Regular readers know that I have a burr under my saddle when it comes to all the cunning marketers and their endless efforts to skate between the fine print of the law in order to steer unwary consumers their way. One of my friends was recently diagnosed with Type II diabetes and he asked me to go along to the grocery store and help him select low-glycemic choices for his new diet. I played a game where I asked him to select items he would intuitively gravitate towards if he were shopping alone. His first choice was a sliced bread labeled “All Natural, Multigrain, High Omega-3, and Trans-Fat Free. I then asked him to look at the ingredient list. First and largest ingredient: Wheat Flour (i.e. refined white flour). Second ingredient: Mixed Grain Flour. Third ingredient: Sugar.

That’s why I still appreciate the unsophistication of emerging economies. They still try to fool you, but haven’t yet figured out all the subtleties of deception already mastered by Western companies with their two hundred year-old learning curve. Take for instance this bottle of Thai Fish Sauce. A wonderful condiment, essential in the making of Pho soup (if you haven’t had Pho you haven’t lived…at least from a gastronomic perspective!).

Note the fine print at the bottom: Does NOT contain crab, shrimp, pomfret, or squid. In fact it contains none of the things shown on the label. It is however labelled “Fish Sauce” in English and Salsa de Calamar (squid sauce) in Spanish. Actual ingredients: Anchovies, water, and salt.

Frankly I prefer this type of blatant deception rather than the much tougher to detect American style marketing. How long will it take the Thai to catch up? Not long, I suspect. Sometimes I get discouraged for the environment when I realize that there are 3 Billion people out there who want to become us!