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Friday, September 19, 2008
Hershey’s Website InaccuraciesThis is a tedious post and I don’t really expect folks to read it in earnest. It’s here for my reference and yours. Since the whole change in Kissables, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Hershey’s website and even did a screen grab on August 27th, 2008 before they started changing it in the past couple weeks after the ABCNews.com story. (I don’t know that was definitely the motivator.) While Hershey’s has a clear disclaimer on the product pages with the nutrition information that reads: Hershey’s goal is to keep each product’s nutrition information up-to-date and accurate but please consult the label on the product’s packaging before using. If you notice that something is different on a product’s label than appears on our website, please call us for more information at (800) 468-1714. I can tell you from personal experience that getting information about Hershey’s about what’s actually in their products isn’t as easy as calling or emailing. I understand that often in times of product formulation transition that the website needs to reflect what a consumer is most likely to find, some of the items on the Hershey’s website are far from just out of date, they’re inaccurate to the point of misleading. Here’s the last saved version of products page from March 2008 via Archive.org. (Images are not archived, so they may be linking to current images, not those that appeared during the time the archive was made.) Plainly put, the descriptions on the Hershey’s Chocolate Products page don’t match what’s currently available in stores, further, what they say is in the products is inaccurate.
While it’s accurate to say that it was a chocolate bar in 1936, they’re not exactly saying that it’s not any longer - you have to look at the picture and the caption just says “chocolate.”
The next is the Kissables description:
While the classic Kisses are still considered milk chocolate, the Kissables are not, so saying that they’re just mini Kisses covered with candy is misleading because, well, it’s simply not true.
Milk Duds haven’t been chocolate for years, but the description is still there:
On the actual product page the header image shows made with chocolate and peanuts but the image below it and the caption still say peanuts in milk chocolate. The description there goes further into the history which confuses matters because it once was a real chocolate bar:
The Hershey’s product page for the Take 5 has been heavily edited now. There were four versions of the bars (White, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookie and for a while a Marshmallow) listed there earlier this year. The current product page is now completely accurate with its images and description. I can only be disappointed by my memories. Hershey’s has several mini-sites. One of the major ones is for their Reese’s line of products. It was relaunched just last week with an intricate flash-based page (which means no way to link to individual product pages). I would expect that this would mean that the info would be especially accurate. Sadly it’s not so.
The Reese’s subsite lists 11 Reese’s products. Four are characterized erroneously as real chocolate products in the copy that accompanies them.
So there you have it. Hershey’s says that their changes are transparent to the consumers and that everything is clearly marked on the packages. While going straight from the package, with no previous experience with the product might mean that consumers understand fully what they’re eating, the rest of this noise - the fact that the wrappers are designed to look so incredibly similar and that the supporting materials like the Hershey’s website don’t reflect what’s truly in the bar - provides evidence the Hershey’s wants us to be confused. I fully expect that many of these inaccuracies will be rectified soon. I know that Hershey’s staff members and their PR companies read this site. The above web images were taken on September 18, 2008 for the Reese’s Whipps page and September 17, 2008 for the Hershey’s items. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:20 pm News • Candy • Featured News • 
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICEAll content (text and photos unless otherwise credited) is copyright 2005-2008 by Cybele MayPlease do not use my photos on your own site without permission directly from me, they represent what I ate in preparation for these reviews and are not to be used for other purposes. Design by Hop StudiosPowered by ExpressionEngine
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VOTE IN THE POLLWhich do you prefer as a holiday treat?
Total Votes: 251
Chocolate Candy 
31% (78)Holiday Themed Candy
18% (45)Cake
7% (18)Pie
12% (31)Cookies
31% (79)
 
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The first was the 5th Avenue, which shifted from a milk chocolate coated bar to a rich chocolatey coating bar 
Hershey’s Miniatures were 
The Mr. Goodbar section is full of inaccuracies. The name of it is Mr. Goodbar chocolate bar and the image on the directory page says peanuts in chocolate and the description says:
The final one in the Hershey’s repertoire is the Take 5. The description is shown there in the screengrab and it says that it’s covered in milk chocolate. (Which I’m guessing is a selling point, it was for me.)
SUPERB
YUMMY 
TASTY 
WORTH IT 
TEMPTING 
PLEASANT 
BENIGN 
UNAPPEALING 
APPALLING 
INEDIBLE 
That was not tedious. Thanks for documenting the, er disingenuousness of Hershey’s.
Thank you for posting about this. I’m quite disappointed in Hershey’s.
Agreeing with the other commenters...I’m glad you brought this to our attention, it’s shameful that Hershey’s is trying to pull this fast one! If I wasn’t switching to other brands because of the lower quality of their “chocolate”, I’d switch because of the dishonesty in advertising and double-talk about “maintaining quality” while switching off to inferior mockolate.
You know what would be even better than Hershey’s rectifying their website inaccuracies? Hershey’s rectifying their candy so that it tasted good again and used real chocolate. I miss my Hershey’s kisses! :-(
I’m confident Hershey’s has done extensive research, including polls and focus groups, that shows most consumers prefer them to lie on their website.
Maybe it even helps drives consumers to their higher-priced, more profitable boutique websites, like the Scharffen Berger or Dagoba ones.
I enjoy the use of the Internet, and particularly a blog, to poke holes at the illegal use of an important word like “chocolate” in corporate marketing. But, Cybele, you buried the lede in the fifth paragraph.
Maybe with blogs the blogger has a legitimate expectation for people to be following the story line. But your writing is usually so tight, I wonder if it’s just the pure outrage that you’re feeling that has you off your A game. That’s what I think.
Ever since Lenny took over it seems like he is hell bent on destroying the good name
of Hershey and doing a good job behind the customers back and not caring about what we the consumers think.
Some people don’t care because all they is “as long as Hershey’s doesn’t stop making candy what do I care?”
I checked out the label of the York pattie I just ate and cocoa butter is listed as an ingredient and I saw so sign of the words vegetable or oil so does that mean the dark chocolate surrounding the mint is actual chocolate?
I found this post really interesting, not tedious. I’m glad you’re reporting all this on your blog.
and congrats on the Today show!
For years my family has enjoyed the taste of Chocolate licorce, now it has a very waxy taste and is not the same at all. Has there been a change in that recipe? B. Combs, Denver, CO
I work for a grocery store where I have to sell Hershey products.One day not long after our grand opening, a group of Hershey reps. came in.One introduced himself as the vice president of some division and we began talking about their products.I asked him “when are you going to make candy-coated kisses?"Well, you should have seen them all light up.They had not thought of that before, so apparently my big mouth just gave them a million dollar idea!Of course I received nothing in return.I found out about 6 months later they were making Hershey’s
Kissables.I personally don’t like them.I think they might taste better if I could sue Hershey for stealing my idea.
I have the same question as bettyfelon, as it seems that both cocoa butter and PGPR appear in York Peppermint Patties. I thought one was supposed to replace the other! Personally, I’m rather saddened that it’s become increasingly difficult to get real chocolate without splurging on a higher-end bar. Something in mockolate makes me sick to my stomach, quite literally. :(
I wonder who Mr. Joe is (joe_btsfplk)?
Good article Cybele - not tedious at all. As a lot of us have said before - if Hershey truly believes they are doing nothing wrong and that the product they are giving people is exactly what they want - why the subterfuge? Why not boldly face the world and say “YES! We have replaced cocoa butter with vegetable oils in many of our products and we’re PROUD of it!” It’s because they AREN’T proud of it and they know a proclaimation like that would leave them with unhappy consumers and egg on their faces. Thanks again Cybele for doing the research, contacting the company and making sure whoever cares will know about what’s going down.
Great tip in the comments above - a quick look at the local Walmart yielded still fresh, PGPR-free six packs of Hershey bars. I might have bought 3 packs
. They are as yummy as I hoped!
I miss the milk chocolate : ( I never would have realized the changes but thanks to fark.com (which has linked to you to share with the world the Hersey’s scandal) I’m now an informed consumer. I’ve only been buying products labeled as milk chocolate thanks to you : )
BTW, is there a federal definition of ‘dark chocolate’? Or do I need to worry about they messing with my favorite chocolate of all time?
While we’re finally telling the truth about the trash Hershey sells, let’s talk about their other Wonder Ingredient: Carageenan.
Carageenan is monosodium glutamate, friends. They don’t even have the courage to list it in a way consumers can find and avoid it.
If I even look at a Hershey product, my fingers swell up.
As a chocophile, I’m as disgusted as anybody about this, though just as not-surprised that a major corporation would do pretty much anything to increase profit margins.
To my point, though - carageenan is *not* MSG; MSG is a salt substitute. Carageenan is used to thicken whatever it’s put into. Based on what I’ve read, Hershey probably uses lambda-carageenan, which is more commonly added to stabilize dairy products (like milk “chocolate”, maybe). - thanks, Wikipedia!
*important note* When reading the word “chocolate” above, be sure to make the finger gesture of gigantic quotation marks, kind of like Dr. Evil talking about his giant “laser”.
I love your Web site and all the documenting you do!
I am also frustrated with the Hershey’s Web site. Mainly, why is it so hard for them to keep a full roster of all the Limited Edition Kisses (all the ones ever released and the ones currently available)? There’s more than 50 in all, but there Web site only shows, like, five. Pitiful.
Thanks, i enjoyed reading and it wasn’t tedious.
Nice to know someone is keeping these companies on their toes.
I’m from Australia, we do have hershey’s here, but i’ve never tried it before. I’d be less likely to now, knowing they are stingy with their chocolate like that.
Oh, it’s MSG all right.
I Just bought some Hershey’s kisses and they had cocoa butter and pgpr, and i bought kissables too and they had cocoa butter, vegetable oil AND pgpr listed as ingredients! Why would that be? I thought pgpr or vege oil was used as a replacement for cocoa butter. The hershey’s tasted like vomit though...is that the pgpr?
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