much of it. Then I was with some friends later in the week and someone brought it up. What? You've got to be kidding me. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Really? Eating at Taco Bell for health?!?!

Then I saw the commercial. Oh gracious!

Now, I will give it to the commercial and the website in that they specifically state results are not typical and the "drive-thru-diet" is not a weight loss program. Yet, they use the term "diet" which is widely thought of as a means to lose weight. Are they using doublespeak to confuse folks? Methinks so.

Let's dissect this a bit more.
  • 7 of the 9 items are under 9 grams of fat. More specifically they are 7-8 grams of fat with 2 of them being 4 and 4.5.
  • the average amount of sodium is 910(mgs) - what happens if you add sauce?
  • the 2 items with the least amount of fat has the least amount of fiber (2 gms)
The website with all of this information doesn't tell us what else Christine did to lose weight. It states that she didn't want to cut out fast-food so she choose those specific items. Now, I'm no Taco Bell enthusiast (I don't know when the last time I ate there), but I don't recall seeing that particular menu advertised before (though I could be wrong). So how long has those items been available? For more than 2 years? Just curious.
Additionally, what else did Christine do?

All in all, this seems like false advertisement to me. Just a means of getting more customers when a lot of folks pledge to lose weight.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I actually think Taco Bell should reconsider calling it the drive-thru-diet. It is very misleading and for those who do not do the research for themselves (like you did), they will be thinking it is a diet when in fact it is not. I understand that it is up to someone to know this, but Taco Bell knows what they are doing. Shame on them!!

ernise said...

I totally agree. It should not be called a diet. Basically, they are using a ply on words in the worse possible manner.