Exactly 110 years ago, Crisco launched its product by misusing the power of marketing.

This Procter & Gamble success story is a brand of vegetable shortening that is used for cooking and baking.

However, it contained cottonseed and trans fats, which were known to contribute to heart diseases in the form of saturated fats.

Luckily for Crisco, there was no law then that required for displaying the ingredients on the can. 

So Crisco told people that its contents were pure vegetables.

Instead of dwelling on its problematic sole ingredient, Crisco’s marketers kept consumer focus trained on brand reliability and the purity of modern factory food processing.

Consequently, Crisco flew off the shelves. 

Unlike lard, Crisco had a neutral taste. 

Unlike butter, Crisco could last for years on the shelf. 

Unlike olive oil, it had a high smoking temperature for frying.

In just five years, Americans were buying more than 60 million cans of Crisco annually – the equivalent of three cans for every family in the country!

Within a generation, cottonseed’s competition – lard – went from being a major part of the American diet to an old-fashioned ingredient.

Crisco helped convince Americans that they didn’t need to understand the ingredients in processed foods as long as those foods came from a trusted brand.