Thursday, March 12, 2009

Let's HOPE they're delicious

A friend shared a link to this new story earlier today. For those who are too busy to click through, here's the gist: In an effort to cash in on a hot pop culture trend, a German frozen food manufacturer has released what they're calling "Obama Fingers", which are breaded chicken tenders. The company was apparently unaware of any implied racial overtones associated with the product.
Oh, those poor, poor Germans. They just can't seem to get a grasp on the whole cultural sensitivity thing. I really don't think they intended any insult. I thought Europeans desire to emulate American culture died when Madonna stopped getting her clothes from thrift stores, but that's all they say they were trying to do. Look at the package; you got some stars and stripage there, you've got what looks like the Golden Gate Bridge, which is one of our favorite golden bridges and you've got what looks like some spearmint leaf garnishes. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything but it's all very nice imagery!
You certainly can't blame them for wanting to capitalize on Obamamania (or is it Obamania?). Cripes, every yahoo and their brother has at least one trendy Shepard Fairey (legit or parody) poster or t-shirt or bumper sticker, rendered in the now-iconic cream, red and two shades of blue color scheme. At least they showed a little restraint by not jumping on that bandwagon.
At worst, this just seems kind of dumb. But that's about it, right?
"I never heard something so offensive about a president
of a country."

That's part of a comment on the link where I found it (Facebook). To which I can only reply: Seriously?!? Never? The only way that's possible is if you were born on January 20th. Because, while I'm certainly not defending George W. Bush, if a company had come out with something called Bush Fingers and featured a picture of him on the box eating actual human fingers, covered in blood, with horns coming out of his head and laughing maniacally inside of a burning orphanage, it would hardly rate among the most offensive depictions most of us have seen (or produced) of him. Hell, I can easily think of 50 more offensive insults to Barack Obama, and I voted for him! Some people need to unbunch their pantaloons, go outside once in a while and find out what getting hurt really feels like.

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