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Pretzel Ad Hits NYC Streets, Promotes Eating Disorders
By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 4, 2010
Modified Aug 4, 2010
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Aug 4, 2010
Modified Aug 4, 2010
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Photo by K.Knipfing
[UPDATE BELOW] A reader sent us the above photo, taken at the northeast corner of 1st and 1st. She wrote, "A timeless message from Pretzel Crisps reminding you that you will never reach any goal when it comes to your body." Many others have shared her sentiment against the campaign, and last night NYC The Blog took some video of one of the ads getting adorned with images of too-thin women, articles about eating disorders, and a new message in response to the company's declaration: "You can never be too thin." It reads: "Actually, you can."
Most controversial pretzel campaign ever? Pretzel Crisps (put out by the Snack Factory) has been responding to the public outrage via their Twitter, saying they are "using the word ‘thin’ in a creative way to describe our product," and that people "seem to be interpreting it in their own way... we're a thin pretzel cracker!"
We recommend you toss aside the Snack Factory's anorexic pretzels—which contain 660 calories per bag, which contains just 66 "too thin" pretzels—and instead pick up a big, warm NYC street pretzel, which has about 480 calories.
UPDATE: Perry Abbenante, VP of Marketing at Snack Factory, now tells NYC the Blog that, "Based on the feedback received from you and other bloggers, we will be taking the ‘You can never be too thin’ ads down." Earlier today he had said they would only be "making some adjustments to the campaign."
Tagged
ad
ad campaign
eating disorders
Pretzel Crisps
pretzels
Snack Factory
thin
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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