Keep Talking: High-Fructose Corn Syrup Campaign Deserves a Hearing.

Going on almost 100 years old, the Corn Refiners Association is the US corn refining industry’s national trade association. Part of its job: A marketing campaign that presents the good (or not-bad) qualities of high-fructose corn syrup – HFCS. I’d pick a single sentence from a recent CRA press release to sum up this effort’s position:

Leading medical and nutrition groups, as well as some of the nation’s harshest food industry critics agree that high fructose corn syrup, a natural sweetener made from corn, is nutritionally the same as sugar.

For 18 months, the organization’s been sponsoring a darn good ad campaign, with commercials created by DDB and supported by a nice (if rather overcrowded) microsite. You can click here to watch the TV commercials; I think you ought to, since it’s worth noting how the creative has managed to get its points across.

The hype against HFCS is proof that the advertising campaign is needed; rumor and supposition have caused manufacturers to kick HFCS out of a large number of package goods (like Gatorade).

My own sudden SweetSurprise.com awareness is the direct result of a short article in this month’s Consumer Reports. Equally surprising, Consumer Union recognizes that the anti-corn syrup hype exists and is not necessarily a good thing. The story says, “But tossing high-fructose corn syrup off ingredients lists may well have more to do with marketing than with science.”

The corn refiners’ ads make strong anti-rumor points, even though the campaign has itself been hammered by food activists who continue to insist that any “manufactured” food product or additive is very very bad.

This just isn’t true. There is room for scientific debate. The industry has every right to marshal its evidence and present them to (hopefully) thoughtful consumers. That’s the point of the ads, too: Touch the subject with a little thought, will you?