Sir, - I recently received as a gift a 113g box of Trebor Jelly Babies from a friend. When I opened the box I found it contained a package of jelly babies sealed in clear plastic. The weight was correct, per the printed figure on the box. The volume of the plastic package was just over half that of the box.
Since the weight of the sweets matched the weight on the box and the box was correctly labelled with the name of the sweets I assume that the box was specifically made for that product and that amount of product. The inner plastic package was sized exactly to suit the amount of sweets, while the outer box was grossly oversized. I must conclude that the box was deliberately oversized to create the illusion that the amount of sweets contained was greater than in reality.
Strictly, the box was correct in its description of contents. However, I think that this practice of over-packaging is not in keeping with the spirit of Christmas. The money spent on the larger box could have been taken off the sale price.
I am an adult (at least I am over 18) and have been beaten into cynicism by various insidious marketing ploys over my 26 years. I have been sufficiently toughened by bitter experience when buying such various things as washing powder and boxes of peas. Not content with making me cynical, the marketeers of Trebor are now giving children's products such as jelly babies, the washing powder and peas treatment.
I think that Trebor must have as its marketing department motto the phrase "taking candy from a baby." Shame on you all. A lump of coal from Santa next year would be your just reward for such a policy. - Yours, etc., Simon Kelly,
Sweetmount Avenue, Dundrum, Dublin 14.