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We all know that French ads are a bit more saucy and racy, but does this hilariously absurd one push the limit? Fellow blog Urlesque cries out, "Someone should probably be arrested for making this commercial featuring French kids and push pops." I'm wondering whether or not this push pop candy still exists. While I remember it from my childhood, I cannot recall any of its ads, certainly nothing like this.

Apart from the perhaps unintentional suggestions of the kids' gestures, the ad seems to promote the candy as a way to break up fights. Instead of fighting back after being incited, the boy tells him not to push him, but to push a push pop instead. Can candy breakup fights? How do you make sense of this wacky ad?

Aside from an occasional Egg McMuffin hangover cure from McDonald's, or perhaps a very rare moment of utter stress-peration (stressed-out desperation) that drives me to Jack in the Box for two tacos for ninety-nine cents, I don't pay much attention to fast food chains.

Yikes! Take a look at Wendy's Baconator - the name alone "Bacon Terminator?" - is meant to strike fear into the hearts of every cardiologist, and from the picture, why wouldn't it? It has two burgers, two slices of cheese, and six, yes six, slices of bacon.

The scariest part of the Baconator, however, is not the burger itself. It's the commercial. It's just so wrong.

Yet, it's so right.

France is jumping onto the ad-restriction bandwagon, joining the US and the UK before them in making an attempt at using warnings to curb the climbing obesity rate in the country. Currently, about 30% of the French population is overweight and 10% is obese. The increasing size of the population is being blamed on processed foods and fast food, both of which encourage unhealth, on-the-go eating and are popular with the "youth" of the country. In an attempt to curb the climbing obesity rate in the country, France is jumping onto the ad-restriction bandwagon. Following in the footsteps of the US and the UK, France will be restricting what its viewers can and cannot see in food ads. All food ads are now required "carry cautions to stop snacking, keep active and eat fruits and vegetables." Specifically, the warning will have to include one of the following statements:

• "For your health, eat at least five fruits and vegetables a day."
• "For your health, undertake regular physical activity."
• "For your health, avoid eating too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt."
• "For your health, avoid snacking between meals."

The policy applies to "advertisements on television, radio and billboards and the Internet for processed, sweetened or salted food and drinks." Any advertiser who does not include the health-messages with their ads will be fined a percentage of the cost of the ad.

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Restaurateurs have a love-hate relationship with food critics. They love them when they get a good review and hate them when they don't. A lot of seething goes on in the kitchen when the review is bad, but that is usually as far as it gets. Once in a while, however, a restaurant owner will be pushed over the edge, as Jeffrey Chodorow was when he read Frank Bruni's review of his Kobe Club. Chodorow took out a full-page ad (rumored to have cost around $40,000) in this week's NY Times Dining section blasting Bruni ("in crazy-person tiny type") and accusing him of being biased, unqualified and, essentially, of having a personal vendetta against him and/or his restaurants.

The letter was addressed to Pete Wells, who recently came to the NY Times as the editor of the Dining section, possibly in the hopes that Wells would take some sort of action against Bruni. Wells has since said that the Times will take no action and Bruni himself spoke to the NY Post, saying that he has no vendetta against Chodorow. Nor does New York magazine's Adam Platt or The NY Post's Steve Cuozzo - both of whom gave the restaurant less-than-flattering reviews at the same time as Bruni.

[thanks, alanna!]

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We are not big fans of Burger King's creepy ad mascot, The King, and we know that we're not the only ones who feel a little uneasy when his commercials come on. Burger King, and the various advertising firms that represent them, likes to take their promotions into that extreme zone, though, so perhaps we should just be glad that their advertising isn't worse than it already is.

For example, take a look at this Burger King Germany wrapper, which contains instructions for building a throne to your Whopper out of ketchup packets and french fries. According to the person who photographed the wrapper and submitted it to Instructables, the directions say that the throne is for resting your burger and worshiping it.

Let's be glad that they haven't incorporated this idea into their King-centric US advertising yet. Can you imagine how strange the commercials would get?

[via tfs]

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