Is Indiana Jones making you, or your kids, fat?
Rahul Parikhn, an angry pediatrician who wrote an open letter to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg about their films' cross promotion with junk food, thinks so.
You tied "Star Wars" to Pepsi and Frito-Lay, plastering Yoda and Obi-Wan over 2-liter bottles and Doritos bags. Recently I was watching CNBC and saw the chief marketing officer of Burger King unveil the Indy Whopper, a mammoth, juicy burger with pepper jack cheese and jalapeño sauce (to give it "adventure," the CMO pointed out), a tie-in to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." I see you also got Mars to manufacture a Snicker's Adventure Bar with coconut and chai that has Dr. Jones' face on the wrapper.
Besides the fact that none of these foods is healthy, one has to ask if they're what your characters would eat. Would Lord Vader chug down a Pepsi before he wielded his light saber? (If he did, would he drink it with a straw or take off his entire mask?) Wouldn't Indy, now a senior citizen, have more than just a little bump in his cholesterol if he had scarfed down his namesake burger with fries and a soda? How could he be fit enough to chase down ancient relics while dodging boulders and outwitting Nazis?
We certainly agree with Parikhn. When we were kids, we were part of the Pizza Hut readers' club. For every ten or so books we read, we'd get a free personal-pan Pizza and soda (or "pop," as it were). For as long as we can remember, we've been rewarded with fatty fast foods, McDonald's gift certificates, etc. And we're sure that, combined with the Little Debbies and the white-bread sandiwches our mom put in our lunch on a daily basis, contributed to our slow metabolism as adults. But we think he's barking up the wrong "you" tree.
Sure, directing the letter to Lucas and Spielberg is the best way to get some attention, but we imagine those two have absolutely nothing to do with the actual marketing of the movie, save their own appearances and interviews. Parikhn should be going after the studios and the marketing departments. Oh, and parents. Because, yeah, if you're a parent who allows your kid to eat junk food on a daily basis and have soda with dinner every night, then it's highly possible that Indiana Jones and other cross promotions are making your kids fat.
And we kind-of want a double-bacon swiss burger. Except not that one.
[Salon: Indiana Jones and the kingdom of fat kids]