Like hosers Bob & Doug McKenzie, we're stuck for a topic today. Here's an idea: there's always that old reliable, 20th century print advertisements, especially disgusting food ads that invariably provoke "WTF?" and "what were they thinking?" reactions. Please pardon me whilst I periodically check my blood glucose level. . .
Frankly, the words "white," "mystery" and "fruitcake" constitute a trifecta one never wants to see in the same sentence and especially in the same recipe. Was Betty Crocker drunk off her prim derriere from way too many generous swigs of cooking sherry while devising this "surprising new way to make fruitcake" recipe? You be the judge!
Back in the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, there was a most pronounced tendency in advertisements to use shame as a motivator, make American women feel horrible about themselves and, thus, sell products. Still happens in 2018, but more subtly and not as often.
Shaming housewives in particular was big time currency. In the following ad for Knox Gelatin, after a pal corrects wifie's embarrassing awfulness in the kitchen by instructing her how to make a "he-man salad', hubby says "Good girl, Mary" most patronizingly. In 1948 or 2018, this guy's an ungrateful chump richly deserving a LaWanda "Aunt Esther" Page as his spouse "Shut up! You're eatin' my salad and likin' it - SUCKA!"
There was, for some reason, an advertising push to combine savory salads and Jell-o. Do we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog have difficulty believing that there was a time for Jell-o salads? Yes.
God only knows if there was ever a time for Jell-o salads, even given the utterly inexplicable post-WW2 tastes in food products.
The only thing that could make these gelatin salads more devastatingly unappetizing would be a generous spritzing of Cheez Whiz.
In the "are you ABSOLUTELY SURE you want to eat this?" department, there's always SPAM. At the very least, one must be wary upon hearing the phrase "miracle meat."
While Sweden has produced its fair share of depressing motion pictures, we find it rather uplifting that the Scandinavian wonderland also offers the Disgusting Food Museum. The fellows who founded it, Samuel West and Andrea Ahrens, clearly have a superb sense of humor.
Not sure if the late, great Anthony Bourdain ever got to the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, Sweden. In the museum's logo, perhaps it's just as well that they opted not to have something green and hideous spewing out of the mouth of the head on the left.
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