BackWASH (or was that backlash?)
Bob Messenger's Morning Cup today commented: "Last week's action by WASH on salt levels has bigger implications than being yet another pressure group action against problem ingredients and their 'users'."
Seems the new anti-salt activist group was mightily selective in its inaugural news release pointing out that some fast food restaurants' choices are higher in sodium than others. By citing only the highest offering, relating it neither to the chain's overall sodium profile (or, unmentioned, ignoring the overall population sodium intake), the group crashed and burned its credibility -- at least with Bob Messenger. As Bob explained:
WASH PR has very successfully placed the findings in many newspapers and magazines around the world and now we can all read which products “our” country has “extra” salt in, and the perception is that its those bad manufacturers again.Maybe they are and then maybe again they’re not. I think that most companies were merely following that old dictum – Think Global, Act Local. We can probably all imagine the scenario. Brand X is International, but run by subsidiaries in each of its major countries. The local brand team is testing local taste preferences and discovers that in their country, consumers like it to taste saltier – so they adapt the recipe. Some time later medical research points to perceived dangers from too much salt in the national diet and Brand X again re-formulates and claims “now with less salt”.
No problem, a responsible manufacturer acting in the best interests of their consumers. But that I think was then. Now consumers of Brand X compare their salt levels to those in other countries, but they don’t think “we like more salt here”, they think “what a bad manufacturer you are”
Its time I think to re-work the old dictum, perhaps it should now be Think Global and Act Local, very very carefully because to rather misquote Marshall McLuhan the world really is a village now.
Why can't WASH just stick with the science instead of fabricating the illusion that countries around the world are consuming massive amounts of salt? In the U.S., for example, sodium intakes are average or below average around the world. You'd never know that reading the misleading WASH news releases. Is this simply backlash against dishonest "spin" or are we being fed backWASH? (unfamiliar with the term? Ask any parent!)
