When Procter & Gamble launched its fat-free cooking oil, Olean, to the national media in February, it used several catchy fat-focused analogies to demonstrate American fat consumption. For example, one print ad featured a train hauling "fat" and a map with copy that read: "As a nation, Americans consume about 774,000 tons of fat in salted snacks every year. That's enough fat to fill railroad cars end-to-end all the way from Baltimore to Philadelphia."
This approach to national fat-oriented trivia allowed the media to grasp Olean's purpose. When used in popular snacks like potato chips, the fat-free cooking oil creates the same taste with fewer calories.
So far, the media's coverage, negative and positive, has been extensive. The reach has not yet been measured, but it is grabbing ink from both the mainstream press and scientific journals, says Becky Yaeger Kimbell, P&G's supervisor of corporate communications.
Although most of the coverage has been positive, Olean is taking quite a few hits on its digestive safety and whether it will be perceived as a license to snack without guilt.
To educate the public about Olean, P&G created campaigns geared toward the general media, food editors, dieticians and other healthcare professionals. For example, it mailed boxes of popular fat-free chip flavors to dieticians' offices.
To combat safety criticisms, P&G has focused on serving up facts and scientific expert testimonials. P&G has been researching Olean for more than 30 years at a $500 million investment (half of which was spent to build a state-of-the-art plant). The specific marketing budget was not disclosed.
"So far, it's been easy to do PR [for Olean] because it's been so well researched," says Kimbell.
Key research points used include:
- 150 clinical studies. Most recently, a double-blind study among 100 consumers who called Olean's toll-free number with a digestive complaint. Researchers found that their symptoms were not necessarily caused by Olean but could have been the result of other foods, stress, etc.
- It took P&G nine years to get FDA approval.
- Study results and positive reviews have been published in scientific publications, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Science.
No Magic Bullet
P&G seems to have done effective job of proving that Olean will not cause illness.
But despite the well-researched evidence, the consumer communications has not adequately stressed moderation, says Elyse Levine, a registered dietician and health communications specialist for Prospect & Associates, a communications firm in Silver Spring, Md.
Levine was among hundreds of dieticians who received promotional information about Olean which highlighted its safety and emphasized that the cooking oil was not a "magic bullet" for eating a balanced, nutritional diet.
As with other low-fat snacks, people tend to think they can go overboard with their consumption, actually taking in more calories and sodium. "While the proportion of fat in people's diet is going down, our calorie intake is on the rise," says Levine, who has written food/nutritional articles for Cooking Light magazine and consumer-targeted newsletters for several HMOs.
But Kimbell maintains that media relations efforts have pushed the fact that Olean is no replacement for responsible eating and moderate snacking habits. "We stress that [Olean] is just one tool for a healthier life-style."
So far, the fat-free alternative is a big hit with consumers. Unlike many low-fat snack foods that make a one-time splash, Olean is generating repeat purchases fpr snack manufacturers, mainly Frito Lay, which is producing a line of no-fat chips and P&G's Pringle chips, says Kimbell. More than 80 million bags of chips were sold within the first four months of Frito Lay's February rollout and over a half-billion servings of Olean have been consumed by consumers in snack foods, she says. (Procter & Gamble, Becky Yaeger Kimbell, 513/945-9845; Prospect & Associates, Elyse Levine, 301/592-8600, ext. 2350)