April 20, 2007
SCIENCE NOTE TO BACARDI'S MARKETING FIRM, NOT THAT THEY'D CARE
If you're a company marketing your booze in a diet-conscious way, it would make sense that you're looking out for the best interest of the consumer. The thinner your customer looks the better theh bla blah blah . . . I'm sorry. I just got headbutted back to reality. Booze, dieting, and advertising really are a perfect storm of not making sense and, in fact, makes zero, or multiple-zeroes sense. Let's start with the graphic to the right: "0 Carbs 0 Sugar". It is from Bacardi, recommending mixing Bacardi rum with Diet Coke, because the resulting cocktail contains zero calories from carbs and zero calories from sugar. This is redundant, of course, because sugar is a carbohydrate. Sugars are certainly simpler molecules than complex carbohydrates, but when classifying food as either carb, fat, or protein, sugar goes in the carbohydrate column. The graphic to the right is the same as writing "0 Beatles 0 John Lennon".
The impression given by the Bacardi ads touting its zero-level qualities is that a Bacardi and Diet Coke cocktail is a godsend to the weight-conscious or Atkins-minded partygoers planning on drinking so often and in such quantities that the calorie content of their drinks will make a noticeable impact on their waistlines. Let me disabuse those people of that impression.
There's no fat or protein in a Bacardi and Diet Coke cocktail, so let's remove those from the equation. The Bacardi ad people double-emphasized the fact that there are zero calories from carbohydrates in that cocktail. The great unmentioned––and the presumable reason that people would be drinking a Bacardi and Diet Coke in the first place––is that the drink contains alcohol. Alcohol is a different type of molecule than fats, carbs, and protein. It gets a nutritional category all its own, and the alcohol molecule contains seven calories per gram.
The standard cocktail made with 1 1/2 ozs. of 80% proof liquor contains about 14 grams of alcohol equalling 97 calories. If you were to consume 35 Bacardi and Diet Cokes in an evening you would gain approximately one pound, althought that would be the least of your worries the next morning, presuming you wake up. The next time that you see one of these ads, remember that they are being cut off at the end, like an annoying repetitive drunk by a tired and annoyed bartender. After they tout zero calories from carbs and zero calories from sugar, they are forgetting to add 97 calories from alcohol.
Tagged: advertising, bacardi, caloriesPosted by Lexiphane at April 20, 2007 12:20 AM
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