You know what I do when I see a TV ad for a product I don’t want? I don’t buy it. If somebody else wants to buy it, that’s nice. If they don’t, that’s also nice. It’s an ad. It’s not controlling your mind. You make your own choices in life.
But that’s not enough for the food police. It’s not enough that they keep trying to tell us how to live our lives. Now they’re trying to tell us which types of food should and shouldn’t be advertised on TV.
Such as, say, Taco Bell. Check out this deeply offensive ad, you guys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZue1lpRbJY“Veggies on game day is like punting on 4th and 1. It’s a cop-out, and secretly, people kinda hate you for it.”
Which doesn’t seem like an outrageous thing for a fast-food joint to say. “Eat the stuff we sell, instead of vegetables or real food or whatever.” Okay. I’d rather not, but this is America and people are free to make their own choices.
Of course, I don’t pretend to know what’s good for everybody else because I don’t work for a “health advocacy group.” As Taylor Bigler reports:
The health advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest asked Twitter users to tweet their disappointment at Taco Bell for encouraging people to eat delicious tacos rather than carrot sticks, The Associated Press reports.
Soon after, Taco Bell pulled the ad. “We didn’t want anyone to misinterpret the intent of the ad,” spokesman Rob Poetsch said.
See, I thought the intent of the ad — the intent of all ads — was to sell a product. A product that I can choose to purchase, or not, of my own free will. If you think people should eat more vegetables, you’re free to start a company that sells vegetables. And you can even advertise them! You can say, “Yuck, don’t eat that horrible fast food. Eat these delicious veggies instead!” And we can all ignore you because you’re boring.
By the way, CSPI is the same group of meddling hacks who pushed trans fats as a healthier cooking alternative to saturated fats in the ’80s and ’90s, pressuring restaurants to switch. And then, when they did switch, CSPI turned right around and attacked trans fats. Y’know, the fake, unhealthy fats that nobody wanted in the first place and were doing just fine without. (For further information, see the great documentary Fat Head.) CSPI stinks. They should call it the Center for Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy.
If you agree, I ask you to tweet your disappointment in CSPI for trying to tell private industries how to advertise their products. Leave us alone, @CSPI.
I kinda want to call out Taco Bell for kowtowing to these idiots and encouraging them. But it’s free advertising, so maybe they know what they’re doing…
P.S. That’s how they wanna play? Fine.
RT this if you think @cspi should stop telling Taco Bell, or anybody else, how to advertise their products in the United States of America.
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) January 30, 2013