10.12.2006

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

Looks innocent, right?


Just a can of regular Kraft Parmesan Cheese. Perfect for a dinner of ravioli, salad, and garlic bread, which is what I prepared on Tuesday night.

As I enjoyed my dinner, I noticed some writing on the back of the can.

"Try Some Italian!" it declared.

It listed several phrases and their Italian translations with pronunciations such as "Hello" (Ciao!) and "Enjoy your meal" (Buon Appetito!).

Then I noticed something a bit odd.


"Thank you very much, Mom!" (Mille grazie, Mamma!)

Thank you very much, Mom???

What exactly is the implication here? That if children are eating food that requires Kraft Parmesan Cheese, it should be assumed that their mothers are the ones who prepared it? That it is the woman's responsibility to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen?

Hmmph...

And it isn't even only the feminist part of me that gets a little pissed off about this. Men should be upset, too. What kind of credit are they giving the fathers who share responsibilities with their wives? Or the single fathers who fix dinner for their children on a daily basis?

Anyway, I didn't worry about the whole issue too much. It didn't keep me from eating my dinner and I didn't throw away the can in protest. But, I figured, what the hell - it was at least worth a mediocre blog entry!

9 comments:

V said...

God, and blog entries, are in the details. :)

Maven said...

Well the insulting thing here is thinking that anything marked "Kraft" actually IS Italian. It should be listed like on Velveeta, where Velveeta isn't "Cheese" per se, but listed as a "cheese food product." I think the same applies for that dessicated, flavorless powder Kraft calls Parm.

Amusing thing here though is, when I was little, I remember watching on a small black and white t.v. with rabbit ear antenae, one of those old Francesco Rinaldi or was it Ragu, commercials where the catch phrase was, "That's Italian!" ANd I got into a heap of trouble, because I amused myself by saying, out loud, at my Italian grandfather's house, "Fat's Italian."

C... said...

creative opportunity in everything

LBseahag said...

this fires me up....kudos to you for bringing this to the public's attention....

grrrrr!!!

Chris Cope said...

Because moms are the only ones with an excuse as to be so lazy as to use Kraft instead of proper parmesan.

Dead man walking said...

Oh, that is IT. First with the "Pay your child support, bum!" notice on my American Singles. Then the "Your kids will resent you, you bastard male!" quote I read on the BBQ sauce bottle. Kraft must be working with Oprah or something...

This means war, Kraft.

MIA said...

Funny, good catch. Being 1/2 italian or something like that Kraft is about italian as McDonalds is irish- have a Mcmagical day. Anyway, italians use many sayings with Mama, hence mama mia ( mia meaning mine). So the marketing goofs probably thought they were going back to Italian roots. Next time I'd go for the fresh reggiano parmesean. It will add so much more to your dining experience and not fund Kraftarinos bank account.

Caroline Bender said...

How about the fact that you wouldn't know what MOM is in Italian?

Maven said...

"Kraft parmesan... they're people!!"