Thoughts on Marketing

Discussions of what a consumer needs to know, the labeling requirements of products and the safety of goods are all relatively recent concepts that most consumers today take for granted. Upon reading this chapter, I was surprised to find that most legislation mandating some of today's most basic labeling and safety conditions weren't passed until the late 1960's. The Nutritional Facts labels on foods, for example, weren't standardized and mandated until 1990.

Nutritional labels are key to consumers being able to make healthy decisions in a world of pre-packaged foods. In earlier times, when all ingredients were bought separately and foods prepared in the home, it would be obvious how much sugar you added into the mix. However, take a look on the side of most products and you would be surprised at the sugar content, even those without a "sweet" taste to them. Products that I grew up on such as Juicy Juice have incredibly high sugar content, and my mother let us gulp it down like it was healthy thanks to effective marketing by Libby. Much of my eating habits as an adult were formed by what was acceptable as a kid, when nutritional labeling was a grey area and advertising was often misleading.

For many students in the class, the Ford/Firestone drama was unfolding when we were very young and not able to grasp the seriousness of the situation. When a person buys a new car, there is an expectation that the car works and is free of known dangerous conditions. The Ford case illustrates that the Explorer tested dangerously prior to being released, and that certain Firestone tires could explode when used in conjunction with the Explorer. Until a public track record existed, there was no way for a consumer to find out that information, yet Ford and Firestone both had knowledge of the condition prior to the vehicle hitting the market. In my opinion, there were preventable deaths that area inexcusable.