People perceive the “attack on gluten-free popularity” by people with Celiac Disease as confusing. Whether it’s over Twitter or in a press release, using negativity to express your frustration (i.e. attacking some celebrity that chooses to go gluten-free), isn’t changing anything. It’s not solving the core problems. It’s a run on sentence from like 2007.

I don’t have any affiliation with Celiebo.com, but, in my opinion, to date, this is the only real “solution” to the problem (in conjunction with restaurants investing in cross-contamination solutions). In short, whether it’s a physical card, or perhaps a mobile card, if people with Celiac’s Disease want even more attention paid to them at restaurants, and it is understandable (per each person’s comfort level), a simple card like this Celiebo card makes perfect sense.

So, instead of using online PR to shoot gasoline covered arrows at the fire that is gluten-free MARKETING, the strategy really should be to help someone like Celiebo.com gain traction and widespread use.

Chains like Red Robin that take forward steps like carrying an Udi’s bun should be the ones that help grow companies like Celiebo.com. Gluten-free, the food labeling system and marketing/advertising strategy, is now a staple whether you like it or not. It increases sales and therefore will be on packaging 10 years from now the same way “all natural” has been on packaging since maybe the early 90’s.

A smart, smaller venture capital firm should jump all over Celiebo.com and push it across the market as an “everywhere” access app. Physical cards. Mobile. Ipads. Kindles. Etc. Also, there’s more than enough money in this market for it to be ad-funded (so that the consumer doesn’t pay for it). However, I’m a firm believer that when people part with “some” money, even if it’s $5, $10, it changes their perception of your product. So, perhaps a “social currency”, some sort of binder (replacing the existing fee) should be used to keep the product important to the consumer. It can be as simple as opting in to SMS messages.