Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Who, these guys?
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kz6jc

No. I'm referring to Manufacturers of Crap-in-a-Bag/Box/Bottle (CIAB), or MOCIAB for short.

In Obesity is multi-factorial, spectra and other stuff, I mentioned Mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg's ban on the use of cups larger than 16oz for the sale of sugary sodas. Note that Mayor Bloomberg is not trying to ban sugary sodas or tax anything. People are still free to buy as many cups of sugary soda as they want. However, the whining from people is deafening!

Surprise, surprise! MOCIAB have retaliated with the usual dirty tricks.

1) Lies, damned lies and MOCIAB statistics.
Cherry-picked studies, much?
2) Have a number of MOCIAB/pro-MOCIAB groups/sites drown-out good advice with bad. This is a standard marketing trick pioneered by Edward Bernays. Some examples of MOCIAB/pro-MOCIAB groups are:- Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, http://www.ameribev.org/, http://www.consumerfreedom.com/, http://www.letsclearitup.org/ and http://www.livepositively.com/.


In Psychological manipulation, there was a link to a story about a hypnotist who used his freedom of speech to influence women into "freely" handing him cash. So, why is he not allowed to use his freedom of speech to influence people (Italian police were hunting him) whereas MOCIAB are?

EDIT: I'll repeat it here, in case you missed it in the other post. Confessions of a former Dirty Rotten Scoundrel.

8 comments:

praguestepchild said...

"However, the whining from people is deafening!"

Yeah, I hate those people who whine about civil liberties and the encroachments of the nanny-state. Just because the supporters of this have openly stated that this is just the first step towards a complete regulation of sugar, salt and SFAs is nothing to get worked up about.

Hey, did you ever read that whiny book, 1984? What a whiner Orwell was.

Nigel Kinbrum said...

Do you by any chance work for a marketing company?

As long as marketeers are free to go about their business, we (the people) don't have civil liberties.

praguestepchild said...

Free speech for me, but not for thee...

Yeah, there's a huge demand for EEs in the marketing industry.

But you are right, a Cheesy Poofs commercial infringes on civil liberties way more than a government trying to force its people to eat what it considers to be healthy diet.

Nigel Kinbrum said...

praguestepchild said...
"Free speech for me, but not for thee..."
I would argue "for nobody, except those at the top". Mass manipulation of the masses has been going on for over 90 years. Do you not click any of the links that I post?

"Yeah, there's a huge demand for EEs in the marketing industry."
I know you're being ironic, but in the electronic components industry, a lot of sales reps used to be EEs. Former EEs know their shit.

"But you are right, a Cheesy Poofs commercial infringes on civil liberties way more than a government trying to force its people to eat what it considers to be healthy diet."
If it was just an occasional commercial for Cheesy Poofs, I'd say that you were being ironic. However, there are ads for every kind of CIAB in every kind of media (incl POS) at every possible opportunity (every 10 mins on USTV) so the US government ain't got a cat in hell's chance of forcing people to eat a healthy diet, whatever that is. The more dictatorial governments/local leaders get, the more unpopular they get.

John said...

I don't know how to weigh stupidity, but those arguments by the MOCIAB aren't good. What responsibility do individuals have in being able to understand statistics and the fact that they are receiving *propaganda*?

I would blame medical professionals/ doctors before MOCIAB. Their service/purpose is to improve health. There is still a blend with personal accountability though.

Unknown said...

"What responsibility do individuals have in being able to understand statistics and the fact that they are receiving *propaganda*?" - John

Good question. And most social engineers laugh at that one, but that's okay since we pretend that social engineers/specialist marketeers carrying out lucrative work with the goal of subversive influence, don't actually exist.

praguestepchild said...

"so the US government ain't got a cat in hell's chance of forcing people to eat a healthy diet, whatever that is."

Well, they've done a bang-up job of forcing public school kids to eliminate SFAs (but juice drinks are still okay). And they've done a pretty good job of demonizing SFAs in general, not to mention dietary cholesterol. Last I heard, the British government was doing a pretty bang-up job of following suit.

"The more dictatorial governments/local leaders get, the more unpopular they get."

Nigel, you can't even imagine how much I wish this were actually true.

Nigel Kinbrum said...

Going out to a gig now. Will argue later!