Yesterday, we discussedKraft (NYSE:KFT) and McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) decision to offer healthier menu items in the face of looming litigation. Frankly, the situation eats me up like trans fatty acids, and I have a bit of a contrarian (read: unpopular) view of this whole scene.
To me, this is all part of the deresponsification of America -- though I'd better be careful here or someone will launch a support group. I spoke of the phenomenon a few months ago, when someone announced they were suing Kraft over Oreos.
This notion that "it's always someone else's fault" really gets me. I don't know how it started, or even who started it, but it's a sad state of affairs when people aren't willing to stand up and take responsibility for their actions. Will no one admit that maybe, just maybe, these companies sell us fatty foods because that's what we want? That's certainly what we buy. Why would they make anything else?
PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) CEO Steve Reinemund said as much in an interview with Forbes earlier this year. When asked why the company sold so many fattening products, he responded:
"People say one thing and they do something else. If you just made products [based on] what people say [they want], you'd go out of business -- because that's not what they [really] eat."
Does he imply that we say we want to eat healthier and yet pass right by the fat-free pretzels to snatch up the bag of Funyuns? Shocking. Obviously, I'm being facetious here. The truth is, we often speak much less of the person we are than the person we want to be. And I think that's OK, as long as we don't go lying to ourselves about it, too.
And that's just what we're doing when we ignore the fact that we may be genetically predisposed to obesity or that we don't exercise, and pin the blame on the companies that sell us the burger or the chips. I know I'd like to claim Ronald McDonald put me in a headlock and forced me to supersize that meal, but it just isn't so.
I've said it before: It's not the Oreos, the Freedom Fries, or the Raisin Creme Pies; it's the fact that we toss them down like broccoli florets that gets us.
Just as troubling is the hypocrisy of the complainers. They say they want companies to change their ways, but when companies do, they deny them the credit -- after all, they only acted because they were threatened.
So, let's see here. If the companies don't change, they get sued. If they do change, they get no credit because their hearts weren't in it. Will someone please escort these people back to the mother ship so the rest of us can eat our trans fatty acids in peace?
Mathew Emmert owns shares in PepsiCo and Altria, the parent company of Kraft Foods.
