Wednesday, March 5, 2008

If You Watch More TV Than I Do...

(And C'mon! Who Doesn't?)

...Then you may have seen the new Slim Jim commercials featuring the "Snapalope". These spots feature young men stalking little stick figure creatures that resemble Christmas "Reindeer" decorations made from pipe-cleaner. These critters follow in the grand tradition of the mythical Jackalope, and Berkeley Breathed's bizzare Basselope.

Con Agra Foods, Inc. apparently had to come up with a new ad campaign, since Randy "The Macho Man" Savage has moved on to play the role of Sasquatch in commercials for their competitor, Jack Link.

I realize that Slim Jims are marketed at men almost exclusively, and if you see the TV ads, it is clear that they are appealing to the manly, hunt-something-and-kill-it mystique, but there may be an unintended consequence to this campaign...

... Do they really want to draw attention to the fact that the meat in a Slim Jim can't be attributed to any particular real animal? I guess hunting a beef and/or mechanically separated chicken fortified with modified hydrolyzed soy protein just doesn't have the same appeal.

1 comment:

Art said...

Personally, the idea of putting anything in my mouth that's known as "Jim" causes all kinds of bad reactions. If that's someone else's pleasure then I'm no one to judge, but it's not for me;)