Trust in big food is very low. In a free-association word game we
recently played with a large cross section of consumers, no food or food
product was freely associated with the word "trustworthy"! The
fact that three(!) car nameplates (Toyota, Honda, and Subaru) were cited
as examples of trustworthy makes the total absence of food names even
sharper.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
While they weren't freely associated with
"trustworthy," food advertising and companies were associated
with the words "time-saving," "work-saving," and
"sneaky." Prepared foods, pre-cut vegetables, and packaged
salads were frequent free associations with work-saving and time-saving.
Food advertising, size reductions, and "New and Improved"
claims were frequent examples of practices, products, and companies
associated with "sneaky."
COPYRIGHT 2005 Consumer Network,
Inc Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2005, Gale Group. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.