Eat me

[bunsen_h]

I have always been somewhat creeped out by commercials that feature animated food or animals urging people to eat them.  See also: Douglas Adams's "Dish of the Day", and Alice being introduced to Mutton and Plum Pudding on the other side of the Looking-Glass; not to mention Paul Gallico's charming children's book Manxmouse.

But recent commercials for M&Ms are even more troubling.  Red M&M doesn't want to be eaten, but people around him talk about eating him, start gnawing on him despite his objections, and eventually stuff him — kicking and yelling — into an oven.

In Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs, there's a line: "An intelligent food animal!  Hitler would have fled, retching."  I've always thought that Niven was a bit of an optimist on that point.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Yeah. This has been getting more unnerving by the year. Suicidal food mascots...

[pameladean]

I hate those M&M ads. I also hate the ones where there is one female M&M, like the Smurfette. Blargh. But the one you cite is even worse. I sometimes put it in the category of ads that seem to have the simple message, "Everyone who likes our product is a complete jerk." These used to be limited to beer, but are now branching out.

P.

[batyatoon]

The "complete jerk" message often comes with "Our product: not worth spending money on, but good enough to steal or lie for."

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

See also the breakdown of cereal mascots into pushers, addicts, thieves, and those that have pica disorders.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

I am often bemused (at best) by the gender roles attached to anthropomorphized inanimate objects: candies in this case, the cars in the Pixar movies, etc. It's like that ST:NG episode with the androgynous alien race: what's the difference between male and female? Well, the females wear makeup, they have long curly eyelashes, the males compete for their attention and affection, ...