Ads that make you go hmmmm

Fathers, best be locking your daughters up, lest they end up dating a fast food mascot:

Fast Food Rage

RAD OMEN - “Rad Anthem” from Nicholaus Goossen on Vimeo.

Haven’t decided if the mountains of coke or the stripper wearing a chicken mask giving a lap dance to Colonel Sanders was more disturbing.

H/T SoGoodBlog

I, like many foodies across the nation, was super pumped for the special White House Iron Chef that was broadcast this past Sunday night.  Sadly, I left the table wanting something more.  For anyone that has been following the exploits of the Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden, there wasn’t much new information.  Yes, Bobby Flay informed us that sweet potatoes are Mrs. Obama’s faves, but how many times are they going to gush about the pounds and pounds of produce the garden has dished up?  How many times are we going to get the same tour of the White House acreage?  Foodie bloggers across the country have already beaten this story to death.

No, I tuned in, because I was curious to see FLOTUS at the tasting table, rubbing shoulders with the other judges, smacking her lips at the amazing creations, and dashing the hopes of world famous chefs when she dismisses a dish as being under seasoned.  At least that’s what I thought we were getting with the advertising “…and a special guest of national importance…”.

No such luck.  Instead we got Nigella Lawson, Jane Seymour, and Natalie Coughlin. Really?  They couldn’t even get Bo Obama to lick some crumbs up off the floor?  Insanely dull and disappointing considering all that hype.

The show did pull in some mega numbers, the show’s biggest in its 8 seasons, but how many patrons left with a bad taste in their mouth?

Since Top 10 lists are so last week, fine journalists from across the country have moved on to trends and predictions of the new year.  And there is no more important question to be answered than, what will we be wearing in 2010?  I don’t know Fido, but I’m sure that the fashion pages of the LA Times can set us straight.

From the prognostications of Booth Moore, we now know the following is coming:

• Tacky and cheap is all the rage via Forever 21
• For a new duds, try a trip down the rabbit hole literary-wise
• Gisele, and more surprisingly, Ronaldo are this year’s icons
• Home Shopping Networks (can’t tell if the author was cracked out or just paid off by QVC when declaring this a trend)
• Brand America, which can be defined as “a classic-looking trucker’s jacket with the front panels cut out so that it resembled a bondage harness”
• New Bridge - high end labels like Posen offering somewhat-affordable lines.  They must have finally noticed this recession thingee

Kelloggs took superfluous marketing claims to a whole new level with it’s recent claims that Cocoa Krispies, a cereal that boasts 11 grams of sugar in a single potion of 31 grams - yes, ONE THIRD of the cereal is pure sugar,  “Now helps support your kid’s Immunity” in huge type splashed across the front of the cereal box.

The city of San Francisco sent a letter of concerns to both Kellogg and the FDA, questioning whether the claims go too far and outwardly misleading to parents with H1N1 concerns.  The Rudd Center pointedly noted:

Of all claims on cereal boxes, “this one belongs in the hall of fame,” says Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. “By their logic, you can spray vitamins on a pile of leaves, and it will boost immunity.”

No sooner did Smart Choices fade from prominence, Big Food came up with something equally devious and absurd.  Food labeling lies - its like playing wack-a-mole at the grocery store.

Never mind that some guy at Pepsi thought that a great way to promote their energy drink Amp was to create a pick up line iPhone app. Never mind that this guy probably had a boss that approved the bratz-esque female caricature. And never mind that there was probably a whole slew of people over at Pepsi who thought that the “brag list” feature, where users can tally how many times they score, was a swell idea.

Thanks for keeping it classy Pepsi.

This is truly bizarre.  And kinda sad.  Levi Johnston is making big bucks poking fun at how he knocked up Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter - in a commercial for nuts.

After 68 years, Gourmet is being shuttered by Conde Nast as part of their broad restructuring.  Conde Nast has been listing for awhile, and many have been waiting for  an announcement of what was going to be thrown over board in order to save the ship.  From the company wide memo sent from the CEO:

Gourmet magazine will cease monthly publication, but we will remain committed to the brand, retaining Gourmet’s book publishing and television programming, and Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com. We will concentrate our publishing activities in the epicurean category on Bon Appétit.

I’m not a big magazine reaser, but Gourmet always seemed like the classier of the two (Gourmet and Bon Appetit).  Which one would have you chose to keep?

Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan will be hosting a live Facebook chat on Oct 1st to talk about local food systems. Last month, Merrigan put out a memo outlining proposed programs to strengthen local food systems:

1. The Community Facilities Program

The Community Facilities (CF) Program supports the success of rural communities by providing loans and grants for the construction, acquisition, or renovation of community facilities or the purchase of equipment for community projects.

As examples, she says an NGO (non-governmental organization) could receive USDA grant money to construct a community kitchen to teach healthy cooking classes using produce from farmers, a farmers’ market, or cold storage to help a school buy and serve fresh produce directly from farmers.
2. The Business and Industry (B&I) Guarantee Loan Program

The purpose of the B&I Program is to help new and existing businesses in rural areas gain access to affordable capital.

As examples, she says the loans can be used to aggregate local farm products so they achieve enough volume to serve a school system, to build a mobile slaughterhouse, or to add equipment and storage facilities for a local food processor.
3. Value-Added Producer Grant Program

The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) Program provides grant funding for agricultural producers who add value to their raw products through processing and/or marketing, thereby increasing farm income.

Selling value-added products is a very important tool for farmers to capture more of the retail dollar from the food they grow. I’ve actually met a few farmers who have received this particular grant. Merrigan’s examples are an organic cooperative receiving a grant to conduct a feasibility study and develop a marketing plan to provide locally grown produce to schools, a farmer receiving a grant to direct market pasture-raised lamb to restaurants and stores, or a dairy farm receiving a grant to plan and execute a marketing campaign for their ice cream.

For those who don’t know, Merrigan is a member of the “Sustainable Dozen“.  She’s got a crazy resume that includes heading up Tuft’s Center on Agriculture, Food, and the Environment and was one of the main authors of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. As Sam Hurst at Gourmet points out:

At Tufts, Merrigan has directed a group of projects designed to stimulate community gardens, develop regional marketing strategies between consumers and local farmers, and promote food and gardening education in local schools. This is not the traditional career path of high-ranking USDA officials.

And she’ll be taking your questions.  That’s government accessibility you can believe in.

Smart Choice, not so smart.

But, as pointed out by Dr. Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “You could start out with some sawdust, add calcium or Vitamin A and meet the (Smart Choices) criteria.”

Jill brings back some serious bacon footage from Seattle.  Go check out all the pics.

I’m glad someone finally said it.

New York City has a new, rather disgusting ad out trying to convince New Yorkers to chug less sugar.

It took me a little while to recognize that it was human fat which was being poured out of the bottle. The Ethicurean wonders if the $277,000 price tag on these ads is worth it, but considering that 3.2 million New Yorkers are over-weight or obese, it might be too expensive NOT to run these ads.

A highly controversial tactic is being employed by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in the nation’s capital this week.  PCRM is the advocacy arm of the Good Medicine quarterly magazine. They have a heavy focus on preventative medicine such as funding research on things like diabetes and cancer and advocate for better nutritional information and healthier school lunches. It’s that last mission that has put PCRM front and center in the question of good taste and even ethics.

PCRM has launched a metro ad campaign in Washington featuring 8-year old Jasmine of Florida asking “President Obama’s Daughters get healthy school lunches.  Why don’t I?”

Yes, Sasha and Malia eat very well.  They go to a wonderful private school that serves items like organic strawberries and roasted local squash.  We should hope that every child in the country gets meals like theirs, and we should aspire to that lofty goal, but those meals are not designed by the Obamas.

Jasmine has also written a letter to Sasha and Malia asking them to join her campaign. Advocacy organizations run these kind of campaigns all the time - run ads in places where lawmakers will see them, have cute little girls write hand written letters to their congressman, etc.  But their target usually is adult elected officials.  Not little girls.  Especially this young.  Sasha is the youngest resident of the White House since JFK Jr. in 1961.

Sasha and Malia are celebrity daughters, just in the way that Jolie-Pitt brood are.  It is expected that some public photos will be made available and that with their parents they may make public appearances.  This is completely different than pressuring small children about policy crafted by their parents.  That is what this campaign amounts to.

Who knows if Mrs. Obama will allow Jasmine’s letter to be passed onto her daughters.  Now that the Politico and Fox News has picked up the story, it may become hard to ignore.  While this will not take an emotional toll on the girls like when People put Chelsea on the front page during Clinton’s Monica-gate, it is by no means right to put two small children in the middle of a policy argument.

It can only be assumed that this ad was meant to provoke a response from the White House.  Something tells me that the response may not be the one PCRM was looking for, and one that the food movement would want to be associated with.

Not sure if this is real or not, but if you weren’t already terrified of the Happy Meal fare, this will do it.

There’s a new astroturf game in town, and thy name is Americans Against Food Taxes.  Soda makers and sellers are running scared and they are gearing up the campaign machines to fight the idea of a sugar tax; an idea which has been gaining momentum.

They got the savvy new media angle going on, too! Why they’re even on twitter!  So far they’ve mostly used the feed to announce their partners, like the South Carolina Beverage Association and the Wisconsin Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, and articles by well known dietitians like Dick Armey.  You know, regular folks like you and me.  And yes, Coca-Cola is on board, too.

They got a slick new ad, too. Lovable all American family? Check. Economical, responsible camping vacation? Check. Confusing viewers by blurring the difference between sugary soft drinks and healthy fruit juice? Check.  This one has it all.

The optics on this are not great for those who wish to see the true cost of unhealthy food be reflected in grocery prices. It’s too easy to paint this tax as nanny-state-itis and a burden on the average Joe. Critics will try to obscure the link between soda and obesity, even though institutions such as the Harvard School of Public Health found that for each additional serving of soda or juice drink(pdf) a child consumes per day, the child’s chance of becoming overweight increases by 60%. But that’s not going to stop Dick:

For years, critics of soda have argued that it is a unique contributor to obesity. This flies in the face of both common sense and scientific research. The fact is that Americans are getting heavier because we’re eating more and exercising less.

Imposing new taxes on soda is also a dangerous way to go about financing new programs like health care. Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation projects that revenue from a soda tax would generate increased revenue every year — from $4.5 billion in 2009 to $5 billion in 2013. Yet history has shown that if you tax a product, people buy less of it.

Catch that?  Poor defenseless soda is getting a bad rap. Not that he offers up an alternative culprit.  Nor is he willing to admit its a contributing factor in the rise in obesity. Plus, he goes on to claim that this is a bad tax because it is going to curb behavior that it intends to curb. Gotta love logic like that. We can expect lots more of the same from the food and bev minions.

There isn’t an obvious major advocacy organization to pick up the mantle on this and take on the food and beverage lobby. Maybe, just maybe, either the nurses or the doctors will take up the cause, but it is doubtful that they would be willing to expend the ammo on this fight. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has been on the case since 2005 with their Liquid Candy campaign, but its unclear how active they still are on the issue and much they have in the way of resources.

My guess is that health advocates are going to lose this fight, there are too many powerful lobbies lining up against a sugar tax. I do hope I’m wrong.  However, fighting for a sugar tax may open the door to a compromise solution of at the very least finally ditching subsidies for sugar and corn. If we’re not going to tax the empty calories, at least the US government can stop making them so cheap.

“Mannequin threatens to slip nip, town in an uproar, News at !!”

The town of Reading, OH is embroiled in controversy after the local BBQ joint posted a bikini clad mannequin out front to advertise their rib deals. And the details are priceless:

“My wife thought it was a hooker standing on the corner,” said Chris Broerman, 51, a painter and construction worker who lives near KT’s Barbecue. “It’s absolutely appalling.”

Before the mannequin, business was down 40%, after she was installed, there would be days where the line was wrapped around the corner to get in.

BarBe Q is a model WL-25, a “European large bust” mannequin and costs $198.  The bikini top was borrowed from a neighbor’s daughter, and the mail-woman donated the cutoff shorts.

The owner dressed BarBe Q in a more modest tank top to take her to the city review board meeting, where the board told him she need to wear more clothes.

The owner also claims BarBe Q has not caused any traffic accidents.

“I’m jealous,” said Cookie Graff, 59, eyeing the mannequin. But “she really needs some high-heeled shoes to go with that outfit.”