This morning on the Today Show, I saw a segment on Hershey and how the candy company is moving away from milk chocolate in its products to save money. The big savings come from swapping out cocoa butter for less expensive vegetable oil.
The conversation has been bubbling for awhile. In May, Cybelle May, a blogger for Candyblog.net, wrote in an LA Times op ed that a citizens group was petitioning the FDA so that a new legal definition of milk chocolate would be allowed. A definition that would allow for cheaper vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter. This "citizen's group" included reps from the Chocolate Manufacturers Assn, the Grocery Manufacturers Ass, the Snack Food Assn. Hah. That's kind of funny.
Fast forward until August 25, when the Wall Street Journal reported a story on it - the American Dietetic Association suggested that the move away from cocoa butter could lower the overall health benefit of eating chocolate.
Now, with today's Today Show segment, maybe the controversy will get more play. It will be interesting to see how Hershey responds online.
As of 7:22 a.m. PT on Friday, Sept 19 after the Today Show piece ran:
- There were 17 tweets this morning on Hershey - all of them about the controversy.
- There were 0 articles on Google News from today (nothing actually happened today other than the Today Show segment)
- There were 94 blogs (blogger)
Will be interesting to see if and how Hershey's deals with this reignited news cycle online.
http://www.typetive.com/candyblog/
1 comment:
Good thoughts - as another person interested in how traditional B2Cs will handle the transition to a consumer forum much more informed and much more vocal, I'll be interested too to see how they handle.
Thanks.
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