Shame on you, Jack LaLanne
Time for a wee bit of righteous indignation.
I’m sitting in bed, offgassing after my workout, reading twitter, listening to a podcast and the TV is on in the background, all in an effort to distract me from just how much I hate working out. I flip to an infomercial, figuring they’d it would be some content-free eye candy. I stopped on Jack Lalanne’s Power Juicer, facinated by the bright colors in the glass.
And then my head exploded a little. I’m sorry for the crappy video quality, but oddly enough, this infomercial isn’t easily accessable on the web. I think they want to avoid precisely what I’m about to do. Skip to 7:30 or so in the video, and check that out. I’ll wait.
Didja see that? With the kids?
Ok. So. First of all, what exactly is a “child educator”? She’s not a teacher. Teachers are practically sacred. If she was a teacher, she would have said so.
With the understanding that it’s probably not a real classroom and this woman is at best some sort or bizarre consultant that targets elementary schools, how dare you sit there with some perfectly good fruit (and some leggy-ass carrots) and suggest that eating your fruits and vegetables isn’t awesome until they’re processed? Sure, veggie juice is quite tasty, and fresh-squeezed anything is probably better for you than a big glass of SunnyD. Granted. I’ll even grant that little kids are getting hard sells on weird processed food every minute of their young lives. It’s not a surprise and it’s not all that weird.
What’s weird is that this clip is entirely shameless about showing a woman going into something that looks like a classroom and marketing a small kitchen appliance to 5 year old children.
Fuck you, Jack Lalanne, for bragging about marketing your veggie fucker-upper to little kids, suggesting that this sort of thing SHOULD TAKE PLACE DIRECTLY IN A CLASSROOM and then calling it a ringing endorsement. If it’s not your fault, it’s the marketing department’s fault, fuck you, Jack Lalanne, for not having tighter control over your own brand and endorsements. It’s disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourselves.
