Five bucks says that you, dear reader, will be preparing a box of Annie's macaroni and cheese for your little darlings' lunch or dinner at some point within the next week. And while you may feel some tiny pang of guilt that it's from a box, you probably feel better that it isn't Kraft. Because Annie's is natural, right? It's natural and therefore it is better for your child. Even the most foodie of my friends have a box of Annie's in the pantry for "just in case", because it's better than the alternative quickie dinner, isn't it?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but someone has to be: You are wrong. I'm wrong. We are all wrong. Salon's exposé of the un-goodness of Annie's Macaroni and Cheese proves that it's no better than its mainstream competitors.
Furthermore, Annie's Homegrown, as a company, is not above the same marketing tactics that the big boys use to lure your child into believing that they not only need Annie's pasta, they also need Annie's crackers, Annie's grahams, and Annie's canned pasta meals (which taste like ASS, so you won't get lured by them twice, believe me). They've got their little bunny character, they've got their marketing tie-in with the cast of PBS' Arthur, they've got their whole ecologically friendly schtick that parents like us just buy right into, as though the cheerful reminder on the box to "please recycle me!" makes it somehow better than boxes that don't treat us like morons.
As Anastacia Marx de Salcedo points out, we're suckers. It really is just as easy to whip up a homemade mac and cheese that's better than anything that comes in a box, whether it be a blue box or a purple one. How the hell have we forgotten this? How did a generation of smart, label-reading, skeptical consumers get suckered into being the type of parents who cry tears of joy when they discover that Annie's Shells & Cheese can be purchased by the case at Costco? And when the obvious is pointed out to us, or at least to me...why do I feel so cheated?
