What is Pepsi thinking? They are thinking how skillfully they are hiding the fact that you have a choice of paying $2.71/L or $1.25/L and making the more expensive (unit price) choice look less expensive. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
Sure, down in the fine print no one reads, they have to confess the size in units you can compare. But the ad already has most people hooked. What is "mindless" is that the government and "all units are qually good attitude" of duality permits it. --- On Sun, 10/2/11, Paul Trusten <[email protected]> wrote: From: Paul Trusten <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:51183] mindless U.S. measurement To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Sunday, October 2, 2011, 2:02 PM Please forgive the pun, but the refrigerator sticker in the attached photo speaks volumes about the state of U.S. metrication. In a sense, America is but 9 mL and a few characters of type from being a metric country. I think Pat Naughtin might agree. Were the U.S. a metric country, the beverage makers would have rounded up the size of the smaller container to 600 mL from its present 591 mL, and would have stated “0.6 L SINGLE” on this first line in this ad. Yes, the Rule of 1000 could be applied (i.e., stating 600 mL instead of 0.6 L), but some of us would feel that the size comparison would be at its best if liters were compared to liters. So, what is PepsiCo thinking when it puts up a sticker like this one? “Here, have “some” Pepsi?” Probably so! From the point of view of measurement systems, this is real mindlessness. In terms of consumer product measurement, the real U.S. standard is the computer term WYSIWYG—hey, feller, what you see it what you get, never mind the units! And this sticker goes up in a standards-loving nation?? I snapped the shot with my cell phone while waiting for a (scrumptious!) gyro at Brothers Pizza in my original home city of Woburn, Massachusetts. Try one if you ever find yourself driving through Woburn’s Four Corners neighborhood. Yes, this is the same Woburn in A Civil Action. Contrary to the book, however, Woburn is not a small town, but rather a suburb of 30,000 people. Paul R. Trusten Registered Pharmacist Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. Midland TX United States www.metric.org [email protected] +1(432))528-7724
