Today at the supermarket, a woman asked me to reach up to a high shelf to grab her a one ounce bag of Atkins brands crunchy chips. Probably $2 a bag, which works out to $32 a pound.

She looked at the bag, saw the label on the front that said, “Only 5 carbs” and then asked me to put it back.

She apologized, and said that her limit was 4.

Wow.

Here’s a person who didn’t even know what a carbohydrate was six months ago who has been so swayed by the Atkins idea that she’s now too puritanical to even eat the Atkins-branded products.

This didn’t happen because of advertising. It happened because of the power of the idea.