I have been in marketing for a good 15 years now, but I don't have a degree in marketing or advertising.  I do however have a degree in Speech Communication which included several classes on rhetoric.  So when I say something is "marketing BS" it is fair to say I have some qualifications on assessing it.
Today's BS call is for the fine marketing folks at Mission - your tortillas are "new and improved"?  Really?  People have been making tortillas for decades and you now have a new and improved tortilla?!?  
I understand that you need to do something to stand out on packaging and appeal to today's consumers but it still feels dirty.  I saw a "gluten free" sticker on beef the other day...since I can't find any definitive answer on whether or not grain fed cattle has gluten in it and since this cut of beef wasn't grass fed I'm guessing they just had a batch of orange gluten-free stickers and started going around the store on a marketing BS sticker-a-thon.
I buy the Mission tortillas but I bought them when they were old and crappy.

This Summer we have had the pleasure of a couple of dear friends staying with us. It has been especially fun because they are so great with Harper and the five us have gone on great adventures. Now I could talk about our trip to Alaska or the day at the fair or any number of things but instead we will talk about the demons.

Every night before bed Trent will walk around the house systematically closing the shutters on the windows. Sometimes they face all up and sometimes all down but always closed. I see when he walks by the one small window without a blind that he gets nervous. Nervous that overnight "the demons" can freely enter through windows without a shade.

These demons seem to be driven out by the daylight but letting them roam through the night would be putting the whole house at risk.

So each night Trent has the chore of exercising the demons...and since he is a physical therapist he is well suited for the job.

Enough is enough. No more "heirloom" apples or pears and, for all that is holy, no heirloom cheese. I thought to be classified as heirloom the plant that produced the fruit needed to be over a certain age. 100 was what I thought but I've never heard of a hundred year old cow. If ol' Bessie is pushing 100 then let's lead with that. World's oldest cow, cheese $1M a pound.

Until then. No more heirloom.

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get" obviously he didn't have the handy guide that comes under the lid of most chocolates.  Sandra and I were recently discussing chocolates and the guide inside the lid. With it you easily navigate to your favorite dark chocolate and caramel, but no guide and you risk eating the "bad chocolates"! Everyone knows what I mean when I say "bad chocolates" so my question is this...why do they make the bad chocolates?

It is somewhat of a hypothetical question but in a day and age where you can buy one song, the one good song, off an album why would you buy a box of chocolates with some good and some bad ones in there? Sure you can buy chocolates a la carte but who does that. How about a box of all good chocolates and also let's make the box look like a book or something camouflage on the table so it doesn't attract so much attention. 

Of course the real reason is marketing and for this I feel dirty. Merchandising.  We package together a group of items that is ready to be a gift.  Me and all of my professional peers have brainstormed a holiday gift pack. Then some guy who doesn't want to spend more time shopping than he has to can make one easy decision and be done. So why does that mean there needs to be bad ones in there...to raise the price while keeping the costs low. Good chocolates cost more than bad ones, however buying a box of twenty chocolates for $10 seems like a deal so fill it with half good and more expensive chocolates and half with the cream filled ones. 

So is the legend on the lid a thoughtful helper or an apology that your special someone doesn't love you enough to buy only your favorite chocolates one by one?