In December of 2009 I made this silly video on my YouTube channel about this unusual new SunChips bag and its very loud sound. This was before there were commercials and advertisements letting world know how compostable and environmentally friendly these new bags were. It was a quick video about something I figured other people had noticed, too.In August 2010 the Today show picked up on the growing trend of bag outrage and featured my clip in a segment comparing the bag's sound levels to that of a New York City subway or lawn mower.
Yesterday it was announced that Frito-Lay -- the makers of SunChips -- are going to stop using the "loud" bags because they received so many complaints from consumers, and also suffered a possibly unrelated 11% drop in sales over the last year.
Here's a quick synopsis from the Today show on October 5.
Even though my video has been around for nearly a year, people are really starting to find it how and the comments viewers are leaving are hilarious. What started out with people leaving funny comments basically saying, "Wow! I thought the same thing!" has now turned into rage-filled rants about how I ruined the planet!
Here are some of my favorites...
MzMichaelJackson: Great! Now we can die quietly with our plastic polluted oceans and not a tree in sight.But it's these comments that are my favorite and they make up about 60% of what people leave:
explorerzip4: Ship the ppl (esp this guy) that complain about this to Iraq and help the troops. Then they can bitch about the noise pollution of gun fire
theonecalledpotato: you sir, are a retard!!!!!!!!!!!
Anf26Hollister: one question....why dont you put it in a bowl or something.......then u wont hear the noise anymore....or is it your retardness and laziness thats blocks you from putting it in a bowl?THANK YOU! If only I had thought about putting my entire bag of chips into a bowl we wouldn't have global warming anymore! I'M SORRY, EARTH!
Jokes aside, I think it's both interesting and a little disturbing that a silly YouTube video could have such an impact. I mean, clearly it wasn't my lone video that caused the end of the SunChips bags, but who knew it would get so much heat?
And just to clear the air, I am all for environmentally friendly packaging, lowering carbon footprints and generally making sure we prevent Earth from becoming a barren wasteland. If Andy Rooney can make a career out of bitching about how many kinds of fruit there are I think the world can cut me a little slack.