Tuesday, January 22, 2008

WTF?


What happened to "Have it your way"?

What are the good people at Burger King trying to say here? Thanks to the 99 cent bacon cheeseburger, I can pay rent this month and still eat, too?! Is this ironic? Am I a dick for thinking that this might be ironic? You know, because I'm an effete culinista, out of touch with the people, not eating the BK and telling people to buy a $15 chuck roast they can't afford and don't have the time to cook instead of a $1 cinnamon bun that is both affordable AND easily snarfable?

OK, so I'll admit that I'd sooner blog about Burger King than actually eat there and that probably makes me an elitist asshole. And to top it off, I took the photo of the ad with my boyfriend's iPhone! But self-flagellation and acknowledging the parody I've become is not the point. The point is that this ad is some weird shit.

Or actually, the point is this: Fast food (and processed food) is cheap. Cheaper than anything I've eaten in recent memory. There's just no denying that. You can have a full meal at Burger King for around $3 if you order from their value menu. That's a lot of calories for very little money. So hey, why *not* advertise that fact to people who might be interested in a little value?

There are actually a number of these ads around, one of which claims that you could have a meal at Burger King w/ the change you find in your sofa cushions - so maybe even $3 is off the mark. I can tell you that I haven't dug around in the sofa cushions for change since I was about 7 - and that if I'd found that much money in there, then you can bet your ass I'd have gone to Burger King to celebrate. That, of course, was back when you could “have it your way” and I really, really wished my mom would feed me “real” (read: American) food like Fruit Roll-Ups instead of yucky rice and fish. Now that I'm being called a sadass who can't make rent by these venerable burger purveyors, I'm not so sure.

Of course, I *am* fortunate enough to be able to pay rent and not have to eat that crap, but that’s another story.

2 comments:

foodperson said...

This reminds me of a miserly old man I once knew. He loved buffets at chain restaurants and groused that the food was bad but rejoiced that there was a lot of it. Only in America...bad food? I want MORE!

Kei said...

Buffets at chain restaurants? I must be very out of touch. Didn't know there was such a thing.
But you bring up the interesting point of palatability. I'm surprised that the guy actually thought the food was bad. Usually, fast food tastes good - all that fat, sugar and sodium; it just isn't any good for you.
Also, it unfortunately isn't a uniquely American predilection to judge food on quantity rather than quality. You wouldn't believe the crap my German friends would shovel in basically just because it was cheap and there was a lot of it.