Starbucks, reeling from overexpansion and the high price of recession java, is putting healthy breakfast “food” on high simmer. This from a restaurant industry trade publication: “”Many Americans are too busy to make a healthy breakfast at home, but it’s the most important meal of the day,’ says Katie Thomson, registered dietitian and senior nutritionist, Starbucks Coffee Company. ‘Our customers have told us they want delicious choices that offer real nutrition including whole grains, fruit, and lean protein to help fill them up and give them energy to make it to lunch.’ The new breakfast assortment is the next step in the company’s commitment to providing food and beverage selections that support a healthy lifestyle. All of the items are made with high-quality, wholesome ingredients such as: whole grains, real fruit, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats such as omega-3s. Additionally, these products contain no artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, or high fructose corn syrup.”
Monthly Archive for June, 2009
An interesting piece of auditory discovery in BBC Magazine.
This video was posted by a Facebook friend — a home taping job, obviously, of a commercial broadcast in Europe. Pretty funny, though:
Number of unused TV’s estimated to be stashed away in our closets and basements: 99.1 million.
Was reminded today of a recent (2008) Super Bowl commercial produced to the beat of Michael Jackson. Rights to the musical score cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000:
An Economist survey conducted by YouGov yields some fascinating and jarring numbers on what Americans spend on health care and the less than world-class outcomes attached. While health care is expensive everywhere in the country, there’s a great disparity region-to-region. Miami residents pay twice as much as people in Minnesota, not withstanding the horror stories you hear from anyone whose aging parents live in Florida. The U.S. health-care system overall is the most wallet wrenching in the world, nearly twice that of the nearest competitor (Switzerland) on a per capita basis. You’d think that all the money we spend would buy greater overall satisfaction but of course it doesn’t. Over half of those surveyed said they were dissatisfied by the medical care they receive. While there’s strong public-opinion in favor of “fundamental change,” the current bills staggering through Congress will likely help some of us obtain coverage — not nearly universal — and are unlikely to stick much of a needle in annual cost increases. Lest we forget, powerful lobbying forces at work, less blatant but still reverberating even though Harry and Louise have finally come to their senses:
There’s a wine bar, Clo, in the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle. Its most notable feature is an elongated electronic table — a digital menu — that is programmed to project scores of vintages. Tap a bottle and the electronic menu serves up info about a particular wine, its growing region, etc. Today’s Times has a piece about the two guys who founded the company that developed the menu. While I give them points for imagination and engineering skill, here’s hoping they come up with more and better uses for the technology. Tapping the table, then ordering up a bottle, is vaguely interesting the first time you try it, then evaporates into meaninglessness. Now, whenever I stop in at Clos, I make sure to grab a seat facing away from the digital menu, ask the server for a paper menu, then stare out at the blissful view of Central Park.
Having spent the last nearly four years buried under academic and industry research, I am amazed by how many millions are spent on studies that belabor the obvious. From a survey conducted by the Food Marketing Institute, whose membership comprises supermarket/grocery chains: nearly one out of two working women shop in the evening.
Am I the only one who cringes at VW’s “Meet the Volkswagens” commercials? The music is bad enough, but Hans the talking Beetle … where did he get that accent? (”Small is Beautiful” this isn’t.)
The NOW Foundation maintains a web site that invites users to send in nominations for current “positive ads” and “offensive ads” showing the use and abuse of the female body and soul. Dove (print ad at right) comes out smelling like a rose.
