Industry Disavows Smart Choices Campaign

The Smart Choices campaign is heaving its dying breaths. The writing has been on the wall since last week when the campaign that had decided to label some unhealthy processed food as wise eating decisions called a temporary halt in the face of FDA scrutiny. I wrote "I think this is one 'postponement' that might well end up lasting forever," and now that looks all the more likely that will be true.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is planning his own investigation of the campaign, announced yesterday that all eight of the industry giants involved in the campaign have decided to stop using the Smart Choices logo on their packaging. Smart Choices officials suspended the program during the investigations but left it up to companies whether to keep using the logo on their packaging.

Raise your hand if you think there's any chance that these companies will ever again slap this hot-potato of a logo on their boxes. Thanks to alert citizens like those here at change.org, who demanded accountability on this issue, the public stink has become even less appealing to these corporations than the nasty smell of their own false advertising.

Image courtesy of √oхέƒx™ via flickr