Do you know the bitter dark secret behind that sweet taste of chocolate?

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Carolyn Thomas

John Robbins is the only son of the American founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire and was groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead, he chose to walk away from the Baskin-Robbins fortune, as he explains “… to pursue the dream of a society that is truly healthy, practising a wise and compassionate stewardship of a balanced ecosystem …” 

The best-selling author of Healthy At 100, The Food Revolution, Diet For A New America, and many other books revisits everybody’s favourite guilty pleasure – the chocolate bar - in an online essay called Is There Slavery In Your Chocolate?

Most of us, he writes, rarely if ever contemplate the journey that brought all that delicious chocolate to our local store shelves. Nor do many of us know the very dark side of our chocolate consumption.   Continue reading →

Posted in Marketing ethics, True confessions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Too many smokers are quitting on their own – so Pfizer pays doctors to plug their Nicorette gum

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Carolyn Thomas

 To celebrate the launch of its new Ice Mint coated nicotine gum a few years ago, Pfizer Canada hired “brand ambassadors” dressed in ski suits to give out free samples in Calgary and Toronto. The company’s press release declared:

“The new formulation of Nicorette gum is another option for smokers who want to free themselves from tobacco dependence. Quitting smoking is a difficult addiction to overcome. People who quit smoking may suffer severe cravings and withdrawal symptoms; however, using Nicorette Ice Mint Coated Gum can help smokers quit by reducing nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms and significantly improve their chances to quit smoking.”

Sounds pretty straightforward, except that the pitch isn’t attributed to the Pfizer PR firm, but to a physician, Dr. Rob Weinberg  - a doctor who was paid by Pfizer for participating in drug promotion. He is a family practice physician in Toronto.  Continue reading →

Posted in Big Pharma, Marketing ethics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Why industry lobbyists and pseudo-scientists insist that the “meat and butter diet” is actually good for us

Posted on August 8, 2010 by Carolyn Thomas

Did you ever notice those little food pyramid guideline posters that are issued by the government to remind us how to eat healthy? Did you also notice how these guidelines have managed to change over the years? Turns out that industry lobbyists, front groups, special interest organizations, and a long line of pseudo-scientists are working very hard to demand official dietary guideline changes that will benefit their specific financial goals. And compared to other arguably healthier non-government eating programs like the Mediterranean diet or Harvard University’s Healthy Food Pyramid Alternative, one wonders just how good these processed carb-heavy government pyramids are anyway.

This year, the powerful lobby group called The Sugar Association, for example, is calling any official government recommendation to reduce daily sugar consumption “impractical, unrealistic, and not grounded in the body of evidence.”  Continue reading →

Posted in Lying for fun and profit, True confessions | Tagged , | 4 Comments

How 10-year old children are helping Philip Morris earn billions in cigarette sales each year

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Carolyn Thomas

Philip Morris CEO Louis Camilleri

It’s bad enough that cigarettes are deadly for those who choose to smoke, but workers in the tobacco industry can be equally at risk.  A recent report called Hellish Work released by Human Rights Watch has revealed 72 cases of children as young as 10 working 12-hour days in Kazakhstan tobacco fields for Philip Morris International.  This is a job with particular risks for child workers, warn the authors of Hellish Work. Nicotine absorbed through the skin is a serious health issue. Those handling tobacco leaves can absorb as much nicotine daily as they would get by smoking 36 cigarettes. It’s a staggering dose for children.   Continue reading →

Posted in Marketing ethics, True confessions | 2 Comments