That seems to be the message behind this ad for a hamburger made with beef, bacon and "rendered pancetta"and topped with bacon and prosciutto, and served on a bacon bun.
According to Burger Business, this $12 monstrosity is being offered by California chain Slater's 50/50 (the name is a reference to all their patties being half beef and half ground bacon). As the copy promises, if the Mayan apocalypse is coming, you might as well eat whatever you feel like.
Worst case scenario, you die with a belly full of salt and grease. Best case, you have to live with it.
They seem to be about sensuality, which I guess is a selling point of Weight Watchers' "eat what you want but count calories" system. However, the weird lips and the way the food is consumed in unnatural ways make the ads of questionable marketing value.
The TV, however, manages to do a better job by giving context and message to all this oral fixation:
"Stop les régimes - Réapprenez à manger" loosely translates as "stop dieting and learn to eat again".
How can a hamburger chain survive in a culture where beef is taboo for 80% of the population? Easy — go vegetarian.
McDonald's India, which already has lots of meatless items on its menu, is opening a vegetarian-only location near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in northern India. (Although some Sikh people eat meat, the consumption of it is prohibited near the temple.)
So what will they serve there? BBC says McDonald's India's signature dish in the country is the McAloo Tikki burger, which accounts for 25% of total sales. Based on the traditional snack, aloo tikki, it uses a spiced potato fritter as a patty.
McDonald's India also has a veggie burger made with a fried bread, potatoes, peas and carrot patty, and a "McSpicy Paneer" that is — literally — a cheeseburger. (The patty is all cheese.)
It ain't health food, but some of it sounds pretty good.
Du Darfst is a German company that produces butter, cheese, sausages and other rather gluttonous foods. For their latest campaign, they have decided to create a movement, "Fuck the Diet", encouraging people to make nutritional contrariness part of their social identity.
In addition to the above video and links to a Facebook page the campaign site features advice from a nutritionist named Silke Kayadelen who says "I want to stay as I am!" It champions the approach of simple choices in food and exercise to enjoy life without getting fat. And it features recipes.
Yeah... I'm assuming this is aimed at women.
It may not be the most nutritionally sensible approach, but I sure do love the tagline.
I really freaking love cheeseburgers. But this campaign for Dangerous Dan's Diner in Toronto — dripping with both irony and grease — has inspired my New Year's Resolutions for 2011:
I resolve to eat healthier, with less meat and more veggies.
I resolve to reduce the amount that I eat,
and increase the quality of ingredients.
I resolve to support healthy and humane farming and
slaughtering practices (as much as I can) in my food purchases.
Ummm... I forgot what this resolution was about.
Happy New Year, everyone. Be safe. Be healthy. Be excellent to each other.
No, it is not consumer-driven fast food mashup like the Mcgangbang. Nor an obscure sport-eating food from the This Is Why You're Fat photoblog — like Ottawa's own gravy pizza.
This is an actual meal marketed by Kentucky Fried Chicken:
Note that I called the chain by its old name, as opposed to the euphemistic "KFC". That was on purpose.
Years ago, the Colonel's troops got on the healthier food bandwagon and started offering grilled chicken and other low-fat options. Their corporate site still claims, "We believe eating sensibly, combined with appropriate exercise, is the best solution for a healthy lifestyle."
Made of two slabs of boneless fried chicken, bacon, double cheese and mayo-based sauce, the Double Down has 540 calories, 32 grams of fat, and 1380 milligrams of sodium.
So, an "appropriate exercise" to work the Double Down into anything resembling a healthy lifestyle would be to Running for an hour at about 8.4 km per hour (burning 531 of those 540 calories) or if you actually want to lose weight, biking for an hour at about 25 kph (590 calories). Of course, this assumes you didn't get a combo with a pop and fries...
Oh, and Health Canada recommends that adults do not exceed 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Per day.
While McDonald's keeps toying with portion control in an attempt to appeal to more health-conscious family consumers, Kentucky Fried Chicken has obviously decided their future lies more with young adult males. To this big-eating, big-drinking, burn-it-off-somehow generation the Double Down will provide a tempting alternative to heart-busting treats like the Burger King Quad Stacker and the Wendy's Baconator.
Don't get me wrong. I love a good "bad" meal as much as the next guy. But this idea of competitive junk food eating being embraced by more and more international brands in their everyday menu items kind of turns my stomach.
