This Issue's TLDR...

• How to design your packaging, and adjust your main image, if you sell a better-for-you food product
• Ocean freight rates are going parabolic
• Congress and the FTC don't like Amazon's shenanigans

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SPONSOR Sophie Society

Look, I'm going to be honest with you.

The World Cup is going on right now, and I'm very distracted.

You probably are too.

England is about to kick off against Croatia, and I'd much rather be watching that, than writing this.

So, I'm going to keep the "BEST from ME" short and sweet this week.

Let's say you either have, or are developing, a better-for-you food product (or supplement).

Well, according to a recent study from the Journal of Marketing Research (Less is More (Natural): The Effect of Ingredient Quantity Framing on Consumer Preferences):

• People prefer and are more likely to buy food and beverage products described as having "few ingredients', compared to those described as having more, even if the product list is identical.
• Across 19 experiments, researchers found that when products were described as having fewer ingredients (vs not):
  • People chose to get an identical granola bar 21.6% more often
  • People said they were 16.4% more likely to buy a juice
  • People were 66.8% more likely to say they’d buy a peanut butter
  • They generated between up to 44.2% higher clicks in Meta ads
• The effect:
  • Reverses when people look for pleasure (e.g. a cookie with rich flavors)
  • Is stronger among customers with a higher interest in natural ingredients

Now, of course, I had to test this.

LesserEvil is a brand that positions itself as offering high-quality, healthy snacks.

In the poll below, LesserEvil's existing packaging is on the left.

On the right? Well, I used Gemini to add a banner that says "Only 3 Ingredients".

Simple change.

But look at the overall results (41-9 votes in favor) and then read the reasons why...

The strongest theme was the prominent "Only 3 Ingredients" messaging.

Something to apply if you sell a better-for-you food product...

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BEST from my Inbox

FYI, ocean freight rates are surging.

From the awesome Sent Items newsletter:

BEST from LinkedIn

Well, well, well.

Look what Congress dusted off last week, and reintroduced in the Senate:

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA)

In case you haven't been following (since 2021) and/or don't want to bother researching it, here's what the AICOA would do, and how it would help the average Amazon seller:

If passed, Amazon would be prohibited from:

• Unfairly favoring their own products or services.
• Misusing nonpublic business-user data to copy and compete against small businesses.
• Unfairly limiting competitors' access to key platform features.
• Blocking business users from accessing or moving their own data from one digital platform to another.
• Retaliating against users or business users who raise legal concerns.
• Unfairly enforcing terms of service in ways that harm competition.
• Conditioning companies' access to the platform, or product placement on the platform, on purchase or use of unrelated services.
• Locking users into default settings.
• Skewing ranking or presentation against similarly situated business users.

In short -- the AICOA would address many of Amazon sellers' longtime concerns related to how itself competes against them, and how Amazon enforces its TOS.

Watch this closely.

BEST from X

I guess this is legal "Hell Week" for Amazon, because the FTC now has Amazon in its crosshairs for abuses in how Amazon runs its massive advertising business.

(BTW, this is separate from the ongoing FTC antitrust lawsuit against Amazon that is scheduled for trial in March 2027)

Bloomberg @business Amazon is facing a possible lawsuit from the US FTC that may lead to billions of dollars in civil penalties, over claims the e-commerce giant mislead advertisers, according to sources https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-16/amazon-faces-billions-in-penalties-from-potential-ftc-ad-suit?taid=6a31b4cc39b3a10001d8634d&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter bloomberg.com Amazon Faces Billions in Penalties From Poten... Amazon.com Inc. is facing a possible lawsuit from the US Federal Trade Commissio... 8:40 PM • Jun 16, 2026 11 Retweets 24 Likes Read 5 replies

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What's crazy about this (potential) lawsuit is that it only covers the "big" abuses.

There's a much LONGER list of smaller ways that Amazon relentlessly swindles advertisers.

My buddy Mike Patron wrote a great summary a couple of weeks ago:

Michael Patrón @michaelpatron0 Here is a list of shady things Amazon has implemented into PPC and I am not even counting this BS where we can no longer pay with CC (which is still BS!). 1. Removing Hard budgets: Amazon used to have hard budget caps. They then rolled out a setting that opted you in... 6:55 PM • Jun 4, 2026 9 Retweets 27 Likes Read 7 replies

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