Gastronomad

Now, I get the whole “I’m busy” argument for not cooking.  I run a business, volunteer quite a bit, and am involved in a lot of things outside of word, so sometimes, at the end of the day, I realize that it’s easier to order pizza than make a meal.

The thing I don’t understand is the glut of products on the market that apparently are aimed at people who don’t own knives.  

Case in point: McCain’s Purely Potatoes. They’re peeled, cut and frozen potatoes made for sticking in the microwave and mashing. Frozen vegetables are nothing new, and I’m sure they’re better than other “instant” mashed potatoes, but here’s what bothers me - the TV commercial starts out with the line “Who has time to make mashed potatoes?”

Let me be clear on this.  Everyone.  Everyone has time to make mashed potatoes.  It takes about 30 seconds to wash and cut a potato… and everything that comes after takes exactly the same amount of effort as the frozen variety.  Add to this that these things cost about twice as much as just buying a raw potato, and it highlights exactly what’s wrong with food marketing today.

Companies launch focus groups, customers say they’re busy, so companies echo back that their customer is busy, and pretty soon, you’ve got a wall of marketing messages INSISTING that you’re TOO BUSY TO COOK.  Fortunately, food marketers are there with simple solutions like pre-cut potatoes, or pre-diced onions.  Now all they need to do is keep convincing us of how busy we are, so they can continue to make our lives easier.