Unfortunately, I missed class the day that Casey and Joe gave
their presentation/information about video games in regards to the role
food plays in them. I heard that they did a fantastic job and that it
was very interesting though.
I looked at
Casey's blog and found links to two GTA (Grand Theft Auto) commercials. I
am not a big gamer so, while I was somewhat aware that GTA tries to
seem "realistic," I did not realize that it was to the point where they
made commercials for the food in the game.
The first of these commercials was called GTA IV Burger Shot Commercial. "Die with a smile on your face" is a direct quote from this video and pretty much sums up the message of this commercial. Americans seem to thrive on fast food, not necessarily because that would be the first choice most of
us would make, but because we are such a fast paced society. A lot of
the time people do not have the time, or money, to buy a bunch of
ingredients and make a home cooked (healthier) meal.
These "faster" meals, though, have less than appealing ingredients (once you find out what they are) that just happen to taste good to a lot of people. So "die with a smile on your face" really speaks to how these "tasty" ingredients can have a really negative affect on people's healths.
The second commercial was GTA SA: Cluckin' Bell Commercial.
This commercial is a little more disturbing and reminds me of a scene
from Food Inc. when the chicken farmer was describing how they would
crack the chickens' breast bones in order to allow the chicken's breast
to grow larger. It always comes back to meat companies wanting to make a
larger profit. In this case, I think I remember learning that the
companies did this in order to feed our growing population (aka make
more for more people to buy). "If you enjoy it, the chicken didn't die
in vain."
It's interesting that they're publicizing some of the problems with our food industry
in a way like this. A lot of the population enjoys playing video games,
so I think this is a very clever way to make people more aware.
I'm glad you took the time to look at these and provide your input. I never really put it together that maybe the Burger Shot parody isn't criticizing the quality of the food, but maybe the idea that everyone is too busy to actually make a healthy meal...
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