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On April 1, Revant Himatsingka, using the Instagram handle “Food Pharmer,” uploaded a minute-long video criticizing the Bournvita brand for misrepresenting the nutritional value of its product on its packaging.
Revant questioned whether the government should allow companies to mislead consumers with false claims. He argued that parents are encouraging their children to develop a lifelong sugar addiction by giving them such products at a young age. Revant also mocked the brand's catchphrase, “Taiyari jeet ki”, suggesting that it should be “Taiyari diabetes ki” instead.
Reports indicate that the now-deleted reel had 12 million views on Revant's Instagram page alone. The video was then widely shared on Twitter and LinkedIn, gaining support from users on all of these platforms.
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Cadbury allegedly sent a legal notice to an Instagram influencer, Revant Himatsingka, following the widespread dissemination of his video criticising the promotion of Bournvita as a “health drink”. The influencer promptly removed the post from all of his social media accounts. In the video, Mr. Himatsingka accused the brand of “miscommunication” regarding the product's “nutritional value”, and derided the assertions made on the packaging. He even suggested that the brand's catchphrase “tayyari jeet ki” should be revised to “tayyari diabetes ki.”
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Our scumbag megacorp even went so far as to say : ""On April 9th, 2023, Cadbury Bournvita responded to the criticism with a statement on their social media handle. The company clarified, saying “Bournvita contains nutrients namely Vitamin A, C, D, Iron, Zinc, Copper and Selenium which help build immunity. These have been part of our formulation for several years. We have always called out ‘Helps with the healthy functioning of the immune system' on the back of our pack for several years (even before the Covid-19 pandemic).”
The move also highlights the conflict between large packaged food companies and claims made by users of social media sites that via videos often probe the health benefits or sugar content of juices and other health products. As consumers become more conscious of what they consume—such content receives massive interest on social media.
The government is mulling guidelines that mandate that influencers reveal their qualifications before giving advice on health, according to a news report in the Business Standard.
In fact, India's top food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India or FSSAI is in the process of framing front-of-pack labelling for packaged food products in a bid to regulate their fat, sugar and salt content.
Finally the back lash go so big in Bharat news that a large indian Nutrition National Board came to his defence
"After a social media influencer who had spoken up about the amount of sugar in Bournvita was forced to remove his post when it went viral, food scientists and doctors are now slamming the brand and coming out in support of the influencer. Revant Himatsingka, who is known as FoodPharmer on Instagram where he has over 1.3 lakh followers, had shared an Instagram Reels calling out Cadbury for advertising Bournvita as a “health drink”, despite its high sugar content."
Scientists and doctors hit out:
Shashi Iyengar, a metabolic health coach, said that the concept of “health drinks” has been implanted in us from an early stage of life. Aggressive marketing, with celebrities pushing it, has given a magical aura around it and even he has taken these as a kid.
“Some punch lines used: ‘__ is the secret of my energy', 'Tyaari Jeet ki', ‘Strong bones. Strong muscles, Active brain', ‘Taller, stronger, sharper', ‘Immunity booster'. Do we really need these with tall unproven claims? A glass of full fat milk is better. We don't need these sugary junks,” he tweeted.
Eventually things go so serious another board pitched in:
Nutrition advocacy group pitches in:
Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) — a national think-tank on nutrition — comprising independent experts in epidemiology, human nutrition, community nutrition, pediatrics, medical education, administration and management, has also come out in support of the influencer.
NAPi, in its statement, said that there is enough scientific evidence present in the public domain pertaining to the negative impact of increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) — which Bournvita falls under — on human health. This includes several chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and depression (non-communicable diseases).
“More than 60 percent of deaths that happen in India are due to non-communicable diseases and overconsumption of UPFs is attributed to be one of the major reasons,” said NAPi in a statement.
It further added that the aggressive marketing of UPFs drives the increasing consumption of UPFs, leading to unhealthy and unsustainable diets replacing real foods globally. India is rapidly rising in consumption of UPFs too.
Even government officials had taken notice, and Indian regulators stated on their twatter account they would enforce legislature to add transparency to content of sugary products
So yeah imagine some influencer calling out your BS marketing to teenagers, and your backlash suddenly cascading into a controversy where actual Indian government officials get involved, all after 70 years of Cadbury corporate sleezebaggery and getting away with false advertizing
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How did a chocolate company manage to meme Indians into thinking their products were healthy?
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Hey r-slur, ever hear of vitamin water? It works on burgers too. Everyone is an r-slur, it's not unique to poos
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I actually haven't
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remember when they rebranded that shit to "SmartWater"?
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Smartwater is just regular expensive water, I think. Wif dem elektolytes(literal trace amounts lmao)
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Yeah it is now, but I could have sworn that at some point several years ago the "VitaminWater" brand changed (or added?) "SmartWater", different from the quasi homeopathy stuff they sell now. It had the same (bad) flavoring.
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Yeah, probably.
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Same way red bull, monster, rockstar and so on make meme drinks loaded with sugar and then put in taurine because it makes people think of bulls lol
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I think Vitamin Water is more the equivalent here, they got in similar trouble. The thing was it tasted like shit and was called "vitamin water" so people thought it was healthy.
https://www.cspinet.org/news/vitaminwater-settlement-approved-court-20160408
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