'Journalists! Aaargh!! What a bunch of ignorant, bandwagon-jumping, reactionary idiots. Never willing to let the facts get in the way of a good story.'
This may or may not have been the reaction of Fresh Del Monte’s marketing staff to last month’s media uproar surrounding the launch of its new bagged, single-finger bananas.
The individually wrapped fruit line, which was in fact launched in late 2009, was trumpeted by the company earlier this year as an innovative way to get fresh fruit to consumers. But it soon met with a groundswell of fierce criticism from a widespread number of journalists and bloggers evidently concerned over the environmental impact of the additional packaging, despite the company’s claims that it could actually extend shelf-life and therefore cut wastage overall.
The highest-profile criticism came from Jon Stewart, well-known presenter of the Daily Show, who slammed the individually wrapped bananas during a tirade at the start of his show on 7 March 2011. Mr Stewart even went as far as nominating the individually wrapped bananas for entry into the show’s honorary ‘Pantry of Shame’. He asked: “What problem… what function does the bag serve that the peel does not currently serve? A product for people who love bananas but hate their biodegradability?”
In an interview with Forbes, however, Del Monte’s vice-president of marketing for North America, Dennis Christou, defended the product: “It serves another important role, namely the ability to now offer healthy alternative snacks to consumers in locations when they were previously not available due to the highly perishable nature of bananas.”
In the face of some pretty ill-informed, outrageous and, at times, vitriolic censure from other commentators, Del Monte’s decision to face its critics head on has been commendable. Companies can always do more when it comes to the environment, but this company’s efforts ought to be encouraged, instead of being disparaged.
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