Monday, July 13, 2015

We Definitely Have a Nanny State - The Food Industry is Our Nanny

It would seem that Cineplex is pulling a Bloomberg in that last week Cineplex announced that as a means to make more money and to reduce the shock when calorie counts get posted, they were going to reduce their cup sizes but charge you the same as before.

Bloomberg, in case you don't recall, had suggested that cup sizes be reduced and that half a litre be the largest cup size sold.

Here's what happened next.

Yet I haven't heard one cry of "Nanny State" about the fact that Cineplex will be reducing their largest drink offering by nearly 25%.

Of course the reduced sized cups are still bonkers big!
  • Small drinks are still 1/2 a litre (16oz) - 2.7x larger than Coca-Cola's original 6oz single serve bottle.
  • "Regular" drinks are now 3/4 of a litre (24oz) - 50% larger than the bottle Coca-Cola used to advertise as being able to "serve 3 over ice - nice".
  • Large drinks are now a litre (32oz) (down from 1.3 litres) - 10% larger than the average capacity of a human stomach.
So the food industry has decided that half a litre be the smallest cup size sold.

Movie drink sizes are a great example of how we definitely have a nanny state, it's just that the food industry is our nanny.