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I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! is a brand of margarine produced by Becel/Flora/Promise, which is a subsidiary of Unilever[1]. It was introduced to the United States in 1986 and later to the United Kingdom and Canada in 1991.[2][3]
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Advertising campaigns
Advertisements featuring the product often end with the question, "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, can you?"
Model Fabio Lanzoni appeared in a number of ads for the product[4]. On June 7, 2006, Greg Vaughan was officially named the new product spokesman [5].
A 2006 advertising campaign in the UK features Ozzy Osbourne and impressionist Jon Culshaw doing an impression of Osbourne[6].
The 2008 advertising campaign in the UK features voiceover Roger Tilling in the style of a Pathe News film.
Nutritional information
Although the manufacturer claims that the product contains no trans fat, this is not true. Checking the ingredients listed on the package shows hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils as part of the makeup. Hydrogenating oils necessarily adds trans fats to food. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows food manufacturers to make the "zero trans fats" claim as long as each serving of the product has less than half a gram of trans fat. In a serving of 14 g, this equates to up to 3.5% trans fat by weight.
The ingredients for the Original with Sweet Cream Buttermilk variety include:
- Vegetable Oil Blend (liquid soybean oil, liquid canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, liquid canola oil)
- Water
- Sweet cream
- Salt
- Soy lecithin
- Vegetable mono- and diglycerides
- Potassium sorbate and calcium disodium EDTA (used to protect quality)
- Citric acid
- Natural and artificial flavors
- Vitamin A (palmitate)
- Beta carotene (for color)
In popular culture
- In The Simpsons episode "Secrets of a Successful Marriage", when in his job interview to teach an adult education class at the Springfield "Adult Education Annex", Homer is asked if he has any skills, and says he has the ability to tell "The difference between butter, and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter", only for the interviewer to say he cannot and nor can anybody else.
- In The Vicar of Dibley episode 'Animals', Alice expresses confusion over the name: "You know that stuff they're selling now at the local shop, 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter'? Well, I can't believe it's not butter. Then yesterday, I went to Crookenden and I bought this other stuff, like a sort of home-brand, you know? And you know, I can't believe it's not I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Well, you know I Can't Believe It's Not Butter? No no, I mean you know the stuff that I can't believe is not butter is called I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Well I can't believe the stuff that is not I Can't Believe It's Not Butter is not I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and I can't believe that both I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and the stuff that I can't believe is not I Can't Believe It's Not Butter are both, in fact, not butter. And I believe they both might be butter, in a cunning disguise. And in fact there's a lot more butter around than we all thought there was."
- In Everybody Hates Chris episode "Everybody Hates Earth Day", Chris' uncle says that he helps the planet by using "I can't believe it's not margarine".
- In the Family Guy episode "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", Peter mentions "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" twice, both after two Family Guy characters make a statement starting with "I can't believe...".
- On one episode of Codename: Kids Next Door, Number 2 has two circle shaped melba toasts, topped up with a parody called "I can't believe it's not boogers".
- The rock band Bloodhound gang references the brand in the lyrics of Hell yeah: I can't believe it's not butter I'll sing as I'm flogged - yeah that's what I would do if I were god.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.unilever.com/ourbrands/foods/Becel_Flora.asp
- ^ http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/foods/icantbelieveitsnotbutter.asp
- ^ http://www.unilever.ca/ourbrands/foods/ICBINB.asp
- ^ "Fabio Lanzoni Bio". Official Fabio Lanzoni. http://www.fabioinc.com/Fabio_bio.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-14.
- ^ "Fabio, Longtime Margarine Champ, Passes Crown to New Spokeshunk". The New York Observer. http://www.observer.com/taxonomy/term/28214/feed. Retrieved on 2009-05-14.
- ^ "Hypeworld - May 2006". Hypeworld. http://www.hypeworld.com/whats_new/2006-05.shtml. Retrieved on 2009-05-14.
External links
- I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! USA Website
- I Can't Believe it's not Butter! UK Website
- Beware of so-called 'fat free' butter sprays!
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