President Biden criticized Snickers as an example of “deflation” during his State of the Union address last week — but the candy bar manufacturer denied that it was quietly working to reduce the size of its candy bars.
“Snack companies think you won't notice when they charge you the same amount for the same size bag, but with fewer chips in it,” Biden said during his speech Thursday evening.
“You get charged the same amount, and you get 10% fewer Snickers bars,” Biden continued, claiming that his administration is “cracking down on companies that engage in price gouging or deceptive pricing from food to health care to housing.”
But Mars, which makes the famous chocolates, caramels and peanuts, debunked the president's statement.
“We did not reduce the volume of individual Snickers bars or the volume of shares in the United States,” the company said in a statement to CNN. Screenshot shared with X.
“Like many industries, we continue to face high rates of inflation and significant rises in material costs; however, we are working to absorb these additional costs where possible to provide affordable and best value confectionery.
“Final pricing is always at the discretion of the retailer, but we do our best to keep costs down to provide a full range of delicious products,” Mars said.
Scott Jennings — the CNN contributor who shared the statement — commented on the post: “As I thought. “The president is literally defaming a candy bar.”
“He will literally slander anything and anyone. Complete hack,” Jennings added of the Commander-in-Chief.
One commenter Jokingly: “Maybe Mars/Snickers should do a commercial with Hangry Joe, and when he takes a bite of a Snickers bar, he slowly boils and is able to read the teleprompter without screaming,” referring to the famous Snickers slogan, “You” and not you when “Be hungry.”
However, a Reddit user on a discussion board called “r/mildlyinfuriaating” criticized Mars for reducing the candy bar by a staggering 69% over the past four decades.
“The size of a Snickers bar from the 80s compared to one bought now. Shrinkage!” The user decorated next to him an image of a trendy sneaker.
The packaging on the packaging from the 1980s says it's 170 milligrams, while a current Snickers bar purchased in 2022 says it's only 52.7 milligrams.
The Post requested comment from Mars and the White House.
Although Mars claims the Snickers bar has remained unchanged in the face of high borrowing costs and stubbornly high inflation – which has slowed from its June 2022 peak of 9.1% to 3.1%, but has struggled to fall to the Fed's 2% target.
Oreo has been accused of one of the biggest scandals yet in deflation across consumer goods, with fans accusing the company of raising its prices while undercutting the crucial cream-to-cookie ratio in a bid to save costs.
Although Oreo maker Mondelez denied reducing the amount of cream filling in its popular cookie sandwiches, a Reddit forum called it… “r/definflation” He still insists otherwise.
A post by user Blue_Osiris1 pointed out how much smaller Family Size Double Stuf Oreo packages actually are.
The older, larger box of the beloved cookies says it has a net weight of 566 grams, while the newer, smaller package weighs just 530 grams, according to a photo shared on the forum.
More recent photos shown on the discussion board showed a box of Nature's Path Organic Peanut Butter Granola, with the unopened bag of cereal taken out — and filled halfway with air.
“Very disappointed,” the user said books To buy just as much air as actual granola.
last user Kraft called on Heinz to reduce the size of Racher's Choice Dressing sauce from 475 milliliters to 425 milliliters.
