Eat it! EAT IT!!!

June 8, 2004 7:58 AM

No Escape!
It's in your your music, plastered all over your public spaces, in your movies, on your clothes and in your art,
it's over there --------------------------------------------------->
(as long as this is the first story on the main page), it's in your books, in your schools
It everywhere except inside your body... until now
posted by Capn (21 comments total)

The horror of Product Placement
McDs places a logo on their breakfast McGriddle sandwiches - first seeing it, wondered the flavor it would leave in my mouth.
posted by thomcatspike at 8:19 AM on June 8, 2004

Dude. Marketing and advertising has gotten completely out of hand. Now that want to put messages on my Procter & Gamble Pringles® brand potato chips! Where will it end?

We need to do something . . . like, maybe we could manufacture our own sneakers under an anti-brand. Like a black dot or something, you know? And then we could all walk around in solidarity and protest.

End sarcasm.

Honestly, this isn't all that big of a deal. What's the difference between this, and promotional materials printed on the box (canister in the case of Pringles, I suppose), or a prize hidden in a box of cereal.

Tirades about advertising in the AdBusters vein isn't particularly helpful. Everyone savvy enough to be in on the "culture jam" already knows the issues through and through, and those who don't probably don't care all that much.

Better to incorporate additional critical thinking and analytical skills in the classroom. Calling attention to insidious marketing ploys only makes them all the more insidious.

Besides, trivia questions printed on potato chips sounds kind of cool . . .
posted by aladfar at 8:30 AM on June 8, 2004

The point I am trying to make is the first two words of my post. This is a novelty now, but do we want a world where there is no space, not even the food you eat, that is not trying to sell you more things?
posted by Capn at 8:39 AM on June 8, 2004

You know, I don't need to taste it to have an idea what it would feel like in my mouth.
posted by chicobangs at 8:39 AM on June 8, 2004

Printing on food will mean that I can finally get O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" books...IN ACTUAL NUTSHELLS! w00t!
posted by AccordionGuy at 8:43 AM on June 8, 2004

You can have your branded Pringles. Just don't mess with my Miss Vickie's chips.
posted by emelenjr at 9:04 AM on June 8, 2004

But on the other side of the battle:

1) I never see TV commercials anymore with my Tivo & 30 second skip.
2) I never see web ads.

Both are much better than a few years ago.
posted by smackfu at 9:13 AM on June 8, 2004

I, for one, welcome our new trivially-blessed potato crisp overlords...
Shouldn't they be called Printgles or something? Honestly -- and I don't mean to be demographically dismissive here -- is anyone who actually buys and eats Printgles going to mind?
posted by chandy72 at 9:15 AM on June 8, 2004

Maybe everyone has always been trying to sell everything to everybody, everywhere - it's just more explicit now?
posted by freebird at 9:25 AM on June 8, 2004

Nature abhors a vacuum.

Marketing abhors a blank surface.
posted by Blue Stone at 9:38 AM on June 8, 2004

To solve this one buy your pringles from a country that doesn't speak a language you know.

????? f?te a?t? ta patat???a patat?? ??µ???ta? ?a a????s??? pe??ss?te?? "Pepto Bismol".
posted by shepd at 10:37 AM on June 8, 2004

Great. Metafilter doesn't accept greek. Oh well. Just imagine what it said instead. One more try:

????? f?te a?t? ta patat???a patat?? ??µ???ta? ?a a????s??? pe??ss?te?? "Pepto Bismol".
posted by shepd at 10:40 AM on June 8, 2004

Pringles? Is this something one would have to eat unhealthy junk food to know about?

If it pisses you off, don't eat them.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:10 AM on June 8, 2004

Prediction: the one space that will never be plastered with cross-promotional messages - toilet paper.

Prove me wrong, corporations of the world...
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:18 AM on June 8, 2004

You know, I don't need to taste it to have an idea what it would feel like in my mouth.
Eating for taste, would avoid these foods.
posted by thomcatspike at 11:25 AM on June 8, 2004

1) I never see TV commercials anymore with my Tivo & 30 second skip.

let's just pretend that ads are working fine on tv, that way they'll have less investment in inviso-popups that get past your efforts to stop them.

and as for the pringles?
everyone knows that they've been putting subliminal messages on the surface of their chips, designed to program the consumer to consume more. This just means they're showing the ink.
/tin foil hat

and really, nothing strikes me as demonstrative of America's determination to 'hold the course' of eating chips. Olestra's anal leakage warning is a thing of advertising beauty. Impossible to translate. It just doesn't compute.
posted by Busithoth at 11:33 AM on June 8, 2004

I've read my M&Ms since I was very small. They've never lied. Just a reassuring mantra of "mmmmmmm" ... and I agree.
posted by grabbingsand at 11:34 AM on June 8, 2004

If they leave a funny taste in your mouth, just wash them down with some PepsiBlue.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 11:47 AM on June 8, 2004

The Card Cheat, you don't seem to recall novelty toilet paper with Osama's face on it or the one that's just hundreds of stupid jokes.

Hey, got a good idea to print on a roll of TP? Head on over to Printed TP and have it specially made.

But then, I'm not a corporation of the world.

And grabbingsand, mine vacillate between MMMMMM and WWWWWWW which I'm not sure what that means.
posted by fenriq at 4:21 PM on June 8, 2004

Boy, Fat America loves those potato chips!
posted by Down10 at 9:48 PM on June 8, 2004

???? f?te a?t? ta patat???a patat?? ??µ???ta? ?a a????s??? pe??ss?te?? "Pepto Bismol".

Don't worry; I didn't understand a word of that.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 5:44 AM on June 9, 2004