Celebrity chef Rachael Ray can just plug her ears with a stack of katrillion dollar bills if she wants to tune out the latest criticisms of Anthony Bourdain. The abrasive chef, who has made a mini-career of belittling her, makes sense to me. So I’ll do what I can to amplify this round of nitpicking at the 30-Minute Meals empress.
Bourdain’s all over her for signing up to endorse Dunkin’ Donuts. He says Ray is influential, especially with children, and that shilling donuts is akin to endorsing crack for kids.
“Juvenile diabetes has exploded. Half of Americans don't have necks. And she's up there saying, 'Eat some [bleeping] Dunkin' Donuts. You look great in that swimsuit - eat another doughnut!' That's evil," he says in an interview with Outside magazine this month.
I don't know about "evil," but the endorsement does strike me as incredibly ignorant. She has every right to make tons of money by any legal means possible. But you’d think some kind of inner decency would tap her on the shoulder and say, “doughnuts? Really?”
Sure, fat kids aren’t her responsibility. We all know it’s up to parents to ensure their children learn about good nutrition and make healthful food choices. And no, one doughnut isn't going to make the little ones bust out of their Gap slims. But endorsements for shit food like this by a person Mommy actually likes confuses the message at home, which is precisely the point. What I feel always gets lost in these discussions about advertising to children is that the decision to have Ray smile and sell high-calorie, nutritionally empty, low-priced pastries was a calculated one. Tests were done. Smart people were hired. Every bit of her endorsement has been orchestrated to sell donuts! (And no, I don't think corporations are evil. I think legislators who are in corporations' pockets and refuse to pass laws banning direct advertising to children, however, are.)
There’s a reason Dunkin' Donuts went with Ray and not obese, inaccessible, full of himself Mario Batali (who also readily pimps himself out for endorsements). Meaning, Rachel’s sweet face, cute figure, aw shucks tone and work on behalf of good nutrition for kids will be just what it takes to get children or even adults to put aside what they know about good food choices -- just this once ... oh, and now ... one more time, that's it! -- and load up with Bavarian creams and a tote box full of Little Munchkins. How bad could it be? Yumm-o!
