Daniel Lubetzky

A new site just launched that analyzes food product labels for ingredients that may or may not be good for you.  Too many items pose as "healthy" while containing ingredients like high fructose corn syrup which labelwatch exposes here as not healthful.

The site is not perfect yet; it’s search engine is clunky; and it still is missing KIND Fruit & Nut bars, which are the #1 Healthy Snack bar line (in terms of market share growth of entire space over each of the last 3 years, and #3 in overall size already in natural industry, according to SPINS, IRI and Nielsen).  But it is a good start.

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And the corollary to the earlier post is that obesity in children has reached epidemic proportions, causing Type 2 diabetes and many other health complications that stay with them beyond childhood for the rest of their lives.

There are other key health challenges to children, that the food industry needs to tackle…

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A report last week from the Federal Trade Commission found that the makers of soda, fast food, cereals and other products spent $1.6 billion in 2006 on marketing aimed at children and teenagers.

…While almost $500 million a year is spent on soda advertising, only $11 million is spent on ads for fruit and vegetables.

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Here is an amusingly observative piece from Verlyn Klinkenborg in the NYT editorial page about how smart-phones are taking over the human race and turning us into weirdly asocial beings…

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I’ve always admired Coke’s marketing. And, like most big companies, it has been careful to be genuine when making specific claims.  Yes, it is lifestyle-centered and romantic, so it gets carried away – but that is what has made it such a majestic brand.  And you don’t normally have big companies make ridiculous claims they can’t stand by.  They are too smart for that.  Alas, Coke has now come out with the preposterous claim that its formula has "no artificial ingredients."

Say that again? The drink is a definition of artificial.  Tasty.  But artificial.  Without getting into whatever secret ingredients that are over-processed by definition, and without getting into carbonation, you need to go no further than one of its core ingredients: High fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  HFCS is a definition of a man-made chemically-created compound – no matter what lobbyist may try to dupe is into confusing us and harming our health – to the point that HFCS doesn’t even get absorbed by the liver and bypasses it, forming fat directly, and contributing to obesity.

It is embarrassing that an institution like Coca-Cola would be part of an effort to destroy the meaning of "all natural."  And to contribute to America’s obesity and diabetes epidemics through misinformation.

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The NYTimes Week In Review had two excellent articles on the situation in Russia today and its conflict with Georgia.

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Before you watch this, make SURE you watch the earlier post about Matt (here).

The Daily Star wrote a compellingly sad editorial on how Hamas and Fatah are killing the Palestinian dream. Both have cared more about their power than the Palestinian cause, but it is not a balanced blame. 

Fatah is indeed embroiled in corruption and ineptitude because it lacks a system to give young emerging locally respected leaders representative power, but Hamas is the party that staged a coup and killed hundreds of Palestinians.  Hamas is the party whose "Foreign Minister", Mahmoud Al Zahar, recently said it alone was the representative of God on Earth. 

Under President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, the West Bank is experiencing some level of development, growth, order, and an admirable push for transparency. Under Hamas, Gaza has become a Taliban-like enclave of terror against ordinary citizens, suppressing all freedoms according to Palestinians living there.

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Watch this and I dare you not to smile.

You can learn more about Matt here.

I noticed he visited Tel Aviv and East Jerusalem for modest takes in each place, but I’d love to bring him back for a BIG dance across Israel and Palestine.  We at OneVoice are always so worried about ensuring the OV brand is mainstream and not seen as flighty or disconnected from the reality on the ground, but frankly, you see this video and you realize, in the end, all that matters is what Matt is doing – transcending differences.  And to those that don’t understand that, I dare them not smile (and discover others’ humanity) watching Matt’s work.

What do you do when your formerly fun and irreverent brand has been threatened by months of media criticism over alleged corporate missteps? Regardless of where you stand on whether Microsoft tried to manipulate Yahoo or Jerry Yang missed an opportunity to drive shareholder value (or far harsher assessments including this one from Joe Nocera – and the counter-reply from the "fake Steve Jobs"), if you are part of Yahoo’s management – you need to get your team’s spirit back up, and you need to re-focus the world on the deep base of greatness and funk you’ve established over the years.

In a quirky way, this is exactly what this video, which is getting a lot of play and coverage, such as here, is achieving.

Whoever came up with this move at Yahoo deserves a lot of praise.