[Pretzel Crisps insisted they are just “using the word ‘thin’ in a creative way to describe our product,”]

Are they serious? Unless they're marketing TO pretzel crisps, the phrase "YOU can never be too thin" is pretty unambiguous.

Unfortunately, the company did not simply take down the offensive message, but replaced it with an even worse one. The new slogan is not only evocative of the language of eating disorders, but plays off of a bona fide catch phrase of the pro-ana set--"Tastes as good as skinny feels." What a creative way to use the word skinny to describe their product.

Jezebel has more to say: http://jezebel.com/5606654/pretzel-crisps-changes-pro+ana-ads-to-something-not-much-better

I'm thinking the second slogan pretty much gives the lie to their whole "quit being so hysterical and misinterpreting our totally innocent ad" schtick they tried in the first place.

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" is a phrase some big-time model used recently, I forgot her name though. I'm pretty sure they're trying to make an allusion to that.

I get the feeling most here will disagree with me but I don't see the big deal. They're trying to advertise the fact that their mini-pretzels are thin (and presumably crispy) by making puns and cultural allusions. Anyone who sees a pretzel ad on the street and takes it as an imperative to starve themselves probably has some SEVERE mental issues ...

Doogie, the point of a lot of the articles on SI is to look critically at some of the implicit AND explicit messages in mass media.

Just because a message may not be intentional, doesn't mean it's not potentially harmful.

"Responding to the criticisms via Twitter, Pretzel Crisps insisted they are just “using the word ‘thin’ in a creative way to describe our product,” and people are "interpreting [the ads] in their own way.""

This phrase justifies all of our critiques of the advertisements posted here over the past few weeks. Ads such as this one, various commenters have pointed out, are purposefully ambiguous; the slogans are suggestive and "edgy," but are constructed in such a way as to allow the ad makers an out of things get too hot for them. Oh, "thin" was just describing our product! We weren't even aware of any other meanings of the word! There you sensitive people go again, making a big deal out of something totally innocent!

As a person in recovery from an eating disorder, I will say that these phrases, in and of themselves are incredibly triggering. Both are phrases that are used frequently by those intensely engaged in anorexic or bulimic behaviors. I can't imagine that this snack food company didn't know that when they adopted these slogans.

Eyes are drawn to the image first, except the first thing I saw was the "You can never be to thin". First impression, anger. Then I read the whole thing and was met with relief when I saw people responding to it.

I really liked they way they responded. Not by ranting on blogs (though they did that too, I'm sure), but by posting facts and signs over the ad. People in my neighborhood do that sort of thing on billboards advertising fast food.

...And then I saw the second ad. Taken literally, it makes sense and is good. But they are also implying that skinny feels good and I don't like that. If it were for a product that doesn't seem to be "diet" (because for some reason I view extra-thin pretzels as a diet/low calorie food), then it would make me feel better. Like if it was an anti-eating disorder campaign saying "food tastes better than skinny feels".

*headdesk*

There is no way to explain that second ad unless you assume that they were DELIBERATELY giving a giant f*** you to anyone who's ever had an eating disorder.

A similar thing happened with Apple a while back -- they were advertising their new, super-compact desktop systems with the tagline "You can never be too thin." (Or "there's no such thing as too thin"...some variant on that theme.) That, too, was protested and got taken down. Unlike the pretzel people, though, Apple did not replace the tagline with any other anorexic mantras.

IMO, the replacement ads are unambiguously bad, while the originals were not. Allusion to an already known phrase, especially in an ad, don't strongly imply endorsement of that saying.

It strikes me that this replacement ad is aimed specifically to continue the attention it was getting with the original. Any attention is good attention?? I cannot see how they do not know this is going to cause more backlash and anger from the community especially the eating disorder community.

It's interesting... I'm not dismissing eating disorders, I'm not dismissing impossibly thin bodies portrayed in fashion, etc. etc.

BUT this is a diet snack. Lots of your have trouble with this. What if the ad/product was saying, "Get fat. Eat and load on the pounds!"

Obviously there is a difference between "skinny" and "fit" or "healthy weight" -- but "skinny" is also used as a word meaning those other two things. I have heard a million women say to other women, "Oh, Wow! You look so skinny!" As a general positive remark... and most of the time the women receiving the compliment are not Kate Moss.

Losing weight and not being happy with your weight is perfectly fine. I'm not talking about an eating disorder. I'm talking about, "Hey, I'm 5'4" and 190 lbs and I want to lose 30 pounds."

I'm not even talking about this ad anymore... I'm talking about the immediate reaction on this board that EVERYTHING must be accepted unconditionally.

I'm almost positive the second image is a hoax. That's a REALLY famous anorexia quote, since Kate Moss mentioned it recently and people were really angry and vocal about it. The new ad can't be real - it's too perfectly ironic.

We hope people noticed what isn’t in the ads: No extra thin, scantily clad female models; No mention of dieting programs, points, etc…

Well, um, "you," as used in "You can never be too thin," is generally understood to refer to people, rather than things. That is, if they were actually talking about the pretzels, one would expect a different pronoun to be involved.

Decency would dictate, in any case, that they avoid a pronoun that could be read to apply to people with eating disorders.

Something like "more taste for their volume" would accomplish their intended meaning nicely.

You know, if I worked in their marketing department, I would have gone the opposite route. Pretzels don't seem skinny to me, I would consider pretzels curvy. "Voluptuously attractive" sounds like a decent tagline to me. *shrug*

Wow, It's an ad. You people need to chill.

Also, why is "thin" a negative thing to strive for? We do not strive to be "C" students, we strive to be "A" students. We do not strive to be average, we strive to be above average. Regardless of how you feel about it, life is based on a curve, deal with it.

Christ, no wonder no one takes sociology seriously.

I said things like 'Tacos taste much better than skinny feels' to my sister when she was anorexic. In an attempt to lure her back to the land of the living/eating.
Seeing these ads, seeing this psychiatric disorder used as a marketing campaign, takes me right back to that feeling of despair and absolute raw pain that I experienced as someone close to an anorectic. I thought I was going to wake up one day and find that she'd killed herself, or that her heart had finally given up, or that she'd overdosed and couldn't be revived. I was panicky, anxious, a wreck, and began to show PTSD-like symptoms after a particularly disturbing episode where she self-harmed in a dramatic fashion.
THANKS, PRETZEL DUDES.

Blogged this one. Great stuff!

http://workthatmatters.blogspot.com/2010/08/too-rich.html

Ok. . . I get that it may be tasteless, but if we take this (second ad) literally, the message is *anti* eating disorder. Yes, they are using the language of "thinspiration," but the literal message is a reversal. Literally, the ad says, PLENTY of things taste better than skinny feels, so maybe it's time to start eating them! Like, pretzels, for example. Baby steps.

Maybe it's too much to hope for, but possibly someone in the marketing department was going for a brilliant (and socially responsible) toung-in-cheek response ED related criticisms, only to have it backfire on them for using excessively loaded language?

Oh! I should just eat those pretzels constantly and then I can have the same experience as if my body were suddenly socially acceptable!

I'm pretty sure that the new advert is just a quote from Kate Moss, she once said "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" except they just removed the word "nothing." But besides this point, its appalling that a company would even publish an advert like this (do they not have people who check their work before its sent out?) but to do it twice, its horrifying! Did they not learn their lesson the first time around?

Troll.

I've heard Dr. Phil use that phrase

reading the comments on the blog, i get the feeling there are a lot of cynical people who want to find fault with things where fault doesn't lie.
I read the new tagline "tastes as good as skinny feels" and thought, "right, so they taste good then".
End of story.
I really think you're all reading too much into this.
I wish "how to interpret advertising for what it is and not link your self worth to it" was taught in schools.
regardless of the fact some of you find it offensive, people will probably still buy the product, and by arguing about it on here, you're just giving it free publicity.
sure, some of you might boycott the product, but you know what... i'm pretty sure this company's not targetting overweight comfort eaters who think it's OK to eat a plate of french fries the size of their head with their dinner every night.

the message is now WORSE!
i just saw a billboard at a 102nd street and columbus ave. bus stop that read: Pretzel Thins: We're Thin and Stacked. are they friggin' kidding?