Friday, February 19, 2010

A NEW HIGH OR IS THAT A LOW?

Maybe it’s just me. But, the company that makes Glad freezer bags is running a commercial right now that I find, well the word offensive might begin to describe it. Unfortunately I haven’t found a copy on the net anywhere. A word picture will have to serve.

Ms. Suburban Susie Sunshine walks up to the meat counter and orders “four pounds of sirloin, but just wrap two because I’ll end up throwing the rest away anyway” or words to that effect. WTF???????

The marketing geniuses that came up with this piece of crap go on to inform the viewer that the average food waste in this country is five hundred pounds per I’m not sure what. Is it per person, per household or are they lumping all the food wasted in public and retail kitchens together with the rest of us? Uh, yoo hoo guys. Most of the folks I run with can barely afford the occasional on sale chuck or round roast to cube for stew meat or soup much less multiple pounds of prime steak. At best it's a cut you can slice really thin and cook up really quick for stir fry or fajitas. Ummm with peppers, mushrooms and onions.............Down girl, we're dissing a commercial here, not planning tomorrow's menu.

In any case, I’d love to know who’s throwing out my share. Most of what goes out of our kitchen is peelings and trimmings. And most of that gets mixed with composting base and ends up in the garden. We draw the line at potato peelings though. Growing your own is great, but spuds in the flower beds are a real pain to deal with because no matter how hard you try you NEVER DIG THEM ALL UP.

I don’t know, maybe the current crop of commercials are being designed by computers or something because most of them don’t make much sense anyway. But, this one is so low, it reaches a new high. In a country that has at least thirteen million hungry children, the idea that any food is wasted is troubling. In a world where millions live with hunger on a daily basis; I guess it’s a good thing the hungriest probably won’t see our commercials. And, as an extra added attraction, when or if you throw out a couple of pounds of meat because you didn’t store it properly in the first place you’re not only wasting the meat you’re wasting the resources it took to raise the blessed discarded two pounds of sirloin in the first place. Fertilizer, water, grain; it all joins that cut of meat in the garbage can.

I know that people in marketing departments live in their own little worlds but, I’m not sure this group is even in the same solar system with the rest of us mere mortals.

4 comments:

Toon said...

Excatly! Meat with a little freezer burn is fine. It's a little dry maybe and it's not pretty, but it's perfectly edible. Maybe the commercial was designed to provoke. Some of the most annoying advertising is that way on purpose.
Russ

Lisa :-] said...

I'm sorry. I can, to a certain extent, understand the commercial. Several months ago, I wrote a piece on meat and how it's impossible to buy a reasonable quantity of some kind of meat one actually recognizes at a grocery store anymore. The stores have taken to putting the best prices on huge packages of meat, so people feel obligated to buy way more than they need in order to get "the best deal." THAT'S the stuff that turns to garbage before that lady in the commercial can eat it. It's meant to. The grocery people are only concerned that you BUY it, not that you actually EAT it... (Not every one of us has the time or the degree of organization in our lives to guarantee that we consume everything but the "moo" out of every piece of food we purchase...!)

Lisa :-] said...

Oh...and, this looks like a likely candidate for cross-posting at "Women On..." :)

JACKIE said...

:-)Can do.