By admin
It’s no secret to the entire world that Americans are a bunch of fat slobs. At least, that seems to be our image in general. While traveling in Europe I didn’t see a lot of fat people, but the ones I did notice always turned out to be American tourists. Natives and tourists from other areas of the world were all pretty slim. At least they weren’t noticeably overweight. It’s gotten to the point that when a fat person is spotted in Europe everyone assumes it is an American tourist.
Back home in the states, slim people in public places seem to be a minority. This is not to say that everyone in America is obese, but most people in America are overweight. The trim ones are a minority. This trend transcends income levels, so it’s not like the middle ages when only rich people could afford to get fat. Quite the contrary - it seems that these days the less expensive food is the culprit for unwanted weight gain.
The 2004 movie Super Size Me was a humorous documentary which depicted the adventures of a person who committed to only eating at McDonalds for an entire month. He wasn’t restricted to greasy burgers on this quest, and in fact opted for grilled chicken sandwiches and the salads on the menu regularly. However whenever he was asked if he wanted to super size his meal he always had to say yes as part of the experiment. The results were not pretty. Not only did he gain an incredible amount of weight, but his doctor about went through the roof when reading the results of his blood test at the end of the month. Cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides, all the important stuff had taken a sharp turn for the worse.
Fast food is inexpensive food. Apparently fast food makes you fat, even while attempting to stay on the good side of the menu. So is being overweight and unhealthy now the plight of the poor? Unfortunately that simple hypothesis doesn’t go very far. Middle and upper-middle income America are just as overweight as the lower-income class. Of course, fast food restaurants are not restricted to those on the lower end of the income scale. They are on every corner and are frequented by every facet of society. Even Hummer limousines can regularly be seen parked in front of Taco Bell where I live.
This brings up another point. In Europe, there are McDonalds everywhere. They are usually pretty busy inside. And yet Europeans are not fat. Moreover, most of the people inside the McDonalds in Europe are not fat (except for the few American tourists that are inexplicably wasting their vacation not dining on wonderful local fare). So one cannot conclude that the mere existence of fast food joints is the culprit for being overweight and unhealthy.
Papa Riah almost never eats fast food. It’s garbage. I don’t waste my precious minutes on this earth eating garbage. Yet I do struggle with my weight now and again, even though I jog at least a mile every day and eat healthy more than 75% of the time. (My problem is my affinity for good ale.)
You know who loves to eat? Asians. Man those folks can really put the food away at dinner time. But they are all thin as a rail. Now how do you explain that? Perhaps heredity plays a part, but I think you have to take a serious look at what they are eating. Steamed rice, raw fish, and sautéed meats and vegetables. Lots of lean meats and only a little of the fatty stuff.
It’s time to draw a conclusion. The answer is obvious: Americans are obese because we are gluttons. We are gluttons for anything that tastes good to us. And what tastes good to us is fatty, flavorful food. Even food that otherwise would be healthy is cooked in a way that turns it into fatty food. We are not satisfied with a reasonable size portion; we must eat until we feel full. And by that time, of course, we have over-eaten.
The drug companies in America depend on us. Indigestion drugs are such a huge business here it’s incredible. The antacid aisle of the drug stores and supermarkets are so big that some stores need two aisles for them. That really tells you something.
It’s not our fault! We are raised this way! If we don’t feel full after meal time we feel ripped off. And one thing Americans will not put up with is being ripped off.
Papa Riah
Technorati Tags: Society, Health, Overweight
By admin
Picture yourself walking down a street surrounded by a dozen other pedestrians moving in both directions when suddenly a wind full of money blows through. Bills in the air, arriving in the wind, landing on the street and blowing by at head-level. We’re talking tens and twenties, with a few fifties and hundreds here and there. How are you going to act? How to you expect the random strangers around you to act? What if this was all staged for a television show like Candid Camera? When the television show airs, how are you going to feel about the way you acted verses the way all the strangers around you acted?
This would be an excellent character test. Now I’m not suggesting that to pass this test you should be refusing to grab any bills that come your way, or that you should try and start preaching a sermon to everyone around you or something. Quite the contrary, I think that accepting the blessings which are bestowed upon you (along with being thankful for them) is quite healthy. But I’m wondering just how vigorous you would be in accepting this particular blessing.
Would you be content to grab the bills which were blowing into your immediate airspace, and bending down to pick up the few which were landing right in front of your feet? Do you picture a happy, giddy little crowd of people laughing in gay wonderment at the dream-like phenomenon which has materialized? Or would you be running around frantically attempting to grab everything you possibly could, stuffing as much as possible in your pockets, including the $100 bills which were landing right in front of another person? Do you picture a rugby-like scene with people being pushed around, knocked out of the way, while the fastest and strongest take the majority of the booty?
How you would react to this situation says a lot about your character. And truth be told, sadly, the percentage of people in society who would pass this character test are a minority. With a dozen people selected at random to experience this unique event, you can safely bet that there would be a couple who would push an old lady out of her walker to grab a c-note that she was leaning towards, even with twenties flying in all around them in the wind. What should be a happy, gleeful event for all would likely turn into a stressful sporting event as most participants attempt to maximize their financial gain (and thereby minimize that of everyone around them).
Something like that happening should be a blessing upon all who are involved. If you are there, then it’s a blessing for you too. Reach out and grab what is blown to you. Look around and laugh with the others at the amazing storybook scenario unfolding. But running and grabbing and hoarding like some kind of animal is very uncouth.
If by some chance it were staged by a television show, most likely the ones who exhibited the most deplorable behavior would be the ones most proud of themselves. And that’s the thing which really speaks the most about the sad condition of our society.
Papa Riah
Technorati Tags: Society, Character, Money
By admin
What started out being mildly funny has now become embarrassingly stale. Do you still laugh at those cave man auto insurance commercials? Of course not. It’s played. They should really retire that whole concept before it turns into something ugly that does damage to the company image. That is, if you can even name the company who runs those ads. Can you? Yeah, most of you probably can, despite the fact that these commercials have absolutely nothing to do with selling auto insurance.
For those of you that can’t name the company, it’s Geico. This isn’t their only ad campaign currently running. Unfortunately it isn’t their only bad ad campaign currently running either. They also have that stupid gecko with the British accent being followed around by the naturalist (who also has a British accent) observing his behavior. What’s that about? Humor? Couldn’t somebody have told these guys that those spots are not even remotely funny? And what’s with all the English accents when trying to sell auto insurance in America? If this is British humor, that might explain things - but it still doesn’t excuse the bad ads.
All right I’m going to give Geico a break here and recognize them for an outstanding ad campaign that they ran in the recent past. The one where people in perilous situations set you up to hear them answer important questions with I just saved a ton of money on auto insurance by switching to Geico. That campaign rocked. Some of those commercials fooled absolutely everybody until the end when they pulled the “gotcha.” Usually they set you up to where somebody said But I have good news…. It was entertaining, it was brilliant, and most importantly it had everybody in America imitating it around the office water cooler (trying to “get” their co-workers with the But there is good news line).
The current ad campaigns really suck by comparison, especially the Geico gecko. The cave man ads started off being funny, because the characters in the ads are entertaining. But they have apparently played this angle out to it’s full potential. In the beginning just the angry stares of the characters were hilarious. But they were funny in a light-beer commercial kind of way, not in a way that does any real product branding.
It wasn’t long after the ad campaign started before a sitcom with the cavemen hit prime-time TV. It failed miserably and was soon canceled. Apparently they ran out of good plots just as fast as the commercials ran out of usable spins on the concept.
The current angle on the cavemen is having Geico signs pop up in unexpected places, resulting in the cavemen throwing their hands up in the air in disgust. It ain’t funny. It’s not entertaining. It’s…… old. I’m getting sick of these guys and I can’t imagine any new spins that are going to save them. If this company insists on pushing this ad campaign on us any further, they are going to be in danger of generating the same disgust the cavemen have for their company in the people watching the commercials. I am just about there.
And by the way, ads that depict people being disgusted with your company are a really stupid idea, no matter how you spin them.
Papa Riah
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Pop culture, Television
