Joe Biden’s fight against shrinkflation has gained a blue, fuzzy, googly-eyed ally.
Cookie Monster has taken to Twitter/X to decry the practice of smaller packaged goods for the same retail price. And as you might expect, it has lit a firestorm of controversy.
“Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller. 😔,” Cookie Monster wrote, adding, “Guess me going to have to eat double da cookies!” In a follow-up tweet.
Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller. 😔
— Cookie Monster (@MeCookieMonster) March 4, 2024
The message from the Muppet was the latest in a series of real-world check-ins from Sesame Street characters, all of which have gotten strong reactions on social media. On leap day, for instance, Bert’s Twitter/X account wrote, “Today is an extra day to sit quietly and stare out the window,” adding the #EmotionalWellBeing hashtag. And Elmo has had an especially broad reach, raising the ire of Ted Cruz when he got a COVID vaccination in 2022 (Cruz had previously barked at Big Bird for the same thing) and getting a tsunami of replies (some sarcastic, some harrowing) in January when he posted, “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?”
Cookie Monster may not have meant to comment directly on the economy, but that’s not stopping people from using it as a launching pad. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D.-Ohio) replied to the tweet, saying, “Big corporations shrink the size of their products without shrinking their prices, all to pay for CEO bonuses. People in my state of Ohio are fed up—they should get all the cookie they pay for.”
Senators Bob Casey and Elizabeth Warren also replied. And while no Republican senators commented, that didn’t stop some of Cookie Monster’s followers from blaming the current administration and wondering aloud about why he was posting political messaging. And, of course, someone suggested he buy Bitcoin.
Shrinkflation occurs when manufacturers reduce the size of their packaging but keep the price the same. It’s a way to charge consumers the same for less merchandise. Biden has referred to the practice as “a rip-off” and often addresses it at campaign events.
“For all we’ve done to bring prices down, there are still too many corporations in America ripping people off: price gouging, junk fees, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Biden said in January at South Carolina’s First in the Nation dinner.