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By
Janet Starr Hull
I receive many e-mails asking what I think about the newest artificial
sweetener, Splenda®. My first thought is the obvious answer:
any artificial sweetener is harmful to the health of humans and
all animals.
But it also became obvious to me the more I was asked this question,
that NO new chemical sweetener will ever take the market like NutraSweet/Equal®
did.
While pondering the emergence of the many 'new' sugar substitutes
of late, it came clear exactly WHY NutraSweet has been such a social
icon for the past 20 years.
NutraSweet has remained popular not due to its quality of product
(or lack of quality, as the case may be), but because The NutraSweet
Company designed one of the most brilliantly strategized corporate
campaigns in history. THEY masterminded their own market and THEY
structured from the beginning a social monopoly more well-thought-out
than any other American corporation to date.
So will Splenda, Tagatose, maltitol or even natural Stevia ever
replace NutraSweet's track record and past 20-year monopoly? Not
likely.
Without the manipulation of its competitors, liaisons within government
agencies and the soft drink industry, the AMA (American Medical
Association) and the media, no other artificial sweetener will hold
a candle to the history of aspartame.
Here's the deal ...
The NutraSweet Company became a trillion dollar industry because
seven shrewd corporate and government leaders got away with executing
marketing strategies that enabled them to covertly pocket the 'diet'
market.
The history of aspartame and the NutraSweet Company stratagem will
one day be written about in business journals and marketing textbooks
taught at universities. What will they say? That the NutraSweet
Company carefully planned out and successfully achieved the following:
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All their competition was carefully eliminated and taken off
the market. Note: Saccharin was not totally removed from the
market due to Monsanto Chemical Company owning BOTH saccharin
and NutraSweet, and also due to saccharin's true 'safety' record.
(See newsletter archives on Monsanto and saccharin for more
information.)
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Marketing strategies were set into motion to gain access to
and influence relationships with the food and pharmaceutical
industries.
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Liaisons were established between the NutraSweet Company and
government officials, specifically the FDA and U.S. Department
of Transportation.
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Relationships were bridged between the NutraSweet Company and
the AMA, the American Diabetic Association, the Multiple Sclerosis
Society, among other public health organizations.
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New research centers were funded and built by the NutraSweet
Company at predominant universities throughout the United States.
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Research scientists responsible for aspartame safety testing
were payrolled by the NutraSweet Company.
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Marketing relationships were established between the NutraSweet
Company and the National Soft Drink Association and the various
soft drink companies.
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Allegiances were established within American mainstream media
primarily through multi-million dollar advertising campaigns
to television stations and prominent newspapers. (Hull, Janet,
SWEET
POISON: How The World's Most Popular Artificial Sweetener Is
Killing Us, New Horizon Press, 1999.)
The seven businessmen and government officials responsible for
the creation of the NutraSweet Company and its historic cornering
of the market prepared and executed these brilliant business strategies.
Some day the facts will be common knowledge. My hat's off to the
NutraSweet Company for such a zealously designed and brilliantly
controlled marketing campaign. It succeeded longer than anyone expected,
even the NutraSweet Company officials themselves.
So will Splenda or any other artificial sweetener be able to repeat
the NutraSweet Company's historic control of the world sweetener
market?
Not likely without manipulation of its competitors, liaisons with
government agencies, the soft drink industry, the AMA and the media.
And as far as product quality goes? Oh yeah--that's what this is
supposed to be all about, isn't it?
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