More than 20,000 beef-crazed fans were in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, to cheer on the more than 1250 grillers. The 1-mile long grill, set up by the Army and the 6 tons of charcoal, lit up by firefighters, brought excitement to the city. The leader of the INAC (National Meats Institute) believes ‘gimmics’ like this event can put Uruguay on the map. Does this event make you want to go find Uruguay on the map? (Here’s a hint: Look around Argentina and Brazil – if you don’t know where to locate these countries on a map, please stop reading our blog cause I’m frightened.)

Beef is one one Uruguays biggest exports and they are one of the leaders of beef exporters in Latin America. It brought in about $817 million in revenue for the ‘little engine that could’ (yeah, made that cheesy gem up too).

Maybe the vegans/veggies would have been happier to go to the Phillipines for the longest corn grill competition? According to my research (which wasn’t very extensive), in Feb. 2008, the Phillipines grilled 117,840 ears of corn on 2014 grills over 3 miles long!! Although it’s not meat, they had to use 7,000 grillers to keep up. In my mind, sounds like the corn won this one, huh?

Basically, in a “new” commercial for Wendy’s (you know Wendy’s, right? It’s a fast food joint) they try to tell us that “it’s waaaaaay better than fast food, it’s Wendy’s”. Do they think we’re all that much of a bunch of idiots? This is the most ridiculous form of advertising I’ve ever seen. If it works, I’ll believe that there’s nothing advertising and marketing can’t do. Check it out here:

But, I think the part of the commercial I like the best was the quote:

“You know what they say, if you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it!” – is there anything you’ve ever eaten before you knew what it was?

Who ARE these people!? Since when is this a horrible thing to do? I mean, check out my post on my years eating the Philadelphia breakfast favorite, scrapple and pork roll. I didn’t actually know what it was, but I still ate it! In fact, how can you try new foods if you know what everything is? Does this commercial make you as irritated as me?

SEE OTHER INTERESTING POSTS RELATED TO THIS ONE:

• European Union to Stop Junk Food Ads – Why Not America?
• Free Lunch for Inner-City Kids – If It’s Free Does It Have To Be Crap?

Well, not exactly. Here’s what (A certain national celebrity mag) magazine’s daily news clips e-mail The Dirt reported today:

“Insiders say Rachel Ray’s daytime show will be taken off the air at the end of her contract in 2010. Apparently, her ratings are sliding.”

We are at pains to remind our readers that while we are certainly not Ms. Ray’s biggest fans, we do not wish her ill. That said, the fewer opportunities we have to stumble across her wild and excessive gesticulations, jock-voice and tucked-in styles while idly flipping channels, the better.

Is this just another case of a network trying desperately to cash-in on a TV personality’s popularity by making them ubiquitous and endlessly shoving them down the public’s throats until people get sick of it? Or, is it that she wasn’t that popular outside of ’90s throwback Mid-Westerners anyway, and the network has finally caught on? What do you think?

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER RACHEL COMMENTARY:

• RACHEL RAY: MAYBE HATE IS A STRONG WORD
• HIT Me Rachel One More Time!
  

Indeed, is even equating the blue haze of cigarette smoke in a tiled and mirrored cafe with French-ness anything more than just a cheesy cliche?

While we examine the state of our national stereotyping and the extent of our nostalgia, let us know what you think.

For another reflective look at French health-consciousness, click here.

Yesterday, leading companies in the EU (read: major corporate conglomerates) said that by the end of 2008, they would change their policy on advertising junk food and drink during TV shows that are geared towards children under 12. And they did this voluntarily! Well, maybe not completely voluntarily. They may have been trying to avoid a financial penalty if they didn’t comply. So, no more food and drink advertising on TV, in print media or on the web in the EU where there is a chance that kids under 12 could be a target audience. Pretty interesting, huh?

Even more interesting is the list of companies voluntarilydoing this: Coca-Cola, Groupe Danone, Burger King, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Ferrero and Unilever. Do these companies sound familiar to you? Yes, they are the same companies that run the processed and crappy food/beverage world here in the good ‘ole US of A. Are they making this same promise to us? Isn’t one of the reasons we have a major obesity problem in the USA is because of the way these companies have so touchingly created this image of how a happy and fun family and kid is supposed to be when they eat or drink one of their magical, processed and high-calorie/fat drink or meal? How happy and fun did it look when those kids on the commercials walked into Mickey-D’s or Burger King? Did you LONG for a “happy” meal (yes, it’s called a happy meal b/c it will make you HAPPY – get it!?) when you saw those ecstatic children playing with their Happy Meal toys? I want a plastic Elliot and ET riding on a bike together!! Advertising, to me, is the lowest and cheesiest form of dumbing us down. And we buy it. We give in to it. So, if people aren’t going to change, can’t these stupid corporate companies just do something to help this major issue we are facing in America? I understand that they probably aren’t going to stop producing this shit, but can’t they just stop advertising it to us?

Again, I feel very passionate about this issue because I work with alot of the kids they specifically are geared towards – the ones without alot of disposable income. The kids whose parents have to work 4 jobs just to make ends meet and barely have enough time to cook dinner for their children. The kids whose parents aren’t even home at dinner time, leaving only a few bucks or some quarters for their kids to buy lunch or dinner that day. What other choice are these kids going to have when it’s too easy and cheap to go down the street to a fast food place or pop one of the processed meals in the microwave?

The obesity rate in parts of the EU is rising, especially with kids. As of 2003, nearly 1/3 of all Europeans were obese. THEY seem to want to take control of this issue. We all know the last thing the French would want to do is become like the Americans. And I don’t blame them one bit at all. In 2006, the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Advertising Review Council established the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. Similar corporate conglomerates joined this ‘initiative’ to limit the number of ads as well as ‘shift the focus of advertising messages and encourage healthier choices and a healthier lifestyle.” Do you notice a difference in the language used to describe these two different ideas – one is a ‘policy and ban’ (EU) and the other is an ‘initiative to change’ (USA). Makes me scratch my head in wonder and disbelief.

I’m not saying that people do not have free will to make their own choices and decisions. They do. But I once worked in the marketing and advertising field and I understand how it works. And, yes, it does work. How many times did you go out and buy something after you saw an ad for it on TV? I just think we need to end the ridiculous amount of advertising of these high calorie/high fat foods and drink towards impressionable people. That’s it. Any thoughts?

Rachael Ray is launching “So You Think You Can Cook?” – a nationwide search for an enterprising foodie. Ray and her producers will narrow the field of candidates to five promising cooks, who will undergo two weeks of intense competitions and challenges before a winner is announced on the air in late November. The winner of the contest will co-host the “Rachael Ray” show for a day and receive training at a U.S. culinary institute. An original recipe will be published in Ray’s lifestyle magazine, Every Day With Rachel Ray.

How HIGH-larious is this!? How freaking IRONIC is this, actually? First of all, a woman who can’t actually cook is asking (and JUDGING!) others if they can? Huh? Someone please ‘splain dat to me. I know this is America and Paris Hilton is famous for doing nothing but still I’m confused. Secondly, Rachel Ray will so sweetly allow the “winner” to co-host her dumb talk show (what a prize!!!! hope the winner starts dumbing themselves down now, practicing how to get a raspy, drank-too-much-whiskey voice and learns how to inappropriately gesticulate too often) and, this is the BEST one, give them free training at a US culinary institute! The girl who has somehow earned the title “chef” by cooking crappy food and never going to a day of culinary school in her life is actually making someone work hard and jump through hoops to be GIVEN this present by her!? Give the gift to Rachel! Make her sweat it out in culinary school and make that a reality show on the Food Network! I’ll probably watch the channel again. Being called “chef” is a title you earn from working hard in a restaurant cooking, not one that you just receive because you cook things for fun. No one freaking calls me a chef. Ok, I’m seething with anger about how many opportunities this poop has been given to make a buck. When will it end!?

It’s often said that Italians are passionate about their food, and this is borne out by today’s “pasta strike” across the country. Where else would an entire nation call and observe a strike to protest the rising prices of their national dish?

Reported in the Guardian (UK), Italians are coming out in sympathy with their farmers who are protesting about the 500% cost increases between the cost for wheat and the processed pasta. Government officials blame it on the rising prices of wheat worldwide, but the Italian farmers surely have a point, as if wheat prices are rising, why are they being paid the same price per bushel when Barilla are raking in the cash?

In America and Britain, much less bread is eaten than it used to be (due to ridiculous notions that you should cut carbohydrate from your diet), so it’s hard to make a direct comparison between the rise in cost of basic foodstuffs here and in Italy, since the relative shock would be felt much more by Italians. But bread riots have happened in the past across the globe in times of shortage and inflation, and you can’t argue that basic human needs like food must be met.

Indeed, this is the reason for the strike. Italians eat more than 60lbs of pasta annually, and on average, at least one plate per day, so they are feeling the pinch of higher prices every day. Their proportional intake of wheat is so much higher than most other places on the planet that it’s no surprise that this is important to them on a basic human level.

However, on a more philosophical level, this is an understandable response too, and this blog supports Italians who are protesting today. This is not only because are we huge fans of pasta, we also believe that if you’re passionate about something that’s in jeopardy then you should act to make sure it is saved. There are so many traditions that go to the wall because too few people care enough to preserve them, and to many, inside and outside the country, pasta is the Italian tradition, so it’s gratifying to see that Italians care about it and want it to remain.

What do you think? Is food important enough to strike over?