The Food Scout

Okay, Smartfood popcorn has been around awhile. Then we got Smart Start cereal from Kellogg. After that was Glaceau’s Smartwater sub brand. Then Eat Smart salad kits. And Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen entrees. There are Smart Balance spreads. LightLife foods has a whole bunch of sub-brands including Smart Stuffers, Smart Meals, Smart Menu, Smart Strips and Smart Bacon. And now Unilever is jumping in with its Breyer’s Smart! yogurt, with DHA added to it. I doubt this is the last of the Smart introductions.

And I’m sure the product itself is smart, but I’m not sure how smart all this “smart” sub-branding is. In fact the more I look at the word “smart” the dumber I feel. It reminds me of other “it” words we’ve been through on products in recent years, including Premium, Supreme, Best, Super Premium, and most recently, Select. We’ve also seen Max, and Ultra, and Extreme, all usually relating to baked goods and dishwashing liquid.

What next, Awesome? Wicked?