Thursday, February 16, 2012

Fun Size

I have recently had an epiphany about fun size candy bars. To my shock, they may not be as bad as they seem.

Of course, like probably every kid who ever had the privilege of eating candy, I was not swayed by the obvious propaganda of calling smaller packaging “fun size.” Not only do you get less candy per package, but you also have thinner chocolate walls on the candy bars. This was of particular interest to me, since I tend to eat candy bars in pieces, isolating as much chocolate as I can, leaving the inner layers to also be eaten separately. (Of course, on some bites I’ll get all layers at once, for variety.)

My wife, on the other hand, prefers the fun or even mini size of certain candy bars, due to the proportions. And I’m starting to see her point. They’re definitely not just smaller; they really do have significantly different proportions of chocolate, caramel, nougat, etc. And if you think about it, the question never was about amount per package. If someone gives you a “fun size” candy bar, it’s not like they were going to give you a bigger one and then just changed their mind. If it wasn’t the fun size candy bar, it would have been some other small thing, or nothing at all. And if you are buying a package, you can get a few large items or many small ones. It’s about amount per volume, or per dollar, not per package.

So to my shock, I suppose I must admit that the term “fun size” might be more than just blatant propaganda. (It’s blatant propaganda also, of course. But maybe not just that.)

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