Am I a schmuck or what?

*Not* the soup to be used in your green bean casserole
Photo from landotter's flickr stream

Here I was, ranting and raving about Kraft OWNING the holidays with their green bean casserole, not even realizing that apparently, they INVENTED the thing to begin with. At first, I felt like it was perverse that the dish that every red-blooded American has to have with their Thanksgiving meal is actually a 50 year-old marketing vehicle for Kraft to push canned soup and canned fried onions to the tune of $70 million a year.

But on the other hand, it *is* easy to make, people do really love it and frankly, you don't have to have the foggiest idea how to cook in order to make a passable version of it. It may not meet my definition of what food is, but I suppose it's a step up from some of the other insane crap food companies try to pass off as recipes...after all, not everyone has the time or the inclination to make food out of actual unprocessed ingredients, right? Right?

Choice quote of the day...again

Are you ready for this dish to totally DOMINATE your holiday home?
Photo from m-e-c's flickr stream

From a BrandWeek profile of Kraft's plans for a "holiday comfort food home invasion"
(emphasis mine):

"Our goal is to own the holidays," said Ken Stickevers, VP of marketing for Hearty Soups at Campbell Soup, Camden, N.J.
A Cream of Mushroom push will focus on Campbell's 50-year-old holiday classic, the green bean casserole. "There are about 30 million green bean casseroles prepared between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year," said Stickevers. "We will be driving awareness of the dish every week [now] through Christmas."

I admit to being an insufferable food snob, but am I really crazy for finding it disquieting that Kraft wants to OWN THE HOLIDAYS? Sheesh.