Is using Cheech and Chong to promote brownies genius, folly or something else?
Posted at 5:00 AM on September 23, 2011
by Eric Ringham
(30 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Economy
General Mills has hired the stoner comedy duo Cheech and Chong to help promote a line of brownies. A video invites viewers to "get high ... on fiber." Today's Question: Is using Cheech and Chong to promote brownies genius, folly or something else?
Comments (30)
Another sell-out to corporate america.
Cannabis fiber should used :)
The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. - Carl Sagan
The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our nation's marijuana laws. - Barack Obama, January 21, 2004 debate
"We can each resolve, every last one of us, to do the maximum that we can, in each of our given circumstances and by making opportunities, and this then becomes our personal contribution towards ending the worldwide prohibition of cannabis." - Jayelle Farmer
“Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.” - Bob Marley.
"In fact, they usually use conspiracy theories to distract people from their power grabs. When tyrrany comes to America, it will be aided and abetted by folks who buy into and repeat alarmist, inflamatory rhetoric, like you've been doing."
Steve,
The conspiracy is happening. Right here, right now. I do agree with your point about attempting to scare the public silly, however people need to be aware that they are powerful and there is something they can do about 'the big take over'.
What needs to be done is to choke the invasive corporations out of the picture. Take away what it is that makes them 'so powerful'.
I also agree with you that people need to realize that they are self suffiicient as you demonstrate in your conversations. However there are people with responsiblilities like children. People with children are most likely the ones to fall prey into this serville propaganda as they are fed commercialism and they eat it right up.
Now take these brownies for instance. While they might be tastey, they are nothing but gooey muck that alone would sit as a glob in your digestive system. But since they added fiber it makes them good for you. In order to sell them General Mills is paralleling them to hash brownies of the 60's and 70's.
Nice strategy (funny video) but really do you think we are that stupid?
next.
Hey man... everyone relax man. Have some Ben & Jerry's...Schweddy Balls.
Kim: Anyone who can find a sinister connection between a General Mills commercial featuring Cheech and Chong and a plot to take over the world using the Federal Reserve is not to be taken seriously. The chief tactic being used to mislead the people is not "minimize and distraction"; it's manipulating people's anxiety through fear-mongering and conspiracy theories.
A war on our border is not "news"? Sheech.
Kim - Issa is a small time criminal turned wealthy politician. What part of that equation don't you understand.
CF and Steve the Cynic -
Light up? Here I go showing my age again.
(Sorry. Messed up with the html the first time. That probably shows my age more than anything.)
Kim - Issa is a small time criminal turned wealthy politician. What part of that equation don't you understand.
CF and Steve the Cynic -
Light up? Here I go showing my age again.
@ Steve the Cynic
Don't you mean "light up", as in another bowl full?
To add to readers awareness to support the below comments of media uses such small issues as General Mills marketing hypocrisy:
From the Heritage Foundation, the article says it best with, "Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Tuesday that his committee plans to investigate government loans to private companies made by the Obama Administration, according to The Hill. “I want to see when the president and his cronies are picking winners and losers,” Issa said. Now, Reuters reports that Solyndra’s chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to answer questions at the hearing on Friday.
A cross-border gun-running scandal, deaths in the United States and Mexico, staff removals and resignations, secret audio recordings, complaints from foreign officials, hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, bankruptcy, an FBI raid, campaign donors, and allegations of inappropriate White House influence in congressional testimony.
There are serious questions coming out of Washington. It’s time the media start demanding answers."
So, NO ONE thinks it is ODD that MPR has a question today of such minimal concern right after _ the Florida GOP debate? How odd is that?
The media does not want us to discuss the GOP candidates unless it is after some guffaw. WHERE is the media coverage on Solyndra or the Lightsquare fiasco and wasted 535 million tax dollars or the fact that Congress discovers the Energy Dept counted consumers/users of new light bulbs as Green Jobs created? Or_ that Operation Gun Runner had been known to Attny general Holder the year before but he spoke at Congress saying he hadn't known until a few weeks later after the death of the agent?
If NPR and MPR wish to continue gov. funding, they better change their ways and report the news vs. manipulating by careful damage control of what their private funders so dictate..i.e., George Soros and members of the CFR are on public record as chief funders.
to Steve the Cynic's remarks:
Minimize and distraction is the rule of the liberal machine. Ever wonder why__ no media will discuss the Federal Reserve in detail? 90% I'd guess have no idea where the Fed originated from and who profits. Did Warren Buffet lose money in the past three years? Nope. Did the Fed reserve members lose any? Nope.
We need to stop focusing upon Obama as some dictator when it is obvious he is controlled by those who set him up to be Senator and then president. Soros and others in the Bilderberg group which includes the same that have ruled the Federal Reserve and control the 1947 begun Council on Foreign Relations; all which go back to the originators of the Federal Reserve that set up FDR to pass their bill for creation. Recall it was G. Bush who said at a podium, " we need to do this to ensure, there is a New World Order.." So it is not just the DFL but it is the old GOP. Bachmann and Ron Paul are the potential new candidates that could stand as JFK once was, as he tried to go against the Federal reserve power by printing money without the money going to the Fed reserve for them to make interest on it. Until these pressing issues are solved, it won't matter who is president and we will see the media distract from this with inane questions for discussion on General Mills marketing. At this rate, next month we will see a manufacturer marketing their Tylenol product with images of great moments in Pro abortion Planned Parenthood. But we sure won't see pictures of fetus remains from lazer destruction or knife ablated baby tissue on Band aid products. The media controls what America sees and discusses..no wonder there has been minimal coverage of Ron Paul? Media does not want his ideas shared too broadly as it affects their mission. Sad.
You too, Kim and CF, Lighten up! Sheesh. Some people don't even need an excuse to get worked up. I don't share your disappointment that MPR didn't serve up another dish of red meat for ideological hotheads to fight over today. In fact, this gives me an idea for reforming our government: lock all 535 members of Congress, senators and representatives, in a theater and make them watch three Cheech and Chong movies back to back. It's well known that people who laugh together have an easier time getting along and cooperating. Maybe we can end the gridlock that way.
They sure have got a lot of free press out of it. And as we all know, there is no good or bad publicity. The only problem you have is if no one talks about you in the first place. It is genius.
Lighten up, GregX. The question wasn't whether you approve of it, or whether it should be allowed, only whether it was a good idea. Simple amusement is underrated in today's anxiety-driven world, where everything is an emergency, and minor political disputes are considered worth shutting the government down over.
I wonder how soon it will be before the DEA Anti-Marijuana Gestapo storms the headquarters of General Mills like a bunch of brain-washed jack-booted thugs they are and arrest the CEO and confiscate the master print of the video.
I applaud General Mills as a corporate entity to make light of weed and hopefully this will dispel the myths & hysteria and it's attendant prohibition which ruins more lives than the so called "drug" itself. What I find ironic though is that it's highly probable that General Mills conducts pre-employment drug testing, as most major corporations do.
Cannabis is not a dangerous "drug", it's a weed. It can grow anywhere. You can't OD on it. And no, it doesn't make you go insane to commit acts of violence. How much crime, domestic violence and social damage does alcohol cause? Weed is not a concoction of chemicals like meth, what you see growing in your garden is what you get. A weed. That's it.
Legalize It - Grow It - Smoke It
This General Mills campaign is another example of how Values are being tweaked and manipulated , slowly but by select groups of power influence.
It is no different than the Federal Reserve controlling our economy and picking winners and losers for the very few in command.
For example:
ARTICLE 1, SECTION 8 OF THE CONSTITUTION STATES THAT CONGRESS SHALL HAVE THE POWER TO COIN (CREATE) MONEY AND REGULATE THE VALUE THEREOF.
IN 1935 THE SUPREME COURT RULED THAT CONGRESS CANNOT CONSTITUTIONALLY DELEGATE ITS POWER TO ANOTHER GROUP. (Reference 22, P. 168)
But FDR in fact made sure powers were delegated to the Federal Reserve, a select goup that orders money printed while citizens pay for it in interest.
"Allow me to control the issue and the nation's money and I care not who makes its laws!" The above quote has long been attributed to the 18th century banker Amshell Rothschild (his blood line controls the FED). For if one unscrupulous group is allowed to print a nation's money - it can eventually use that money to gain control of the press AND the politicians - and thus gain control of making the nation's laws - and finally - control of the nation itself. (Reference 4)
If you will take the time to read the reference material listed which has been researched by Professors of Universities, Congresspeople, etc, you will turn up information that might frighten you. For instance, in 1921 the stockholders of the Federal Reserve financed an organization called the "Council on Foreign Relations" (CFR). Harpers magazine called this the most powerful organization in the United States. Ninety percent of the people in the State Department and key positions in the Executive Branch are members of the CFR. The CFR publishes a magazine called "Foreign Affairs." Read it if you want to know what is going to happen in coming years. The CFR is in favor of a New World Order, just as former President Bush spoke, on tape, we all have seen it.
Q: Ever wonder why we are talking about Cheech and Chong vs the real world most important issues?
A: RICHARD M. COHAN, Senior Producer of CBS political news said: "We are going to impose OUR AGENDA on the coverage by dealing with issues and subjects that WE choose to deal with."
RICHARD SALANT, former President of CBS News stated: "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what WE decide they ought to have."
And what is "their" agenda? What do they believe we, the American people, - THE COMMON HERD, "...ought to have?" Here is the answer:
NORMAN THOMAS - For many years the U.S. Socialist Presidential candidate proclaimed: "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of "liberalism" they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing what happened."
HERMAN DISMORE, foreign editor of the New York Times from 1950 to 1960: "The New York Times is deliberately pitched to the liberal (socialist) point of view."
WALTER CRONKITE: "News reporters are certainly liberal (socialists) and left of center."
BARBARA WALTERS: "The news media in general are liberals (socialists)."
Most Americans have no idea on when, how and why the Federal Reserve was created AND THE SUBSEQUENT COUNCIL ON FOREIGN Relations (CFR), FOLLOWED BY THE U.N. Who donated the land for the UN building to be built?
If the UN is creditable then how the hell did Iran and Afghanistan stay as a member? Ask our soldiers what they think about this unholy alliance as they risk their lives for us....but instead, MPR thinks we are more concerned with a food item?? OMG, really? So we should discuss Cheech and Chong references instead, because NPR owners dictate what Americans should focus upon?? HAS ANYONE noticed the stock market crashing the past two days? Or the Federal Reserve manipulating us again getting the Treasury to print more money to fatten up their banks with zero interest loans that all_ of us are paying to create _ all to further their monopoly? This is NOT something most media wants Americans to be aware of. Sad but maybe we will get a real President soon, someone like JFK who went up against the federal reserve..but we know how that turned out in Texas that sunny motorcade day.
Maybe Ron Paul is correct, in that we need to abolish the Federal Reserve and diminish the ruling elite's designing and control of us and other countries.
Here comes the pitchfork GM : )
Ingredients: Wheat Flour Bleached, chicory Root extract (ooooo, start out sounding homeopathic and all natural)
Chocolate Flavored (must be where the magic comes in) Chips, (sugar, pam kernel oil, cocoa processed with alkali, soy lecithin, milk, salt, natural flavor-I wonder what natural flavor tastes like).
Vegetable Oil (canola, palm, pam kernel) Fructose,(whoops there it is) Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Sugarcane Fiber, Vegetable Glycerin, Wayer, Egg Whites, Cocoa, Leavening -give the 'high' feeling? (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate -yum)
More Natural Flavor, Corn starch, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Milk, Xanthan Gum, Locust Bean Gum.
Contains wheat, egg, soy, milk, may contain peanut and sesame ingredients.
I might just settle for some prunes.
I have heard that making hash brownies is not as complicated and much more fun to eat.
Genius! Having eaten Fiber One only this morning, it's great to see a generally boring cereal poke a little fun at itself. Plus the commercial itself is just plain hilarious.
The fact that the that question can be asked says volumes about what is wrong with America. What a load of hyper-control freaks we are. Its a commercial - if you can't deal with it - click away, click away .... you have that choice. Or ... follow the pavlovian response that is ingrained in your media-modified behavior : e-mail, facebook, tweet of it - plus or minus. Make yourself seem more connected and aware!
I actually shared the link by email w/ other "old fogeys". Then i posted to Twitter and facebook for my "younger" friends (if they quit gripping about the changes to facebook long enough to read their Stories). I watched it at least 10 times by myself or with friends after sharing brownies! Finally, corporate advertising I can stomach.
Next thing you know, Hellman's will want Cheech and Chong to do mayonnaise commercials.
"Who?"
"Dave man, open up!"
"Dave's not here!"
Good times.
"It's me, Dave... open up, man, I got the stuff!"
Now that is funny!
:-)
@Wade - They could always ask another death penalty question. That seems to bring out the best in people.
I think it's great that sometimes the station talks about stuff besides the tanking economy, continuous Middle Eastern instability, and starving amputee children being chased by enraged circus bears who, after years of abuse at the hands of their keepers, have stolen a 1976 Impala and gone on a 6-state spree stealing pic-a-nic baskets.
I don't really have an opinion on the use of stoners to get people to buy mediocre brownie mix.
I'm 47 and on the end of the baby boom.
It sucks having to relive all their glory days and to have to watch them age.
It's kinda like watching Jamie Leigh Curtis, whom every guy remembers that one scene in the Eddie Murphy movie and her dance in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, now has to tell us that yogurt makes her poop better.
I'm tired of baby boomers.
Did General Mills pay MPR to make this Today's Question?
Anyway, I had a good laugh this morning. I don't know if I'll buy those brownies, but kudos to General Mills for adding some joy to the world!
Genius. For the target market this hits the target right on.
There will, of course, be the people that want to get their torches and pitchforks.
MPR doesn't have anything else to concern themselves with?
Ok, I'll play. AWESOME COMMERCIAL. Of course I'm a Cheech and Chong fan. It's definitely targeted at the right generation. I say well done on the creativity.
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