Noatso Simple
Our two year old has just provided us with an absolutely concrete demonstration of the malign power of advertising (well, marketing anyway).
Yesterday we had a promotional sample of Oatso Simple posted through our door. It was in the form of a flatish box with a picture of Windy Miller on it, containing a sachet of golden syrup flavour Oatso Simple.
My wife and I have laughed at this product in the past, not least when on some baby related forum we saw a plea for a recommendation for something "like porridge" that "only takes a few minutes to make" which got the response "try Oatso Simple" - why not, we thought, "try porridge".
Anyway, In order to make your nutricious bowl of Oatso Simple the packet suggests adding the contents of the packet (36g) along with 180ml of semi-skimmed milk, to a bowl, microwaving for 2 and a half minutes then allowing to stand for 1 minute. Compare this with the way we make porridge - put some porridge oats in a bowl, add water, microwave for 1 minute, add more water if necessary and/or stir, microwave a further 30 seconds, add some of these: mashed banana, cream, sugar, milk, syrup as you see fit. Where, I ask you, is the difficulty in that that required Quaker to come up with their over-packaged, hugely expensive (around £2 for 7 sachets = 250gm V around 50p a kilo for oats ) and SLOWER(!!!) to prepare Oatso Simple?
As you can probably see, I'm totally unimpressed by Oatso Simple and consider it, not just a rip off, but one which actually does real harm, in that it probably, to some degree will put people (who may not have a lot of money) off an extremely nutricious and cheap food by making them think it is hard to prepare. But, we did have a packet posted through our door for nothing...
So, after a request from Agnes, I prepared it and served it up for her breakfast.
Later, as she fiddled around with the packet she asked if we might have more Oatso Simple in the future. Not wanting to wade in with a flat-out refusal I asked her if she thought it was like porridge and she answered in the affirmative. I pointed out that we already had porridge in the cupboard (lately overlooked in favour of an own brand version of Weetabix (30% cheaper and indistinguishable from the original - except for the box)) and that she could have that whenever she wanted. She said that she would prefer Oatso Simple. Did she agree, I asked, that Oatso Simple and porridge were, to all intents and purposes, identical in the bowl. She did...
But she still wanted more Oatso Simple. I asked why, given that they appeared the same and she replied "Because it's got a little man on the box".
Anyway, now that she's in bed and I've thrown away the box, I'm hoping that Oatso Simple won't be mentioned in our house again, but no doubt there will be some other bit of appalling consumer marketing to contend with tomorrow.
Yesterday we had a promotional sample of Oatso Simple posted through our door. It was in the form of a flatish box with a picture of Windy Miller on it, containing a sachet of golden syrup flavour Oatso Simple.My wife and I have laughed at this product in the past, not least when on some baby related forum we saw a plea for a recommendation for something "like porridge" that "only takes a few minutes to make" which got the response "try Oatso Simple" - why not, we thought, "try porridge".
Anyway, In order to make your nutricious bowl of Oatso Simple the packet suggests adding the contents of the packet (36g) along with 180ml of semi-skimmed milk, to a bowl, microwaving for 2 and a half minutes then allowing to stand for 1 minute. Compare this with the way we make porridge - put some porridge oats in a bowl, add water, microwave for 1 minute, add more water if necessary and/or stir, microwave a further 30 seconds, add some of these: mashed banana, cream, sugar, milk, syrup as you see fit. Where, I ask you, is the difficulty in that that required Quaker to come up with their over-packaged, hugely expensive (around £2 for 7 sachets = 250gm V around 50p a kilo for oats ) and SLOWER(!!!) to prepare Oatso Simple?
As you can probably see, I'm totally unimpressed by Oatso Simple and consider it, not just a rip off, but one which actually does real harm, in that it probably, to some degree will put people (who may not have a lot of money) off an extremely nutricious and cheap food by making them think it is hard to prepare. But, we did have a packet posted through our door for nothing...
So, after a request from Agnes, I prepared it and served it up for her breakfast.
Later, as she fiddled around with the packet she asked if we might have more Oatso Simple in the future. Not wanting to wade in with a flat-out refusal I asked her if she thought it was like porridge and she answered in the affirmative. I pointed out that we already had porridge in the cupboard (lately overlooked in favour of an own brand version of Weetabix (30% cheaper and indistinguishable from the original - except for the box)) and that she could have that whenever she wanted. She said that she would prefer Oatso Simple. Did she agree, I asked, that Oatso Simple and porridge were, to all intents and purposes, identical in the bowl. She did...
But she still wanted more Oatso Simple. I asked why, given that they appeared the same and she replied "Because it's got a little man on the box".
Anyway, now that she's in bed and I've thrown away the box, I'm hoping that Oatso Simple won't be mentioned in our house again, but no doubt there will be some other bit of appalling consumer marketing to contend with tomorrow.
posted by Jon Brooke at 7:51 pm
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