Morrison’s Law of Supermarket Packaging: A label or container redesign is often, perhaps even usually, done to conceal a decrease in the amount of product being sold. (A blog dedicated to cataloging these changes is at mouseprint.org.)
Recently, in the supermarket freezer, there was “New and Improved” Jack’s Pizza for sale. How can this be, you ask, since Jack’s Pizza has been around “since 1960” as its label says? The answer is simple: The label changed. The thin-crust pizza lid now says “Original Thin Preservative Free Crust.” So not only is it new, but it uses the same recipe it already had. What?
Ah, but there’s more. In the fine print is the real reason for the change: Each pizza is smaller by net weight. However, the size did not change. The savings appears to have been created by putting fewer toppings on the pizza.
Two examples: The Canadian bacon pizza was 16.7 ounces; now it’s 15.7. The sausage and pepperoni pizza was 17.2 ounces; now it’s 16.1. The label itself is half an inch smaller in diameter, but the food is still a 12-inch circle.
Kraft sold its pizza business to Nestle four years ago, so it’s not an immediate change by the new owner. However, the “new and improved” schtick is advertising puffery at its best and bordering on false at worst. It might be new, but giving us less food for the same price is not an improvement.