Unilever’s shrinkflation move on its pack of popular Magnum Mini ice creams is a double whammy – there’s one fewer ice cream in the pack and those remaining are “mini-er” than they were before, writes Wendy Knowler.
Consumers are never impressed to discover that a product they’ve bought for years has shrunk – without the manufacturer having done anything to alert them to the fact that they’re getting less for their spend. Trust in and affinity for the brand are understandably dealt a heavy blow by such underhand tactics; yet, “shrinkflation” shows no sign of letting up as a global practice.
In South Africa we’ve seen everything from cooldrinks and chocolate bars to toothpaste and pet food sachets shrink, in some cases, more than once. But what Unilever’s just done to its pack of Ola Magnum “Mini” ice creams takes some beating.
Lesley Wright of Cape Town was astonished to discover, on opening her recently bought pack of Mini Classics, that it housed just five ice creams, instead of the usual six.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, they were smaller than previously. A quick check of the packaging revealed that it wasn’t a mistake.
While the old pack had disclosed the contents as “6 x 60ml” ice-creams, the new one had this in the same place on the front: “5 x 55ml”.
In her email to Unilever, Wright slammed the shrinkflation move as “a very devious change to the detriment of the unsuspecting consumer”.
“From now on mini Magnums are off my shopping list as well as all other Unilever products,” she said.
A representative of Unilever’s “customer engagement centre” responded to her by saying while the company understood that “changes to your favourite products can be disappointing”, its commitment to quality and value “remains steadfast”.
“Due to rising costs and in an effort to stay competitive, we’ve updated our packaging from six ice creams of 60ml each to five ice creams of 55ml each.
“This change allows us to maintain the integrity of our product without a significant price increase.”
Effectively, customers are getting about 23% less ice cream than before in each pack. It’s what manufacturers term “making the product more affordable”, the reasoning being that consumers will resist buying a product when it goes beyond a certain price point.
“We’ve carefully considered this decision and believe it aligns with industry standards while continuing to provide you with the best experience,” the Unilever representative said.
Unilever’s marketing lead for ice cream in southern Africa, Ant Borstlap, told News24 that the decision to reduce the Magnum Mini pack was “an effort to maintain the high level of quality and integrity of our product” as global chocolate costs continued to soar.
“The number of units and grammage change is highlighted on pack,” she said.
In this case, “highlighted” does not mean that anything extra was done to draw consumers’ attention to the fact that the contents had been dramatically reduced.
Cadbury Dairy Milk’s pack of ice creams contain five per pack but each weighs 60g.
When Dairymaid reduced its Country Fresh ice cream range’s tub volume from 2 litres to 1.8 litres earlier this year in South Africa, it hid that 1.8-litre declaration on the underside of the tub.
READ | Shrinkflation nation: Yes, your ice cream tub is getting smaller
Notably, they kept the tub the same size, but filled it with less ice cream.
Legally, all foodstuffs are legally required to carry a quantity indication, but not “on a surface clearly intended as a base”.
A company spokesperson conceded that “in our haste to launch the new packaging, we failed to comply with other regulatory requirements”.
Shortly afterwards, “1.8l” stickers appeared on the lids of affected tubs.
“Our intention was never to mislead our shoppers, but to give them an affordable pack size,” the company said. A year ago, French supermarket group Carrefour took a strong stand against such stealthy downsizing of products, and began marking affected products with stickers alerting consumers to the fact that: “This product has seen its volume or weight fall and the effective price from the supplier rise.”
Shrinkflation outrage peaks when it’s applied to snacks.
In February, during the US’s Super Bowl Sunday, US President Joe Biden took to social media to lambaste snack manufacturers for shrinking their packs. Sports-drink bottles are getting smaller, he said, bags of chips had fewer chips in them, and ice cream tubs were shrinking in size “but not in price”.
“I’ve had enough of what they call shrinkflation,” Biden said. “It’s a rip-off. Companies are trying to pull a fast one by shrinking the products little by little and hoping you won’t notice.
“The American public is tired of being played for suckers. I’m calling on companies to put a stop to this. Let’s make sure businesses do the right thing, now!”
CONTACT WENDY:
Email: consumer@news24.com
Twitter: @wendyknowler
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