I find it quite hard to wander the streets of London and not leap for my camera every time I see the H-word.

I was walking past itsu the other day, the healthy food outlet in the centre of London, inspired by Japanese cuisine. Their motto is health and happiness. A catchy strapline, I thought.

On closer inspection of their website, I discovered that their marketing claims:

health – because itsu food is light, full of goodness & won’t make you fat
happiness – because it tastes amazing. You can eat lots without guilt, sorrow and pain.

Hang on a minute. So, itsu food in itself won’t actually make me happy? It’ll just make me not experience guilt, sorrow or pain.

Hmmmm. I don’t really buy this argument. Firstly, I’m not sure whether we’ve actually bottomed out that whole ‘absence of pain is pleasure’ issue. And secondly, there is a certain amount of pain in buying lunch in itsu, as it’s so incredibly overpriced.

Clever marketing, but I’m yet to be convinced that eating a bowl of beansprouts for £7 is going to make me happy. Well done for trying though.

But it does reinforce the fact that happiness is an excellent marketing tool.