As usual this time of year, people love to get all bent out of shape about the content of Super Bowl commercials. With Tim Tebow on one side, and ManCrunch on the other, folks get all high and mighty about the content of some ads, when of course we all know about the many ads for booze, ED, and other miscellaneous crapola featuring scantily-clad woman. Hypocrite much? [I like to create my own syntax.] That said, thanks to Huffington Post, I recently came across a bunch of ads (mostly beer-related) that were not allow to air. Would they pass the smell test now?
Banned Bud Light ad:
Banned Rolling Rock ad:
Here’s one that should have been banned, for totally seperate reasons:
Wavy Lay’s:
Finally, here is a list of advertisers who are approved heading into Sunday’s big game. Hopefully there are some good ones in there.
At the start of the 2010 Miss America pageant on Saturday, the introduction portion of the show lets contestants come out and give an upbeat intro for their state, which usually consists of something along the lines of “I’m XXXX from the great state of XXXX home of [insert famous food, product, company, celebrity, historical figure, sports team]“ Innocent enough, and a nice way for each contestant to share something their state is famous for.
Miss Michigan, Nicole Blaszczyk, perhaps with consideration for the ailing Michigan economy, decided to highlight a particular Michigan based company: Kellogg’s cereal. While I can’t find the transcript online, and the video clips of the introduction portion on YouTube are mysteriously missing Miss Michigan, to paraphrase she came out and essentially said:
“From the birthplace of breakfast cereal and home of Kellogg’s, did you eat your Wheaties this morning?”
Cute right? And a nice shout-out for Kellogg’s. There’s just one problem: Kellogg’s doesn’t make Wheaties. It’s biggest competitor, General Mills does (which is based in Minnesota). Wheaties is also considered to be huge direct competition for one of Kellogg’s flagship cereals, Corn Flakes. Whoops!
Seems like an innocent mistake, but she probably had weeks to work on that intro. Wouldn’t it have made sense to make sure you were actually citing a Kellogg’s brand cereal in the intro?
Taco Bell has unveiled a new offering which they are calling the “NBA $5 Buck Box.” Someone should explain to Taco Bell that the $ symbol represents the word “dollar” so they don’t need to also include the word “buck” in the name. Think about it, the proper name of this product when said correctly is: “NBA Five Dollar Buck Box.”
Five Dollar Buck. Let me say that again in case you didn’t realize how stupid it sounded the first time: Five Dollar Buck.
Not only is it asinine and repetitive, it just flat out doesn’t make sense. Nice work Taco Bell. Apparently only the best and the brightest make the cut for jobs in Taco Bell’s product naming and copy writing department.
Given the chatter and buzz about an upcoming anti-abortion Super Bowl ad starting Tim Tebow, Upright Citizens Brigade took it upon themselves to imagine what a commercial featuring the University of Florida star hawking Dorito’s might look like.
Update: AgencySpy is reporting that CBS has rejected the ad, and provided the following statement to ManCrunch as a response:
CBS Standards and Practices has reviewed your proposed Super Bowl ad and concluded that the creative is not within the Network’s Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday.
Original Post:
It wouldn’t be Super Bowl season without debate over potentially controversial commercials. While the ad below is not for a food company, but rather for the gay men’s dating site ManCrunch, I thought it worthy of writing about because the pinnacle moment comes when the two featured men in the commercial have their hands brush up against each other while reaching into a bowl of potato chips – leading to an impromptu, but passionate make-out session.
Ah, hook-ups driven by food, you are an o-so-common occurrence. I mean seriously, how many times in your life have you awkwardly brushed hands with a date while reaching into a popcorn bag at a movie? Or accidentally started eating the same piece of spaghetti from opposite ends when sharing a plate of pasta (that happens in real life, not just Lady & The Tramp, right?)
The ad has not yet been formally accepted or rejected, but ManCrunch’s PR agency has informed me that:
the site’s executives now believe CBS is intentionally postponing a final call on whether they will air the ad because they are worried about a backlash from gay and lesbian advocacy groups if they reject it.
It sounds to me like maybe ManCrunch is fishing for a story – if CBS was worried about backlash from gay and lesbian groups, wouldn’t they just accept the ad? If they are considering rejecting it, then they must have some level of concern about “pro-family” or anti-gay groups complaining or criticizing CBS if they were to air it.
So what do you think readers, should CBS reject this ad? Or is it ridiculous that they would even consider doing so?
And what do you think of ManCrunch’s intentions with this ad? Are they seriously interested in forking over the cash for this commercial to air, or are they just trying to stoke some controversy where it doesn’t exist in order to get some “buzz” online?
Apparently, fat, drunk and stupid actually is the way to go through life – at least according to Burger King. BK, the creator of such brilliant concepts as “Singing in the Shower” and “Burger Shots,” today announced that they will start serving beer along with their plethora of food-like products in mid-February at a trial location. This establishment, fashionably dubbed “Whopper Bar,” will be in South Beach, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. If successful, the chain will spread these eateries to other towns featuring elastic-waisted-pants-wearing-tourists, like LA, Vegas and NYC. It clearly is not enough for the chain to fill you up with salt, saturated fat and cholesterol – you have to be boozed up as well. Ahh, the American dream. I can’t wait to place my next drive-though order.
Rad Omen. Who are they again? I have no idea either. Their Twitter and MySpace accounts are totally inactive, but apparently they are some sort band/group/music collective. Regardless of who the hell they are, their latest video, for their song “Rad Anthem”, directed by Nicholaus Goossen (who was the director of “Grandma’s Boy” and “The Shortcut”) is most definitely a winner. One of the most entertaining videos I’ve seen in a while.
Remember how much people loved the re-imagining of fast food mascots as mafia characters? Well this is even better. Watch as Colonel Sanders, Ronald McDonald, the Jack in the Box Mascot and the BK King party their faces off and paint the town red – drugs, booze and strippers most definitely included. Oh, and keep an eye out for a special cameo by comedian Nick Swardson as – well, I won’t spoil the surprise for you. Check it out:
I stumbled across Yelp several years ago when looking up a restaurant’s address. It seemed interesting enough; a cloying aggregator that collects people’s instant opinions to form an overall one-four star rating system. However, like most things on the internet, reading the actual reviews by customers made me wonder how reliable this service actually is.
Far be it from me to suggest conspiracy theories, but Yelp can be easily manipulated by stores that crave good reviews. This isn’t a new concept, but it still makes me question the motivation of most posters. It’s hard enough to form one’s own opinion on a restaurant’s food, atmosphere and service without secretly wondering if this place has been recommended to you by the restaurant manager posing as Suzie Q.
Ah, and the ranking system. Any time you go from 1-5, one would expect rankings to reflect the following logic when ranking a restaurant:
1: Terrible service, terrible location, food was almost inedible.
2: Food was actually okay, but rest of experience was lacking
3: Everything was mediocre
4: Decent service, food was great
5: Already thinking about returning
I had a LOT of problems writing number 2. Why aren’t there four stars? Let’s look at some reviews and try and determine the metric for a 2 star rating.
“Yeah.. I know I will get crap for this.. and I know it’s a very unChicago thing to say… but I find corn bread crust yucky. I hate cornbread, so don’t make a pizza out of it…The ingredients were fresh and tasty. I also didn’t think that the “large” pizza warranted the large moniker. It was more like a medium. For more than 2 people, I’d definitely recommend more than 1 pizza.”
Laura does not like corn bread crust, so the establishment immediately loses some stars. But is every pizza made with cornbread crust? Also, why apologize for your opinion when writing an opinion-based review? The ingredients were fresh and tasty, but the pies were too small. I’m not sure I get it. Is a two star review always so muddled and confusing? Based on the content of the review, I would’ve given the place a 3-star rating. But let’s see some other 2-star gems. Dave S. similarly complains about the size of Pizano’s pizzas:
“The were probably the smallest and most overpriced large pizzas that I have ever had. They were not even that good. I paid nearly $90 for four pizzas that were supposed to be large but were more like mediums in the real world. Come on with the toppings guys, these pizzas were very, very bare. I was not really impressed with them at all.”
Uh, woof. Notice his comment about “real world medium pizzas.” What does that even really mean? What is the gold standard size-wise for a large pizza? Are we talking deep-dish or thin crust? This is all getting very confusing. Let’s confuse things even more by adding Dave S.’s reasoning behind his two-star rating:
Crust = very good
Toppings = very skimpy
Quick Delivery = Nope, very slow
Friendly Service = “Leave the attitudes at home, I am paying you good money here”
Price = Not worth it at all
So he hates the price, the service, the delivery time and the toppings. And he only likes the crust of the pizza? This looks like a 1-star rating to me.
Also, I’ll also add that the whole, “I’m paying you GOOD MONEY, so ACT like it,” bit. If you write that in a review, you’re asking to be treated like a jerk. Yes, you have paid these people to offer you a service, but don’t act like you paid their future kids college education off. This pizza delivery person is a human being. You tip them 15-20% and shut the door in their faces. What more do you want?
Perhaps Christina S. will be more honest with her ranking?
“I picked Pizano’s because it’s close to the Contemporary Art Museum and had a four-star rating. Yelp, you’ve done me wrong…Our deep-dish pizza was thin, watery, and undercooked, and my fettuccine dish was totally unappetizing. The nail in the coffin was the smoking policy, though. No smoking within 15 feet of the bar. Well, my friends, the bar runs along one side of the dining room and the building itself is no more than 20 feet wide. What a joke.”
Alright, now we’re talking! Food that is awful and looks awful! A watery deep-dish pizza is a blasphemous thing indeed, and a critique of the establishment’s smoking policy which is now rendered moot by Illinois’s smoking ban in restaurants and bars helps lower the bar. The location is lauded as well, making this a solid two-star rating.
Using a small sample size has shown us some small truths about Yelp, namely that you can’t really trust a rating. People have different levels of taste and shifting palates, and Phil’s 2 star rating could be Janet’s 5 star meal-gasm.
I plan to further delve into my conspiracy theory that half of every restaurant’s positive reviews are written by employees. If you have any first-hand accounts of any such heinous acts of deception, you can email me at hugedays@gmail.com.
As many of you know, today’s would have been Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday. He left an indelible impression on our culture in many ways; primarily through music, but also with food. I mean, this guy loved to eat – maybe a little too much, actually. That said, when you think Elvis and food, you likely think of his seminal creation: the fried peanut butter, banana (and sometimes bacon) sandwich. I have never had this combination together, but as Elvis knew good food, especially the kind that would literally inflate you as you ate it, we should follow his lead.
Per the NY Times’ Diner’s Journal recipe, we should all go home today and make this sandwich while thinking of The King.
Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches
4 tablespoons commercial peanut butter
4 slices white sandwich bread
2 ripe bananas, sliced into thin rounds, approximately half a cup
4 slices bacon (optional, but what would Elvis do?)
3 tablespoons butter
1. If using bacon, fry in a heavy skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove from pan and drain over paper towel. Wipe out skillet.
2. Spread peanut butter evenly over 2 slices of bread, then pile banana slices over these. Add bacon, if using, then complete sandwiches with remaining slices of bread. Press together gently.
3. Heat butter in skillet over medium heat until it foams, then fry sandwiches, turning once, until golden brown, about 4 minutes total. Serve immediately.
This Australian TV commercial for KFC is officially titled “KFC Cricket Survival Guide.” It features a white Australian cricket fan, who, realizing all the fans around him are black and rooting for the opponent, offers up “a tip when you’re stuck in an awkward situation.” What happens next? He offers the people around him a bucket of fried chicken! See for yourself:
The title this video has been given on YouTube is “Racist KFC Advertisement?” It’s generated a little bit of coverage so far, and most people seem to be suggesting that the ad is, in fact, racist. In the title of its post, BuzzFeed is calling it “racist”, while Make the Logo Bigger asks “Another racist KFC ad?” MediaBistro’s AgencySpy doesn’t use the actual word racist, but the language used in framing up its blog post strongly suggests they feel that way as well.
So is the ad racist? Or is that just the way we American’s view it? That’s what one commenter at Buzzfeed suggests:
I don’t think the stereotype of black people loving fried chicken is popular anywhere but the USA, this ad would be pretty harmless in another country
On AgencySpy, another commentator named “Nancy” seems to agree with this sentiment, noting:
This is only racist when viewed through the prism of americans and their limited view of cultures and the world…..awkward situation is : Cricket World Cup took place in the west indes recently, of course Australian fan, lone among the jubilant west indian fans…tries to make friends …so what he offers chicken…in the west indes, we don’t survive on daily ingest of junk food, it is just eaten during lively, fun times like that
While a commenter named “Juan” adds:
The ad is meant to be satire, not demeaning, it could be misperceived as a racial stereotype, but its not aimed at the super sensitive U.S market with our out of control “political correctness” and our pretense at racial equality
However, in the original blog post, Agency Spy notes the clear racial undertones of a white guy describing himself as being in an “awkward situationjust because he’s stuck in a crowd of happy, cheering black people.” Meanwhile, other commenters call the ad “truly embarassing” and one asks, “Is KFC’s agency headed by Strom Thurmond?”
Haven’t heard of this commercial yet? Well lest you think this is going unnoticed, it’s the #18 most viewed video this month for the Australian version of YouTube and has received over 2,300 comments.
What do you think So Good readers? Racist? Unfortunate idea for an ad? Misinterpreted by American’s?
Earlier this month, the United Kingdom division of Burger King put up a new page on its website called “Singing in the Shower”, featuring a “Shower Babe” who you could view live each morning singing a song while lathering up and showering in a bikini.
In case you miss it live, the site lets you replay the footage of that day’s shower song so there is incentive to check back each day. The site also lets users help decide what song she will sing the next morning, and which bikini she will wear (see burger themed bikini above and fried egg themed bikini below).
In a time where you get used to seeing nothing but ultra skinny supermodels in ads, it is interesting to note that the woman they selected for this, while certainly attractive, falls more into the average-build, girl next door kind of look, rather than the “oh my god I’m looking at a supermodel showering” kind of look. Oh, and one other thing, those of you that saw the site can confirm: her singing is TERRIBLE. I mean really not good at all. There will be no Britain’s Got Talent auditions for this young lady.
Now I’m certainly not the first one to report on this, as Mashable, BrandChannel and AdRants all posted about it in mid-December. What is interesting, however, is that no one seems to have realized that this promotion/webpage was gone almost as soon as it appeared. Fast Food Maven posted about the Shower Babe on December 26th, inviting her readers to watch the Shower Babe and share their thoughts – apparently totally unaware that by Wednesday, December 23rd, the site wasn’t even live anymore, and the previous ShowerCam URL re-directed people to a new page devoted to the Whopper and promoting the fact that at Burger King “Taste is King.”
So what’s up with the idea to promote Burger King through a girl singing in the shower? While Burger King has not been afraid to release some highly questionable and offensive sexually laced ads in the past, featuring a woman showering, live on camera, may be a new low (high?) for Burger King’s advertising strategy. Initially, a BK spokesperson defended the website, noting:
“Our research showed that breakfast is a male-centric audience for Burger King; it doesn’t resonate as well with women – we are targeting the people who are buying breakfast.”
Oh. Wait. You are promoting Burger King Breakfast???? I didn’t realize that, I was too distracted WATCHING A WOMAN SHOWERING. Breakfast. Right. That makes sense, because you shower in the morning, then head out to get a BK breakfast sandwich. It all makes sense now. Uh, yeah.
Now your typical guy will probably be pathetically lured into this, because c’mon, we’re guys and we’re weak. We’ll watch live based on the .ooooo1% chance that something will go wrong and her bikini will accidentally burst off, exposing the BK Shower Babe for all the world to see. Sorry kiddos, but there is definitely no nudity, these videos are about as CLEAN as it gets (Haha! See what I did there? Clean? Huh? Clean? Get it? Cause it’s a shower? Comedy GOLD).
The question to ask now is not what possessed Burger King to launch this website, but rather why did they take it down in basically two weeks time? Now I’m sure the official BK company line is that they always planned for this to be a quick promotion and it ran its course…blah, blah, blah. Bullshit. If the site was getting flooded with millions of visitors and drawing favorable coverage left and right, they would have definitely kept the site running. Furthermore, even if they only contracted the woman to do two weeks worth of showers (wow, it feels dirty just writing that…haha! get it? dirty?) wouldn’t they re-hire her for additional weeks if it proved to be a viral hit? Or even if the promotion had run its course, why not leave the site up for people to watch the old videos rather than essentially hiding its existence behind a re-direct to a new “Taste is King” promotion?
My guess? Burger King saw the consumer, online and press reaction to this and decided to pull the plug prematurely. While Burger King doesn’t shy away from controversial advertising that gets people talking, this campaign had a notably stalker-esque and creepy feel to it. For a company that already centers so much of its marketing around a creepy, stalkerish mascot, it may have decided, in retrospect, that allowing its customers to watch a woman showering was just one small, creepy step away from drilling a Porky’s style peep-hole in a woman’s locker room so that Burger King consumers online could feast their eyes on a bevy of Burger Shots.
I don’t expect Burger King to admit this of course, but that’s my theory.
Eick sent me some free food on behalf The Lazy Baker. I was initially very excited about this. My life has been rather…ahem…hair-pulling out insane recently.
Moving from the suburbs of Chicago into the city. Adjusting to a new and longer commute. Painting. Unpacking. Trying to stock the pantry and get settled. You know. BORING LIFE THINGS.
That being said, getting a cardboard cylinder with a label that read: “The Lazy Baker” was a truly magical moment. Lazy baking seemed an oasis of relief from my life’s recent death march. And then I lost the cylinder during the move.
I’ll probably find one of these in a box of fine china.
Well, they were kind enough to re-send it. This time I read the label…and was rather surprised to see baking instructions.
Let’s break it down to semantics. Baking cookies is an inherently easy task. Some flour, some eggs, some sugar, baking powder and butter and whatever chocolate-type sweet thing and you eventually get cookies.
After three failed attempts to create these cookies, I buckled down. I beat a stick and half of butter, added some vanilla and then mixed the mixture in. If you have a nice mixer, use it. I decided to act like I didn’t have a mixer and see just how lazy these cookies were. I received a tender wrist from the proceedings, mixed in the chocolate chips and rolled them into little balls as per the instructions.
After about 10 minutes the double chocolate cookies came out warm and melty and soft. A day later they they were crispy, as one would expect. Fine cookies. Tasty even.
The quandary is thus: The cookies are delicious, but is the baking process truly lazy?
No, these aren’t lazy. Pillsbury cookie dough tubes are insanely easy to bake. Remove wrapping, cut to desired thickness, place on baking sheet and bake. You can’t get any lazier than that. It is the end of the evolutionary arch of the cookie. First there is no cookie, then a cookie from scratch, then Pillsbury. There is no step beyond that ultimate benchmark of laziness.
Therein lies the rub, my friends. These Lazy Baker items aren’t lazy enough. Pillsbury has set the bar so low that the “Lazy Baker” moniker itself becomes a detriment to the product. I was led to believe that I could bake these cookies while unpacking boxes, catching up on laundry and cleaning the bathtub. Alas, these are not “Multi-Tasking Baker” or even “Low Maintenance Cookies.” They are for cooks and bakers with a scrap of dignity left, those who still embrace the process of baking but might not have all the time in the world.
The cookies are delicious, friends. If you have a mixer and 20 minutes to kill, Lazy Baker is your weapon of choice. If, however, you have no sense of decency and feel justified in baking the laziest cookies in history, Pillsbury brand cookie dough will be your Excalibur. I judge ye not. Go forward and bake!
Kim Kardashian is, in fact, naked in her new ad for Carl’s Jr., although you don’t get to see anything fun, merely her back as she slides into a bubble bath while eating the new Carl’s Jr Cranberry, Apple & Walnut Grilled Chicken Salad. This continues Carl’s Jr’s strategy to get the most of its limited advertising dollars by making a strong play for young men using popular female sex symbols in ads, such as Padma Lakshmi and Audrina Partridge.
Carl’s Jr. is leveraging Kim Kardashian beyond just this one ad though, enlisting her to invite people from around the country to join her for a “Salad Lunch Date.”
The lunch date will take place live, via the Carl’s Jr. Facebook page, and Kim has even extended a “personal” video invitation which you can find on YouTube:
So this raises the inevitable question, who is going to be joining her for this lunch date?
For those of you who haven’t yet heard about Eating the Road, it’s a fun little food blog that has gotten some attention for their positively awesome flowcharts. If you haven’t seen any of them, lets start by checking out their Fast Food edition. Don’t let it melt your eyes when you first look at it, you have to commit to a couple minutes of reading it through, in which case it is definitely worth it.
I’ve included an image below, but if you have trouble viewing it (you will, it’s too small) then click over to the full size image HERE and then stop back and let us know your comments on the Flowchart, what you found most amusing etc.
Pizza Hut. Papa John’s. Domino’s. While all of them have experimented to some degree or another in the last year or two with releasing new products or offers (Domino’s and Pizza Hut much more so than Papa John’s) – the core business remains traditional pizza. That’s why reports that Domino’s has totally revamped its pizza formula, to include a new crust, new sauce and new blend of cheeses is huge news, akin to McDonald’s reformulating the Big Mac or Burger King revamping the Whopper.
(New Domino’s Pizza in full color)
Consumerist is reporting on the recipe change as well, with info from Domino’s explaining:
“2010 will be our 50th year in the business, and we are kicking it off with the most aggressive promotion in the history of our company,” said Domino’s Chairman and CEO David A. Brandon. “This is the biggest product introduction we’ve done since…well, pizza.”
The primary changes to the pizza are the crust, sauce and cheese:
Crust – A garlic seasoned crust with parsley baked to a golden brown.
Sauce – Sweeter, bolder tomato sauce with a medley of herbs and a red pepper kick.
Cheese – Shredded cheese made with 100% real mozzarella and flavored with just a hint of provolone.
The decision to change the basic recipe for Domino’s pizza is a bold one for sure. As USA Today notes:
Analysts were hard-pressed to name a major chain that has tried such a change to its core product. “I don’t know of any (restaurant) company that has attempted this,” says consultant Howard Gordon.
The new pizza recipe is based off of several years of testing, and seems to be a high risk/high reward situation. While some loyalists may not go for the new taste, the early buzz I’ve seen on Twitter is very positive – people are digging the new sauce, and seem to think the new crust is one of the better crusts they’ve had. There is strong potential here for Domino’s to re-introduce its pizza to the public at large, and potentially win over some new customers who may not have liked the taste of the old pizza. More interestingly, the pizza recipe change represents the strategic move of listening too, and responding to consumer complaints, demands and preferences. You aren’t crazy about Domino’s pizza? Well ok then, we’ll do some research and make it better for you.
The new pizza recipe has already popped up in most stores this week, and will be in all of them by the end of the month. I haven’t tried the new pizza yet, but hope too in the next few days. Any So Good readers tried the new Domino’s pizza recipe? If so, or when you do, please let us know what you think!
Full Disclosure: Domino’s is a client of mine and my employer, and I provide them with social media consulting and strategic advice.
Looking for the perfect gift for Dad? Not quite sure if you want to give him something to eat or to wear? Well, I have found the best of both worlds. As you can see above, a company called R&E Praspaliauskas has come up with the idea of making bread in the shape of slippers. Dad will appreciate the functionality of the gift, and everyone else will enjoy smearing it with butter and eating it with Christmas dinner. One size fits all, indeed.
"So Good has the lowdown on anything that’s happening in the world of food media. He’s the guy who broke the LeBron James/Papa Johns scandal." - Endless Simmer
