h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello all,

I sympathise greatly with those flummoxed by the "Fun" size phenomenon. You have been mislead, your consumer credulity exploited by shameless marketers and greedy producers. Fear not though, for you can turn this into advantage.

A good friend of mine ran afoul of the "Fun" size problem a few years ago. He had purchased the Kellogs Variety "Fun" Pack (not having travelled for a while I don't know whether other countries have this) which comprises of 6 packets of breakfast cereal, with maybe 4 different varieties, packaged in tiny boxes.

After purchasing said "Fun" pack my erstwhile colleague was moved almost to tears when he found consuming the Lillipudlian boxes to be no more fun than eating the normal sized variety. Before going on to much further, it is important to note that my friend is a gifted complainer...so much so he could be called a serial complainer (or in this case a cereal complainer).

Up jumped my friend to whip off a harsh letter compaining that the labelling on the product was misleading and that as a customer he had felt betrayed by the expectations the manufacturers packaging had created.

In the letter he made the point that he found the "Fun" size to be no more fun than the normal sized boxes. He went on to say he had even tried eating the contents of the tiny boxes in the manner suggested on the box (The boxes are lined in wax paper and a "serving suggestion" is to pour the milk straigth into the box and eat the contents like some crazy mountain livin', militia trained hobo, withour sense to get out the rain and without grace enough to eat cereal out of a bowl). Comment was also made that there was no appreciable increase in fun despite only having to discard the packet and do no crockery washing.

He concluded that either an error had taken place in the company's research and testing of the product which should be rectified or appropraite escaltaion of the matter in the media and consumer groups would take place OR the company knew the product was at least the same amount of fun or, at worst, knew it was less fun but decided to market the puny cereal containers on the "fun" platform with a blatant disregard for the consternation it would cause out in the general populace. If the second were true, then this involved a serious infraction of the Trade Practices Act regarding false and misleading conduct in the promotion of a good or service.

Well, let me tell you the response was tremendous.

Not only did he get a heartfelt apology regarding the subjectively determined quanta of fun he experienced while consuming their product but he was treated to free product, and lots of it.

The strangest thing about the whole incident though was the size of the packaging the free product arrived in. It was subtantially larger that usually available in stores and we concluded that eating from that box would be "fun". So we poured the milk straight in and ate: and guess what, it was fun.

Another strange thing was that the wax lined functionality had not been replicated into the larger size which meant the milk soaked through the box, causing the arse (can I say that??- Its my first post) to fall out of the box which made a mess all over the floor: which was FUN.

It took a concerted effort to consume the free product that came by way of recompence which was great as he was a srtuggling student at the time.

So, to you all I say "Stand up for your rights!". If you have not found the product fun, let them know that you know what funny is, and their product 'aint it. Be the person who can hold their head up proud and declare "You can't treat me like that," or "I not gunna take this anymore."

I had always wondered what he would have got if he embellished the story further. About how he took little johnny camping and it rained, and they couldn't do any of the neat things that had been planned, and how little johnny was looking forward to the only "fun" thing left to do: eat the Kellogs Variety Fun Pack.

Oh how his top lip trembled, oh how his little heart was broken, oh how he never quite forgave me for ruining the trip with my stupid little boxes of the same of stuff as is available in larger boxes, oh how he wailed at the extra pollution the many boxes made, etc, etc.

If someone gives the full-heart-strings option a go please let me know how you faired.