Publications & Sites 
Less is not more; except in commercials
Paul Sassone
Updated: September 19, 2012 4:13PM
“Marketing’’ is not a four-letter word.
It has nine letters. I know that. It just sometimes seems as if “marketing’’ is a four-letter word.
We are engulfed in a sea of marketing. We are bombarded on all our electronic devices by marketing messages. Everyone wants to sell us something.
And it’s never going to be any different. Marketing is the sixth most popular college major, according to the Georgetown University National Center for Education Statistics. Each year, colleges and universities hatch thousands of little marketeers who slither into the consumer forest we all inhabit.
Why am I so leery of marketing? Haven’t I ever been put onto something good by marketing? Well, yes I have.
But I maintain my wariness. And here’s one reason why.
I’ve seen commercials on TV for a new candy bar from Hershey’s called “Air Delight.’’ Says on the package that it is “aerated milk chocolate.’’
The TV commercial shows a young woman beside herself with rapture as she bites into an Air Delight. The voiceover says because of the air in the chocolate bar, the chocolate melts faster in the mouth.
I’ve never realized this is a problem; that chocolate takes too long to melt in the mouth. It’s not like you bite into a piece of chocolate and it melts three hours later. No one would eat chocolate if that were the case. How could they talk on their cell phones with a mouthful of unmelted chocolate?
A lifetime of experience melting chocolate in my mouth has taught me that the melting process takes much less than a minute.
I can wait that long.
No, there must be some other reason for “aerating’’ a chocolate bar.
And I think I discovered that reason.
While I was at the grocery store, I bought an Air Delight. I also bought a regular Hershey bar, which is not an unfamiliar action for me. I’ve been buying Hershey bars ever since I was old enough to slide a handful of pennies across the counter at Zimmerman’s candy store.
Today, the Hershey bar cost $1.09. The Air Delight cost the same, $1.09.
The Hershey bar weighed 1.55 ounces (43 grams). The Air Delight weighed 1.44 ounces (40 grams).
I paid the same price for both candy bars. But I received .11 fewer ounces of chocolate from the Air Delight.
Hershey marketing is trying to convince me this is a good thing. But I know that less is not more, or even equal.
I hope this idea doesn’t catch on with other products.
I’d hate to start receiving aerated pizzas.
