Another horrible food for children

Packaging for Schneiders "Lunchmate"

It's small, cute and appears to be aimed at children. Stackers seems like a reasonable idea. Kids get to play with their food and it is a source of "Calcium Fibre Iron". What's not to like? Well turn it over and the "Lunchmate" tells a rather different story.



Nutrition Facts from Schneiders "Lunchmate"

While this product is a source of Calcium (15% of the daily value) Fibre (16% of the daily value) and Iron (8% of the daily value), it is also an important source of Fat (25% of the daily value) Saturated Fat (37% of the daily value) and Sodium (35% of the daily value).

Just another reason to make sure to read the back of the packaging. That is where the real story is. Ignore the "New Look!" in the upper right corner. The Nutrition Facts are telling the same old story about crappy foods aimed at kids. It may appear to be a bargain, but then most things that are bad for you usually do.

Give me no warning and make it hard to understand

eMail from LinkedIn, December 11, 2012

Yesterday I received this eMail from LinkedIn. For some reason the firm has decided that offering me a link to my blog is not a useful thing. Not useful for whom?

And when I click on the link and head over to the "Help Center" on the LinkedIn site, the information I see is confusing and pretty useless.

But the worst part is that this email is a great big fat lie. There are now fewer ways to "tell my professional story at LinkedIn" not more.

Facebook has been driving commercial users away with its policy, and charges, on sponsored posts. Is LinkedIn doing the same sort of thing? By exerting a greater degree of control about how your customers use the site, and removing flexibility that they previously had, are you eliminating some of the very reasons that they joined your site in the first place?

It will be interesting to see how customers react to these changes, or if I'm just an old curmudgeon.

And not so good in a very important way

Packaging from Dare Wagon Wheels

Nutrition Facts from Dare Wagon Wheels

This snack, a blast from my past, is now in my daughter's lunch. Or at least it was until I read the nutrition facts. One of these has 150 calories and 21% of the daily allowance of saturated fat.

So an " ideal snack for the lunchbox" if childhood obesity and teenage heart disease are on your daughter's to-do list. Well, they are not, so they'll be no more Wagon Wheels at our house.

It serves me right for not reading the packaging before I was seduced by the front of the box. Marketing triumphs again in the battle of style over substance.

Ideal in two ways

Packaging from Dare Wagon Wheels

I had these when I was a kid, and so I fell prey to the delights of nostalgia and purchased a box for my daughter to take to pre-school in her lunchbox. (Well, she has a lunch bag, but you get the point.)

I did see that Wagon Wheels are now produced in a "Peanut Free" facility and are individually wrapped.

But, this snack is not 100% ideal. Why? See tomorrow's installment for the other side of this snack.

Great, but late

Screenshot from Okanagan College Website, December 5, 2012

It is great to have interesting notices on your website, but those notices should be relevant to your viewers.

I saw this on the Okanagan College on December 5th, even though the event occurred on November 30th.

But by the end of the week the Robocup banner had been replaced. So, better late than never.

If you gave it away it would have more value

Bus shelter in Kamloops

Interior of bus shelter in Kamloops

In Kamloops and Kelowna the majority of people on the bus seem to be post-secondary students. Is this a desirable demographic? It would not appear to be.

The advertisements both inside and outside the structure are an attempt to convince advertisers that the bus shelter is a great place to advertise.

But if they can't sell the advertising space to anyone, then what value is there in advertising on the bus shelter.