Do Kids Read Anymore?

The recent issue of Food Processing magazine has a nice article on Hamburger Helper and a new extension for the line. Apparently the Betty Crocker folks want to fill the fast snack niche for kids by creating a Hamburger Helper "singles" pouch that contains everything for a good snack except water - freeze dried meat, sauce, and starch. All you do is add water and microwave for about 5 minutes. Yum?

The article shared comments from test users. This one made me laugh. "...many preteens and teenage boys wanted the instructions printed as images with fewer words."

Okay... let's see. Open pouch and put contents in a microwave safe bowl. Add a half cup of water. Microwave on high for 5-6 minutes. That takes all of ten seconds to read! C'mon...you need that in pictures!?! That's a sad commentary on how much teenage boys like to read. I dare say even Cheap Thrills Cuisine has too many words for them. It's safe to say they aren't reading top food blogs like Simply Recipes or 101 Cookbooks - even though both have great pictures.