Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, but it’s taking a $1 million ad campaign to put high-fructose corn syrup in a healthy light.

Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, but it’s taking a $1 million ad campaign to put high-fructose corn syrup in a healthy light.

The Center for Consumer Freedom has launched a new million-dollar ad campaign designed to put an end to what it calls inaccuracies surrounding high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is commonly used in a variety of baked goods and snacks.

According to the center, its campaign communicates to the public that HFCS is nutritionally the same as sweeteners such as table sugar and honey. The campaign is responding to critics who claim HFCS is a factor that has contributed to America’s burgeoning weight problem.

The new television commercial, which features actors dressed as an ear of corn, a sugar cube and a honey bear standing in a police line-up, focuses on the fact that HFCS has been wrongly accused of contributing to obesity more than other sweeteners, according to the center. The “victim” in the commercial is unable to identify the sweetener responsible for making him “gain the weight” because all three sugars are nutritionally the same, the center adds.

The television commercial will air on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN and CNBC and will run for three weeks.

“People have been spoon-fed misinformation about high-fructose corn syrup,” says Rick Berman, executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, Washington, D.C. “We thought it was time someone explained, in no uncertain terms, that high fructose corn syrup has the exact same number of calories as table sugar and is handled the same way by the body. Any non-agenda driven nutrition expert will tell you the same.”

The campaign launch also includes three ads in national papers.
 
“I hope the public begins to understand that they have been misled into thinking that high-fructose corn syrup is handled differently by the body than other sugars,” Berman says. “Our campaign explains to consumers the truth about this type of corn sugar and lays to rest, once and for all, the notion that high fructose corn syrup is different from other sweeteners like beet sugar, cane sugar or honey. A sugar is a sugar. And all sugars should be enjoyed in moderation.”