Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

132 BRAND RELEVANCE
In 1977 another notable event occurred. Senator George
McGovern, as chair of the Senate Select Committee on
Nutrition and Human Needs, held hearings on heart disease,
which was labeled by some as an epidemic. Although the presenters
to the committee noted some complexities, the fi nal
report defi ned some dietary goals for the United States, one of
which was “ Eat less red meat. ” 4 However, after the meat industry
had their say, the rule morphed into something like, “ Choose
meat that will reduce your saturated - fat intake. ” Although the
prescription was no longer to eat less meat, there was now an
offi cial governmental spotlight on saturated fat.
Despite the defi nitive statement by the government about
saturated fat, the evidence was not as clear - cut as implied. As
late as 2001 an infl uential article in Science cited the ambiguities
of the evidence and noted that although fat consumption had
declined the incidence of obesity and diabetes had increased.
The article also noted that although studies had linked saturated
fat to higher cholesterol — and higher cholesterol to heart
attacks and deaths — establishing the causal link between saturated
fat and deaths has been more elusive. The relationship, it
turns out, is complex. For example, an increase in heart disease
could be caused not by the U.S. population ’ s eating saturated
fats but by the companion reality that Americans are consuming
fewer fruits and vegetables. Nevertheless, the acceptance that
fat and saturated fat in particular are bad for you spawned a host
of nonfat and low - fat products. One estimate made in 2000 was
that some fi fteen thousand such products had been introduced
over the years. 5
The government played a key role in one solution to the
saturated fat problem, namely by turning trans fat, or hydrogenated
fat, into a villain. About one hundred years ago the
discovery was made that hydrogen could be added to liquid
oils, converting them to solid fats for use in food manufacturing.
The fi rst such product was P & G ’ s Crisco, which was
introduced in 1911 supported by free cookbooks showing