Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Chef's Tip

I love when advertisers try to raise the status of an item, even though the item itself is so obviously crass or base. Whenever I go to the Forbes website to read their news, I'm treated to a full-screen advertisement (for cars or cel phones or something) with a message at the top reading: "Click here to skip this welcome screen."

It's not a welcome screen. It's an advertisement. But somehow their PRETENDING that it's a "welcome" screen -- even though I'm sure they know that they're not fooling anyone -- makes the screen sort of welcoming anyway.

Since I'm a sucker for quick meals I bought one of the new President's Choice frozen dinners. This line of dinners is being marketed as upscale...the fonts are all "script" and they feature maps showing you where the food supposedly comes from (no, not a map of the factory floor, a map of the region famous for that particular dish).

So I bought the "Piemonte Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms." It's ready in five minutes and has its own little microwave-safe plastic dish. Nothing about the food or its preparation sets it apart from other $2.00 microwave dinners...but on the back -- above the cooking instructions -- I found this totally discordant bit of overreaching promotion:
CHEF'S TIP
Serve with a red wine, such as a Chianti Classico or a Pinot Noir.
TV dinners and a nice red wine. That's class.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

do they suggest screw top vs boxed?

Anonymous said...

Sadly no, so when I ate it I was unable to decide. I figured that subdued lighting and mood music were appropriate, however, so I got a warm glow from my electric heater and listened to the Monkees.

There was only one mushroom in the entire meal, but it was delicious.

Anonymous said...

linen napkin? or from a roll?