President Biden blasted Snickers as an example of “shrinkflation” during his State of the Union address last week — but the candy bar’s manufacturer denied that it has been quietly reducing the size of its candy bars.
“Snack companies think you won’t notice when they charge you just as much for the same size bag — but with fewer chips in it,” Biden said during the Thursday night address.
“You get charged the same amount and you got about 10% fewer Snickers in it,” Biden continued, claiming that his administration is “cracking down on corporations that engage in price gouging or deceptive pricing from food to health care to housing.”
But Mars, which manufacturer the iconic chocolate, caramel and peanut candy bar, debunked the president’s statement.
“We have not reduced the size of Snickers singles or share size in the US,” the company said in a statement to CNN, per a screenshot shared to X.
“Like many industries, we continue to face high inflation and spikes in material costs; however, we work to absorb these extra costs wherever possible to provide affordable treats and the best value,” the candy giant added.
“Final prices are always at the discretion of the retailer, but we make every effort to minimize costs to provide a full range of delicious products,” Mars said.
Scott Jennings — the CNN contributor who shared the statement — captioned the post: “As I suspected. The president is literally slandering a candy bar.”
“Will literally slander anything and anyone. Total hack,” Jennings added of the commander in chief.
One commenter joked: “Maybe the Mars/Snickers corp should make a commercial with a Hangry Joe and when he takes a bite of the snickers bar he simmers down and is able to read the teleprompter without screaming,” referring to Snickers’ iconic tagline, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”
One Reddit user on a discussion board named “r/mildlyinfuriating,” though, called out Mars for decreasing the candy bar by a staggering 69% over the past four decades.
“The size of a Snickers bar from 1980s vs one bought now. Shrinkflation!” the user delcared alongside a photo from the two eras of Snickers.
The packaging on the one from the ’80s touts that its 170 milligrams in size, while the current-day Snickers bar purchased in 2022 says its only 52.7 miligrams.
The Post has sought comment from Mars and the White House.
Though Mars claims the Snickers bar has remained unchanged in the face of elevated borrowing costs and stubbornly-high inflation — which has cooled from its June 2022 peak of 9.1% to 3.1%, but has struggled to fall to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
Oreo was accused of being one of the greatest scandals yet in shrinkflation across consumer goods, with fans accusing the company of raising its prices while skimping out on the crucial creme-to-cookie ratio in an effort to save costs.
Though Oreo-maker Mondelez denied reducing the amount of creme filling in its popular cookie sandwiches, a Reddit forum named “r/shrinkflation” still insisted otherwise.
One post by user Blue_Osiris1 pointed to how much the Family Size Double Stuf Oreo packages have literally shrunk.
The older, larger box of the beloved cookies says its net weight is 566 grams, while the newer, smaller package is only 530 grams, per the photo shared to the forum.
More recent images to 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.
“So disappointed,” the user wrote of purchasing just as much air as actual granola.
Another user called out the Kraft Heinz Company for shrinking its Racher’s Choice Dressing from 475 milliliters to 425 milliters.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
