Basic Trope: A heavily-processed or artificially-made food product uses Weasel Words and deliberate misspelling to make it seem healthier and more natural than it actually is.
- Straight: An individual-sized pie that contains little actual fruit is advertised as a "Froot Pi" to seem like it does (and therefore that buying one is a smart, healthy choice). In actuality, the "froot" filling consists of apple jelly (not jam, or preserves, jelly), with "natural flavors" and dyes added.
- Exaggerated:
- They come out with a chocolate-flavored shell, and call it "Choco Froot Pi". The shell contains no actual chocolate. And the filling doesn't even contain even a molecule of fruit.
- The filling is advertised as "Processed Froot-Flavored Product."
- Downplayed:
- The pies are advertised as being "made with real fruit," or "all-natural," but the actual amount of fruit is not specified. It could be made with real fruit, it could be made with dyed-and-flavored apple jelly, or it could have only artificial fruit flavoring that's chemically identical to the real fruit flavors.
- The pies are advertised as "fruit-flavored."
- Justified: The company wants to sell its product, in the age of health-consciousness, and an emphasis on "whole foods" and "clean eating." But, at the same time, truth-in-advertising laws prevent it from claiming that there's fruit in the pie filling when there's either no fruit, or not nearly as much fruit as one would think. So by changing the spelling of "fruit" to "froot," it gets around these laws and can still market to gullible consumers, who are likely to assume that "froot" is merely a trademark and that the product does contain real fruit.
- Inverted: Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs advertise that they're made with 100% artificial chocolate flavoring.
- Subverted: "Froot Pi" does actually make its product with fruit.
- Double Subverted:
- It uses only the juice from the fruit, not the actual flesh, or even (in the case of citrus fruits) the rind.
- Alternatively, it uses jam or preserves in its filling. Which is a step up from jelly (which only requires the juice) as jam and preserves are indeed made with the flesh of the fruit, but it's not the same as fresh or even frozen fruit. The consumer, however, is likely to think it is.
- Parodied: "Froot Pi". Now with 50% less fruit flavor!"
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Froot Pi uses real fruit in its products, or at least admits it doesn't.
- Enforced: "We need to market to a public that's health-conscious, or at least expects fruit-flavored foodstuffs to contain fruit. But we also don't want to run afoul of regulatory agencies like the FDA/USDA/overseas equivalents. I know! We'll just misspell the F word, so we don't get in trouble, and those suckers will think they're getting more fruit than they are!"
- Lampshaded: "Froot Pi". Now with 50% more Froot!"
- Invoked: Focus groups and consumer surveys show that consumers want products that are natural and healthy, or at least seem like they are.
- Exploited: The company markets its product as healthy, when it's only slightly more healthy than downing an entire bag of sugar.
- Defied: The company doesn't change the name or make it seem healthier than it is
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to the main page, to have some delicious Froot-Flavored Dessert Product!
