Wait, does their logo actually end with a picture of a pile of poop, complete with gray stink lines and everything?? Amazing...
https://static-www.adweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Her...
Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
11–20 of 57 posts
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#12They would get a lot more ROI by just investing in making products that don’t taste like shit. Note that some of their products have been enshitified so much that they can’t even legally be called chocolate in some jurisdictions. It’s cheap filler designed to simulate chocolate. Agentic AI is not going to solve that.
Well, F just got a boost for an analyst noticing that have a connection to AI based on their batteries and boom.. AI pivot. All of it makes me super nervous about the market. Zero disagreement on Hershey. It got a lot worse since my childhood days.
Yes, it’s a product of the typical game of gradually swapping out expensive ingredients for less expensive ones and hoping folks don’t notice the gradual change. Over time the product ends up being nothing like what it once was.
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#13They would get a lot more ROI by just investing in making products that don’t taste like shit. Note that some of their products have been enshitified so much that they can’t even legally be called chocolate in some jurisdictions. It’s cheap filler designed to simulate chocolate. Agentic AI is not going to solve that.
That is it. I heard a possible urban legend that the reason Heshey tastes like that is back in the olden times before the internet they also didn't have refrigerated transport for dairy produce so the milk would go slightly sour when it was transported from the farm to the chocolate factory. This led to the "distinctive"/vomit-like taste of their chocolate and they decided to artificially sour the milk to stick with that flavour even after refrigerated dairy trucks were invented (for some reason).
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, F just got a boost for an analyst noticing that have a connection to AI based on their batteries and boom.. AI pivot. All of it makes me super nervous about the market. Zero disagreement on Hershey. It got a lot worse since my childhood days.
Yes, it’s a product of the typical game of gradually swapping out expensive ingredients for less expensive ones and hoping folks don’t notice the gradual change. Over time the product ends up being nothing like what it once was.
This is an example of the same sort of phenomenon as shrinkflation, which they seem to have dubbed "skimpflation"[1] in this article although I've never heard that term used before.
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/shrinkflation-the-brand...
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#15> “We were getting the full read of 2024 [data] midway through 2025, while we were planning for 2026,” said Vinny Rinaldi, vp of media and marketing technology at Hershey. “That alone is just not conducive to where marketers need to be.”
Irrespective of AI, it's astounding that companies have been throwing $2bn/yr at marketing, and their analytics data on that spend is delayed 6-18 months. That's nearly 15% of their annual revenues spent on guesswork. What's been going on over at Hersheys?
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#16They would get a lot more ROI by just investing in making products that don’t taste like shit. Note that some of their products have been enshitified so much that they can’t even legally be called chocolate in some jurisdictions. It’s cheap filler designed to simulate chocolate. Agentic AI is not going to solve that.
That is it. I heard a possible urban legend that the reason Heshey tastes like that is back in the olden times before the internet they also didn't have refrigerated transport for dairy produce so the milk would go slightly sour when it was transported from the farm to the chocolate factory. This led to the "distinctive"/vomit-like taste of their chocolate and they decided to artificially sour the milk to stick with…
The “vomit” flavor in Hershey’s base chocolate (which is quite strong for those with good pallets) is butyric acid which comes from aggressive processing of the milk before it’s put in the chocolate. There’s also very little actual chocolate in the final product (compared to other products) which allows these flavors to come out strong vs the chocolate dominating the pallet.
So folks aren’t wrong when they say it tastes like the chocolate is spoiled/off. They’re tasting heavily processed milk.
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#17They would get a lot more ROI by just investing in making products that don’t taste like shit. Note that some of their products have been enshitified so much that they can’t even legally be called chocolate in some jurisdictions. It’s cheap filler designed to simulate chocolate. Agentic AI is not going to solve that.
That's specious to state and not at all how marketing works. What if Hershey finds their chocolate is the best thing for specific ailments or an edge case?
"Our Kisses are all you need to send in this pandemic"
All they need to discover is some edge case and take it to the moon. That's how you move shit product.
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it’s a product of the typical game of gradually swapping out expensive ingredients for less expensive ones and hoping folks don’t notice the gradual change. Over time the product ends up being nothing like what it once was.
This is an example of the same sort of phenomenon as shrinkflation, which they seem to have dubbed "skimpflation"[1] in this article although I've never heard that term used before. https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/shrinkflation-the-brand...
The technical term is “enshitification.” Gradually making a product worse to squeeze out more profit.
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#19> “We were getting the full read of 2024 [data] midway through 2025, while we were planning for 2026,” said Vinny Rinaldi, vp of media and marketing technology at Hershey. “That alone is just not conducive to where marketers need to be.” Irrespective of AI, it's astounding that companies have been throwing $2bn/yr at marketing, and their analytics data on that spend is delayed 6-18 months. That's nearly 15% of their…
Waste and grift.
Re: Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is it. I heard a possible urban legend that the reason Heshey tastes like that is back in the olden times before the internet they also didn't have refrigerated transport for dairy produce so the milk would go slightly sour when it was transported from the farm to the chocolate factory. This led to the "distinctive"/vomit-like taste of their chocolate and they decided to artificially sour the milk to stick with…
The “vomit” flavor in Hershey’s base chocolate (which is quite strong for those with good pallets) is butyric acid which comes from aggressive processing of the milk before it’s put in the chocolate. There’s also very little actual chocolate in the final product (compared to other products) which allows these flavors to come out strong vs the chocolate dominating the pallet. So folks aren’t wrong when they say it tas…
“Processed” is a nonce word. Butyric acid is also in Parmesan cheese, which is “processed.”