This morning on the radio some people called in to say how they were offended by the Carl's Jr. commercial featuring Paris Hilton making love to a car, a hose, and then the Six Dollar Spicy BBQ Burger.
Yes, the commercial is overtly sexual, but that's not what offends me. I just don't think a major chunk of a company's advertising budget should be spent trying to push a 1,000 calorie hamburger with 62 grams of fat (25 of which are saturated fat - ew!) on impressionable young people.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not one of those people who think that it is entirely McDonald's fault for making people fat and unhealthy. Hey now, you chose to eat the Big Mac and super-sized fries every day - don't go suing McDonald's like they put a gun to your head and *made* you eat that stuff.
You know how celebrities are always saying they won't wear fur, or smoke cigarettes in movies because they want to "raise awareness" about issues like wearing fur and lung cancer? I wonder if it will ever come to the point where the fast food industry has really messed with us (today it's Paris Hilton throwing herself at us so we'll eat her burger, tomorrow it's heroin in the happy meals) that celebrities will refuse to eat potato chips on screen to raise awareness (or protest) trans-fatty acids and high cholesterol.
I understand that it's not in a fast-food company's financial interest to make the food healthier. Grade D ground beef is undoubtedly much cheaper than 95% lean ground sirloin. But you know, I would gladly pay an extra $2 or $3 for something healthier, and I feel like that should be fast food's new marketing strategy. Just because it's convenient and fast doesn't mean it has to clog your arteries. You're paying for quality and convenience. This is coming from a poor grad student who technically should be subsisting on cup ramen and mac and cheese - you only have one body, you might as well pay a little extra to feed it right so that you're around for the next 50 years...
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