SALON

Friday, Jan 8, 2010 6:01 PM UTC

KFC’s (maybe) racist ad, Michael Pollan and more

This week's must-see food videos

By

Topics: Food Tube, Food,

  • Is this Australian KFC ad racist? That’s what blogs were claiming this week, about this spot showing a white man befriending black sports fans by offering them fried chicken. Given that the food doesn’t have the same loaded context in Australia as it does in the United States — the company responded that it was a “light-hearted reference to the West Indian cricket team” — this seems less like racism, and more like a cultural dissonance. (via Slashfood)

  • There were many awkward things about this week’s People’s Choice Awards — the painful writing, Mariah Carey’s possibly drunk acceptance speech, the always-clear fact that only award winners show up for the event — but the clincher was this over-the-top product placement for Di Giorno’s pizzas, in which waiters waded out into the aisles to serve the baffled attendees. Check out one audience member’s annoyed expression at 00:13. (Via NYMag)

  • The charming, and always well-spoken, Michael Pollan appeared on “The Daily Show” this Monday to promote his new book, “Food Rules,” and talk about the high cost of cheap food, what’s wrong with milk-coloring cereal, and why the health insurance industry isn’t interested in people’s health.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Michael Pollan
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes 		Political Humor Health Care Crisis
  • Dominos has taken a bold approach to its new advertising campaign: highlighting how much people hated its food. Call it the Obama approach to selling pizza: showing that Dominos is plugged into new media, like Twitter, while being receptive and upfront about its criticism. And you know what? It kind of works.

  • If you’re still recovering from your New Year’s Eve drinking experience (Has it already been a week?), you may not want to watch this stomach-churning clip of a man downing two sodas and a bottle of hard liquor all while fitting them into his mouth all at the same time. Disturbing subtext aside (Why would anybody, except an alcoholic, want to submit their body to such torture?) it’s a pretty astonishing thing to watch (via Buzzfeed).

 

Thomas Rogers

Thomas Rogers is Salon's former Arts Editor. He has written for the Globe & Mail, the Village Voice and other publications. He can be reached at @thomasmaxrogers. More Thomas Rogers.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 10 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations