Artisan Labels

I'm seeing way too much "organic" and "artisan" labeling these days when in a grocery or food vending store. The term "artisan" used to connote quality and suggest that the product is less likely to be mass-produced. But most of the artisan labels that I see today are on chain made, mass produced products. "Artisan" also suggests the product may be less processed and perhaps better tasting and maybe even be better for the person eating it. It implies that it is handmade and without processed ingredients.

Hmmmm At one store recently I even saw some imported food products with the artisan label. So the foreigner producers are getting in on the scam train here too, knowing that labeling something as artisan when it is not means higher sales.

I think the reality of most artisan products is that the label an excuse to charge more money for the same product. The research firm Datamonito says that more than 800 new food products have christened themselves artisan in the past five years, most of those being chain food producers like the Frito/Lay Tostito tortilla chip. They slap on the artisan label, but make the product the same way at a smaller size and higher price. And yet it sells better that the usual offering. It is testimony that consumers are not known for making the wisest choices.

This also suggests that the "organic" label scam that started years ago and has been so successful that anything labeled organic has given birth to the artisan sales pitch. Today what the consumer can count on is that the product that is artisan is always more expensive and not necessarily a healthier or better tasting one. So after seeing the suckers throw their money away on organic food companies asked themselves, why not transfer that same mentality to the artisan label? Many more producers are now doing so. Just mention the words "organic" or artisan" when in a grocery store and the consumers will all say it must be better than the ordinary non organic alternative.

Well, thank goodness Mc Donald's hasn't started labeling it's hamburgers as artisan. There are limits for using the term, points where even the least reflective consumer will not believe the artisan scam. Mc Donald's might be the litmus test for it. Uh, perhaps they should just label Ronald Mc Donald as an artisan clown and leave it at that.

Calling a mass produced food item "artisan" is just as idiotic as companies promoting themselves as "green", but people believe it, because when they buy artisan they feel better about themselves. It's the "save the planet" mentality on a personal comfort level. Well, it's just another reminder of how dumbed down society is becoming in this confused age of technological innovations that make us communicate more than we really should. Oh, by the way....just in case you didn't know...my diatribe today was an "artisan" one.