TOW #22: Sour Patch Nutrition Facts

Nutrition facts can be found on the back of any publicly marketed food or beverage. For such a commonly found and taken for granted piece of text, there is actually much more there to analyze than what initially meets the eye. This week I chose to rhetorically analyze the nutrition facts on the back of a package of Sour Patch Kids candy that I had lying around my room. Featured in the neatly organized boxes on the nutrition facts label there are various pieces of information regarding the contents and nutritional value of the candy. The speaker of the nutrition label (as well as the rest of the packaging) is Maynards, the British confectionary company. The audience that the nutrition facts reach encompasses all consumers of the Sour Patch Kids product, being that the nutritional information is prominently featured on each package. The purpose of the nutritional facts column is to satisfy the need to inform the consumer about the contents of the product, while also organizing and proportioning the data in a way that is appealing to the consumer. This is done mainly by breaking up the total calorie and fat count of the product into “serving sizes”, which give the illusion that the product contains fewer calories than it actually does.

The main rhetorical device utilized in the nutrition facts column of Sour Patch Kids is precise organization. The step-by-step listing of each different nutrition aspect is very easy to interpret and accessible for the consumer. The usage of serving sizes also makes the nutrition information more attractive to the consumer while still being honest. In my opinion, this particular nutrition label is very effective in making its information clear and appealing to the consumer. Though this is a very big package of candy that contains a lot of calories, breaking it up into serving sizes of 10 pieces and listing the nutrition information based on that portion makes it much more enticing to possible consumers.