Some time last year, a few American schools and colleges, worried about obesity in students, tried a blindingly simple experiment: they took away the canteen trays. It was a simple thing, but the effects were impressive. Because they couldn't take more back to their seats than they could easily balance on an arm, students couldn't make impulse purchases of muffins, extra large sodas or appetising kilogram blocks of refined animal fat. They could carry one plate and maybe a small drink to their table and, once they'd consumed that, they faced an active 10m trek back up to the counter for dessert of high fructose corn syrup in a deep fried pastry bucket.
It's brilliant. Can you imagine the intellectual torture? "I really want to gratify myself by sucking up more ghastly pap but how do counterbalance that desire with my abject terror of actually getting off my grotesquely fat arse and going to get it?" They say the students lost pounds because they ate less - I reckon they burned up the calories just thinking that hard.
All of which brings us to the vexed subject of size. According to US marketing magazine Advertising Age some of the big US burger chains have recently begun a 'size-war', competing to lower the prices of new extra-large burgers. This is exactly the kind of move you'd expect in a recession - more size / less money is a desperate food marketer's default position - but it throws into sharp contrast the announcement by Coca Cola that it is trialling a new mini can in Washington DC and New York this December. This isn't the tiny mixer can we've become accustomed to, rather it's around two-thirds of the size of a normal can - 222mls instead of the standard 355mls.
We'll give you this from the release verbatim:
"The Coca-Cola mini can is a great option for smaller thirst occasions, and for calorie-conscious consumers," said Hendrik Steckhan, president and general manager, Sparkling Beverages, Coca-Cola North America. "Our new sleek mini can supports the idea of moderation and offers people yet another way to enjoy their favorite Coca-Cola beverage."
(It's beautiful isn't it? Sometimes, diligently constructed corporate release-speak can be like beautiful abstract poetry).
Call me naive, but this actually sounds like a good idea. It's simple, probably effective, and when compared to what marketeers over in the all-beef patty sector are cooking up for the winter season, it seems positively responsible. But what do you think? Is this a step in the right direction? And are there any products you like to see grown or shrunk?
