The Top 6 Fake Artisanal Food Ads

Published on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, by Joyce Slaton / Edit Post

A column in The Atlantic dings the National Pork Board for an ad campaign that brims with what writer Jane Black terms "fake authenticity." Pork is wholesome and real, insist the ads. Real people cook it, including chefs and a lady who looks like a mom.

This reminded us of all the other "fake real" food ads we've seen. Let's take a look, shall we?

If you leave bits of skin on fries, they become natural and wholesome! Plus sea salt means healthy, right?

Ah, the bucolic crop fields where Tostitos is buying ... basil? For corn chips?

If it has "market" in the title, no one will notice that the sandwich has 2,270 milligrams of sodium.

Papa John's has always been synonymous with ingredient-driven cuisine.

How about just using whole grains in the first place?

It's whole fruit, other than, you know, all the fiber and stuff, but who cares! I kinda feel bad for HFCS Kid, who looks a little like a beige Slimer from Ghostbusters.

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POST A COMMENT |6 Comments

COMMENT

  • My favorite part of the Tostito's commercial is when they say their ingredients all come a farm. Well duh...that's where food comes from. Probably not the kind of farm they're wanting you to picture, but still.

  • I think the point re: the fake authenticity of the pork ads is that this new campaign is trying to sell factory farm pork as this beautiful 'salt of the earth' kind of product, when it's responsible for SO much pollution and is really really cruel to the animals. The ads are selling industrial pork as this nice natural product of bucolic farms when these images couldn't be further from the truth.

  • And isn't the mushroom, doh, portobello, not portabella?

  • I should really read the Atlantic article before commenting-but-why is pork "fake authenticity"?? Pork and chicken and beef and bison, etc.are real foods as far as I know. But maybe I really don`t know.

  • I'm really confused - why is the pork campaign an example of 'fake authenticity'? It's a wonderful meat, probably my favourite, and it is really versatile and tasty.

  • You forgot the awful "whole serving of vegetables!" Manwich/Chef Boyardee ones, and the Campbell's OMG SEA SALT one.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3vbzeA2Hsk
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeDjuKYzX8w
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4eI357b3nk