Let's Fix Stouffer's-- by Nate Winter

Two days ago I caught a glimpse of a TV spot for Stouffer's frozen food. I was quite taken by its new campaign, "Let's fix dinner." I liked its message about togetherness (like Lowe's "Let's Build Something Together"). But more important, I thought, was it's recognition that the American family dinner is flawed and ought to be fixed. I found the wordplay of "Let's fix dinner" cleverly rewarding, and I gave Stouffer's kudos for taking on a social issue relevant to its brand.

Today (two days after seeing the ad), I told my co-worker Brooke about "Let's fix dinner" by visiting the campaign website. We noticed some research-based statements on the benefits of families eating dinner together. Some of the statements are engaging and meaningful, like

Studies show the more often teens have dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.

But it's downhill from there. The most embarrassing claim (from that same page of the site) goes like this:

Research shows teens who have frequent family dinners are likelier to say they get mostly A's and B's in school.

Likelier to SAY they get mostly A's and B's?! Right, because we all know how honest teens are. While talking to their parents. About their grades. At the dinner table (a social situation they can't escape from). Here's some honesty: what's a more lie-inducing scenario than that?

That claim could be easily mean "The more teens eat dinner with their families, the likelier they are to lie about their grades to avoid an awkward situation during dinner." And yet Stouffer's tried to spin this lazy, inconclusive research like a positive, as if no one would notice. Forgive me, Stouffer's, if I'm no longer convinced of your interest in solving real-world dinner dilemmas.

But wait, there's more.

Then Brooke brought up the 800-pound gorilla problem with "Let's fix dinner": you don't actually cook Stouffer's. It's frozen food that you heat in the microwave or the oven-- not exactly what I'd call "fixing dinner."

To me, fixing dinner implies pots and pans, multiple raw ingredients, stirring. Fixing dinner doesn't have to be full-fledged cooking-- even a product like Hamburger Helper would have a leg to stand on with "Let's fix dinner," but not Stouffer's. I'm afraid dropping a frozen brick of overly processed, sodium-saturated food product onto your microwave carousel does NOT count as fixing dinner.

So at the end of the day, Stouffer's has succeeded in reminding me of everything that's wrong with America's dinner tables: unhealthy processed food, parents too busy to cook a nutritious meal and short-sighted teens eager to tell their parents anything but the truth to avoid a lecture.

Stouffer's needs to keep its mitts off America's dinner tables, and fix its marketing message instead.

-- Nate Winter