I recently discovered that despite my marketing studies in college and a number of books I have read about advertising on the side, I remain a helpless victim to misleading advertising. For the past six months I have been paying a premium for the Tyson brand of frozen chicken breasts, usually two or three dollars more than the generic brand. Why? Because Tyson chicken is hormone-free. A bag of chicken lasts me long enough to seem worth the extra money to avoid all of those terrible hormones that may or may not lead to cancer. I felt good about this purchasing decision, and once I started buying Tyson I never went back to the generic brand.
Yesterday I made a chicken caesar salad for lunch, and while I was removing a few tenderloins from the bag I realized that there was a tiny asterisk next to the large “No Hormones Administered” text. Following the star to the bottom of the page, I identified a previously obscured sentence reading: “Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in chicken.” Are you kidding me? A few minutes of research confirmed that Tyson is by no means unique in offering hormone-free chicken–all commercial growers are held to these standards. All this time I have been paying a completely unnecessary premium to ensure the chicken I consume is free of hormones, when any generic bag of chicken would provide me with the same thing. It’s amazing how willing people are to purchase peace of mind, even if it’s a false peace of mind. I think I’ll use the money I save on my future chicken purchases to buy organic milk. But first I’ll make sure that milk isn’t organic by law.
After two and a half weeks, here is an update on my goals:
- CPA Study — I’m just about finished with the taxation section of REG (worth nearly two-thirds of the total point value) and ready to study ethics and business law.
- Spanish — I’m now able to make awkward and unnecessary observations about my environment: “The boy has a black cat. The man is not wearing shoes.”
- Volunteering — 9/75 hours complete.
- House shopping — I contacted my realtor a few days ago and requested an updated email listing of potential purchases. I plan on making a visit to Des Moines sometime in June to start shopping again.
- Vacation — I booked a few nights at a bed & breakfast in St. Louis!
- Cooking — I have made no less than five new recipes since my last post: lemon garlic shrimp, penne with chicken and pesto, oatmeal peanut butter cookies, chicken broccoli divan, and cajun chicken caesar salad.
- Reading — I finished The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, an excellent nineteenth century novelist and poet. I am currently up to chapter three in Mark.
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Andrew on 05.30.2009
No two people are not on fire.
Andrew on 06.10.2009
You suck at updating your blog.
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