I love chocolate Hobnobs. The biscuits I mean. Yom yom. So when I saw some McVitie’s Hobnobs Flapjacks in Tesco the other day, I was irresistably drawn to them like a moth to a flame.

Exhibit A: McVitie's Hobnobs Flapjacks

Exhibit B: Yep, definitely 5

All that delicious hobnobbiness expertly combined into a flapjack. What right minded hobnobber wouldn’t be tempted by that?

Just look at the size of that packet. Huge isn’t it? And that does say "5" flapjacks doesn’t it?

Five? Bloomin’ heck – each of those bad boys must be BIG and tasty then.

Right? Right? Well that’s exhibits A & B.

Now let’s open this packet up and look at some more evidence…

Exhibit C: Surely some mistake? Have they shrunk whilst in the cardboard tray? :-(

Look at all that space left! Anyone would think that you could fit another one in that gap!

Exhibit D: Well bugger me, you can fit six in that tray...

But hang on a second, isn’t there still a lot of space around the edges, even with six in that tray?

Exhibit E: Seven flapjacks with room to spare.

Well, obviously you can even comfortably fit seven in that tray.

But wait, isn’t there still a bit of space?

Exhibit F: So that'll be eight then.

Well I think that’s about our limit. There’s still a bit of space in the middle there, but we’ve probably got max usage. With eight Hobnobby treats it’s a bit of squeeze and they may get a bit squished in transit. But that’s not my point.

Now this is where I embarrass myself with some dodgy maths, but:

• A tray that’s 17cm long by 11.5cm wide has a total area of 195.5cm².
• Each flapjack is 8.5cm long by 2.5cm wide (not incl. wrapper), an area of 21.25cm².
• So five flapjacks in this tray would be a total flapjackage space of 106.25cm².

106.25cm² / 195.5cm² = 54.3% of actual tray space used! Making the product appear over 45% larger than it actually is! I’d say that’s a bit of a con.

…and that’s just the inner cardboard tray I’m measuring – you can’t technically even see that before you buy. The outer packaging measures 14cm x 23cm, a whopping area of 322cm². One could perhaps argue that when you purchase, your brain sees a packaged product with an area of 322cm², when in reality you get just 33% of that.

So I put it to you my dear reader (singular tense there) that McVitie’s are either unintentionally or intentionally:

a) using misleading packaging to make their product look much bigger than it actually is.
b) using stupid amounts of excess packaging, which is somewhat frowned upon these days.
c) proving that I perhaps have a smidge too much time on my hands today.

Whatever combination of the above it is, hisssss booooo to McVitie’s!

The defence rests.

What do you reckon? Guilty or not guilty?