While the other large fast food chains sue the City of New York to keep calorie information off their menus, Subway has gone ahead and complied with the New York City regulation. Dunkin’ Donuts, meanwhile, submitted a sample menu meant to “prove” that putting calorie info on its menu just couldn’t be done… and the NYC Health Department responded by having its own graphic designer redo the sign to prove that it could be done.
The result is hilarious. From NEW YORK STATE RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION VS NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF HEALTH:
Dunkin’ Donuts submitted a sample menu board in an attempt to demonstrate that calorie information would not fit along with price information. From that sample, the Department’s director of graphics produced a replica of the menu board with comparable fonts and layout to demonstrate that calories could be listed easily and visibly, as shown in the illustrations below, and in Mr. Krueger’s declaration.. These modifications, as well as the earlier examples, provide clear evidence that calorie listings required by the regulations are feasible to implement with basic graphic design techniques.
Dunkin’ Donut’s sample menu is on the left, NYC’s on the right. We were initially skeptical of this regulation, but have to admit that the Subway menu looks really nice and doesn’t seem weird or gross at all. And, since the regulation only applies to big restaurant chains who have already had their nutritional info calculated… We fail to see what the big deal is. For background on what the regulation is and who it applies to, click here.
PREVIOUSLY: NYC Restaurant Group Sues Over Nutritional Info Regulation
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The design from NY is more of a ‘rebuttal’ than an effective design solution. Idealy, it would be on a separate panel somewhere, not cluttering up the menu. I’m all for the rule, but there’s no point in making the people working there have to explain 1000 times what those columns mean.
In the book Mindless Eating, the authors go into a Subway and did research as to if the nuitrition information they plaster everywhere was actually making a difference.
They found that overall, people got a mis-represented idea that because of that info, Subway was healthier as a whole and ate what they wanted, usually taking in the same calories and fat as any other place. They didn’t pay attention to the specifics, and couldn’t recall any of it that they’d read all over the store. They just knew it was there.
Something to think about.