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How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

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Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#111

Post by sithadmin »

PeterStuer wrote: post #78

Even more insidious is the armies of salaried mechanical turks on 'grass root' social groups and forums pushing forward a company's whisper campaign without any form of disclosure. You'll notice the same messages surfacing in various online avenues of certain niches nearly at the same time. They make people believe they are on the inside lane of something new and count on them spreading the 'insight' organically amon…

As a moderator of a major technical community on Reddit, I (and the other mods) probably spend more effort on squashing astroturfing campaigns than anything else related to moderation. Removing astroturf posts and banning associated accounts is a daily task. Some vendors are so aggressive about this that we've had to institute automod rules to nuke any post that includes certain brand or product names.

Thankfully most vendors or their marketing agency affiliates that engage in this sort of thing aren't particularly clever about it, so identification of puppet accounts to ban isn't too difficult.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#112

Post by bigstrat2003 »

latentcall wrote: post #103
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea why the hell people are being so hard on you. I haven't had good fresh blueberries, but it is well known that food tends to be better when you get it fresh from the place where it is grown. I can certainly vouch that tomatoes and strawberries that you get at the store are but a pale imitation of what you get if you can get them fresh. Maybe blueberries are an exception to this trend, but I doubt it. I'…

The tomatoes I grow in my backyard are leagues better than any tomato sold in stores around here. It really does make a difference. No wonder a lot of people are so lukewarm on produce. The stuff people buy in the store is junk!

Oh yeah the difference in quality is incredible. I can't grow tomatoes to save my life, but I love to get them from my local farmers market in the summer. They have so much more flavor that it's hard to believe they come from the same species of plant.

Strawberries are the same thing, like I mentioned in my post. I encourage everyone to go pick strawberries at least once in their life. I like strawberries well enough normally. When you get them fully ripe, fresh from the plant, they are heavenly. It's something everyone should experience.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#113

Post by dehrmann »

midnitewarrior wrote: post #71
meowkit wrote: post #60

Throwing my hat into the noise… Just try things people. Blueberries are awesome. I know a lot of yall sit at a desk and work on a computer. I personally find blueberries to be an amazing snack and fuel for that kind of work. Driscoll Berries - thumbs down Twin Rivers - thumbs up Farmers market - thumbs up

Who paid you to say this???

Small Blueberry, it seems.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#114

Post by xeromal »

el_benhameen wrote: post #63
7thaccount wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2/3 of my bushes died. One is still going strong. It takes time. They also need acidic soil.

I’m a decent gardener, but I’ve killed every blueberry bush I’ve planted. Given the rest of this thread, I assume it was some sort of plot by Big Blueberry to keep me hooked on their supply. Oh well.

I grew up in N. GA and we used to take out the slop (table scraps) to the woods to dump for the creatures of the woods to eat and I distinctly remember both melons and blueberries eventually growing there.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#115

Post by bigstrat2003 »

rescbr wrote: post #80
justrealist wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Store bought blueberries are fine. Frozen blueberries are fine. It's food, worry about things that matter.

I have a couple of strawberry pots by the window in my apartment. The flavor is way better than anything store bought. It's the same thing with picking and eating blueberries straight out of the bush, or from some roadside stall. Something to do with the commercial varieties being selected for transport and size/color rather than flavor. Also I believe the commercial fruits are picked as soon as they seem ripe, while…

The transportation thing is what I've heard as well. Basically, the fruits are picked before they fully ripen so they don't get damaged in transport. For that reason you'll see chefs (e.g. J Kenji Lopez-Alt) recommend that you use canned tomatoes rather than fresh when you can. Tomatoes destined for canning are chosen for flavor and not beauty, and are picked when fully ripe. So you will generally get superior flavor from canned tomatoes.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#116

Post by gpspake »

I read "Trust me I'm lying" and it reaffirmed a lot of my theories about how modern marketing works. (This isn't a sly paid plug for the book. Trust me ;)

Now I assume everything is marketing by default. A couple that come to mind:

the ugly sonic design when the movie came out. You get a whole wave of promotion from the outrage, then another when the design is fixed.

An innocuous "my girlfriend's shirt matched her coffee mug" post but there are some brand name cookies in the edge of the frame.

If I worked in marketing, these are the sorts of things I'd be trying to come up with. It gets even more fun when you apply these concepts to political propaganda.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#117

Post by darth_avocado »

whatamidoingyo wrote: post #61
user_7832 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much do you need/typically eat to feel its effects? I've never felt anything despite hoping for some benefits from them, I wonder if I'm not eating enough of it.

Typically 2-3 handfuls (~5-8 berries per handful). A lot, actually. Sometimes I can't stop eating them when I get started, haha. Maybe it's placebo, I don't know. But I had occasional stomach issues which seemed to have gone away once I started consuming berries.

Consuming raw fruits and veggies do that to you for two simple reasons: fiber and improved gut micro biome.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#118

Post by achrono »

topspin wrote: post #85
Solvency wrote: post #70

this is an absolutely outrageously stupid title. The entire world is a massive processed food advertising and marketing engine. We are pumping processed garbage hyper palatable foods full of sugar and wheat and bad oils and then advertising them to children with lovable cartoon characters. And that's just barely scraping the surface. The idea that some evil influencer sect are inappropriately schilling blueberries is…

Certainly an emblematic first world problem. No actual problems left in your world? Make one!

Maintenance needs to become sexy (again?). Assuming you don't have near-infinite money, the misery averted by maintaining your car well is greater than the joy obtained by buying a new one, because you can really do both at the same time by spending only ~25% more and end up with 2 cars instead.

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#119

Post by Nullabillity »

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #77
kzrdude wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which kind? I'd shill for these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry which are the local kind in scandinavia; solid blue inside.

You can get Bilberry spread and syrup at Ikea in the U.S. It's very good. But it probably also has added sugar.

Bilberries are naturally pretty sweet, it's common to eat the raw (just like you would for strawberries).

Re: How the Food Industry Pays Influencers to Shill Blueberries, Butter, and More

#120

Post by valicord »

taeric wrote: post #51

I... don't remember butter boards? I'm growing convinced that the worst thing with regards to how effectively targeted social media is, is in how it convinces journalists that they know what people are talking about and doing.

But how could you miss entire "dozens of social media videos" on this captivating topic?
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