Perky Jerky!

Once upon a time there was a brand of beef jerky that wanted to do things a little differently. As the 21st century marches on so do the marvels of modern research and the ever expanding knowledge we're obtaining about the gourmet that we put into our bodies. No longer should we have to be at the mercy of large companies that want to tell us what we should be eating because they can afford large marketing budgets to deliver their messages. No longer should we have to settle for healthy alternatives that taste like coagulated horse spit because we can't make vegan cheeseburgers taste like the real thing. No longer should we be trying to replicate the great tastes of unhealthy food when the right choice of action is to instead INNOVATE AND CREATE SOMETHING NEW.

That, my friends, is the badass sensation known only as...Perky Jerky.

I'm such a newb that I cracked into one of the bags BEFORE taking a picture. Yeah, I'm not perfect but I'm pretty damn close

So what we got here as far as I'm concerned is the new leader in beef jerky. Unless you're getting something that's locally harvested and sold in the bed of Farmer John's truck then you're probably not gonna find many other jerkies out there that maintain as high a quality as this one. Let's check out the plusses here:

All Natural: Well, as my mom says, heroin is all natural so you can't always take "all natural" to mean something you can pig out on. But when you look at the list of ingredients you can actually PRONOUNCE THE WORDS with the first ingredient ingeniously being REAL SLICES OF BEEF.

Gluten Free: I actually have no idea what the hell this means but for people who can't have gluten this is good news, right?

No Nitrates: Nitrates are crap. You find a lot of them in deli meats and of course other brands of jerky stock you up on the stuff. Check Jack Link's site and you'll see sodium nitrates in the ingredients.

No MSG: Yeah, unless they're talking about Madison Square Garden I have no idea what this means. BUT ALRIGHT! NO MSG!

No Preservatives: I think nitrates are actually used in the preservation process so while redundant this reinforces the idea that there aren't any nitrate crappers in here.

Further, these are MADE IN THE USA and just in case you haven't wet the front of your pants from excitement, they also donate a portion of their profits to research and care for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Down Syndrome. What's not to like? And at $5 it's actually cheaper than whatever gargantuan amount Jack Link's is trying to sell their stuff for these days. 

The jerky itself is really good. Truthfully I couldn't tell much difference between the three flavors in the picture but you definitely get the contrast of sweetness and heat with a hint of almost a fruity savoriness to it. 

I had actually gotten out of the jerky thing when Jack Link's inflated their jerky prices from $5 to $7.50 in the span of two years. Yeah, beef is expensive but what's the point of spending my lunch money on a snack? Further, Jack Link's rode the shoulders of Sasquatch into the Greg's Gourmet Hall of Shame a couple years ago with the pathetic marketing ploy of a "Bonus Bag: 10% More FREE" promotion. Their goal, of course, was to make you THINK you're getting more product but when you're a smartass food blogger like me you learn to see through those things. Sure enough, the weight and portion sizes were exactly the same as their normal bag and when I contacted them for an explanation they admitted that it's just a bigger bag, nothing more. Yes, they were trying to sell a bigger bag to trick you into thinking you're getting more product. Companies do this all the time but this was so abysmally bad that it earned a front-row ticket to my equivalent of the Razzies. 

Anywho, Perky Jerky: Greg's Gourmet approved. Give it a try. 

Worst. Marketing Ploy. Ever.

I like beef jerky.  It's a pretty decent snack but it had been a good month or two since I had any...until the other day.  Decided to get some Jack Link's Beef Jerky from my local CVS and the first thing I noticed was the increase in price.  It had been $5.79 and today it was $6.29.  Well, okay.  Food is expensive, I understand that.  What really ticked me off, though, was this:

Bonus Bag: 10% More Free!

The first question that comes to mind is...10% more beef or 10% more bag?  It sure as heck isn't 10% more beef because the price is 50 cents higher than it had been which means Jack Link's, in their noble generosity, is giving me a whopping 10% more of the bag ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!!!

I thought there may have been an explanation or reason for this.  I mean, what kind of knucklehead marketing move is this?  So I went on their website and found the nutritional facts of the original-packaged Teriyaki jerky and compared it to this bag.  While the bag size is bigger, the serving size and servings per container are identical.  Confirmed:  Jack Link's Beef Jerky packaging strategy is to sell you a bigger bag.  That's it.  

But I wasn't done.  I decided to call the company out on it and contacted them.  Basically I summarized my findings here and asked if it is indeed true that they're pushing a bigger bag into consumers' laps instead of a better product.  I got this response:

Thank you for contacting Jack Link's Beef Jerky.  Pricing of Jack Link's Products vary.  While we do suggest a selling price to our retailers, they set their own retail prices.  The ‘Bonus Bag 10% More Free’ does refer to the package being 3.6 OZ rather than the regular 3.25 OZ even though the retailer increased the price.  The nutrition information, in order to be consistent, is calculated using a 1 OZ serving size and the 3.5 servings are approximate.

She then wrote her thanks for contacting, we're sending you some coupons, etc.  Well, okay - let's figure this out here.  Jack Link's makes a bigger bag and in turn raises its suggested retail price.  CVS gets word of this and ups the price 50 cents.  And that's fine - this isn't CVS' problem.  The fact that Jack Link's is resorting to something so deceitful, deceptive, and dumb is appalling.  So I wrote the following response:

Thank you for your response.  I appreciate it but I'm even more curious now.  What's the purpose of pushing this product because it's in a bigger bag?  What's the benefit of "10% More Bag Free"?

To which I received this response:

Thank you for your email.  Our Marketing and Research & Development teams make the decisions regarding package sizes and product promotions. 

Thank you again for your comments. I will share them with the Marketing and Research & Development teams.

I appreciate that the woman wrote me back.  This isn't her problem - it's the "Marketing and Research & Development" team's.  I put that in quotes because this packaging was a terrible move.

The funny thing about this?  This isn't false advertising.  They're saying you get a 10% bigger bag and that's exactly what you get.  Still - deceptive.  Keep in mind that this is the same company that puts out those funny sasquatch commercials.  How that can turn into this is pretty remarkable...remarkable as in bad.

Look, again, I realize food is expensive.  But for once I would like one of these companies to say "Consumers, food is expensive and we need to take measures to maintain our revenue and that may include raising prices and/or producing less.  We hope you understand and promise that when things turn around we will make it worth your while."

So thank you, Jack Link's.  Welcome to the Greg's Gourmet Hall of Shame.