“Breeding a Nation of Chocoholics: As Sales Rise, Marketers Try To Make Chocolate an Everyday Snack” a recent WSJ article is just the support I need to abdicate my feelings of guilt about my chocolate addiction. My addiction is not a weakness nor a lack of discipline, but rather the result of intense marketing efforts by chocolate companies.
Now I’m sure chocolate marketers in this article didn’t mean to single out any race, color, creed or religion when it comes to those who habitually eat chocolate, however they did just that, “Godiva marketers wondered, how can we take chocolate from nibble to nosh?” I inferred from the “nosh” comment that chocolate eating is a Jewish habit. Personally, I do think chocolate IS a Jewish habit (sounds nicer than addiction), particularly a Jewish woman’s habit, as in habitual chocolate eating is for JAPS not for Shikses. I am fairly certain an empirical study would prove this theory, however it remains my theory for now based wholly on subjective evidence.
(*See my theory on what is/isn’t for Shikses and JAPS – for example kitten heels and slingbacks are for Shiksas, wedge heels are for JAPS, something about the weight distribution of Shikses (maybe the lack of hips) that allows them to wear kitten heels and slingbacks with greater confidence, authority and flair than JAPS who have wider hips. )
Back to me as the victim! The gist of the article is how chocolate makers want to put chocolate everywhere you are or as I read it, everywhere I AM! Instead of deliberate chocolate eating, they want to come up with new forms of chocolate for consumers to munch mindlessly, and new places to buy them. As if pretzel, peanut butter and dark chocolate M&Ms or Ghiardelli’s dark chocolate with sea salt and roasted almonds isn’t enough? And the fact that those items are sold in Bed Bath and Beyond as you shop for sheets and towels, Barnes & Nobles as you browse the stacks for the best book on leading an addiction free-life or Michael’s craft store where you can buy extra buttons to have sewn back onto the pants into which you no longer fit because you ate too much chocolate. I imagine they will soon stock Jacques Torres’ chocolate covered corn flakes at your nearest hardware store – because nothing says shopping for a nail and hammer like chocolate?
The article then lists the many ways to satisfy a sweet tooth, the most notable to me was the individually wrapped chocolates from Lindt, Ghiardelli and Godiva for a reception desk display or to stash in a drawer. Yes, for those of you reading this who know me just a little bit, you know darn well I ALWAYS have a stash of chocolate, whether its in a drawer, in a candy bowl on my desk or in my handbag. Not my fault, it was caused by excessive exposure to chocolate marketing. Are you following my “I am a victim of sabotage” theme yet?
The focus of chocolate makers is for consumers to purchase chocolate “in addition to not instead of “ so for those of you who are not the deliberate purchasers of chocolate like I am, you will be subliminally induced into buying fruit AND chocolate rather than more fruit or healthy snacks INSTEAD of chocolate. Forewarned is forearmed!
Lastly, as cited in this article Godiva is phasing out solid wrapped squares of chocolate because it didn’t have enough “sex appeal”. “Sex appeal” and “sexy” shouldn’t be used to describe chocolate. Frankly, those words are overused and have lost all meaning thanks to overzealous and uncreative marketers. Just so you know I don’t have an ax to grind with chocolate marketers even though they are wreaking havoc in my chocolate addicted world, I am not solely blaming them for the inappropriate and over use of “sex appeal” or “sexy”. I recently heard someone describe a volunteer opportunity in New Orleans as “sexy”. As you can imagine, I almost spit out my mouthful of chocolate!
