I saw some commercial the other night, I think for Red Lobster? Or Sizzler? One of those places. The opening of the ad has this family at the grocery store checkstand, buying ingredients to make dinner. Meat, shrimp, cooking oil (!), herbs, and so on. They look on in HORROR as the total comes to over $60!! Gosh! Fresh food you prepare yourself is so EXPENSIVE! And just think how we will completely use up every single one of the things in our cart just for this one dinner!
Cut to the family at home attempting to cook. The steaks are of course horribly charred on some kind of Foreman grill. Because you know, that’s so easy to fuck up. The pot of pasta is boiling over ridiculously. The shrimp is also burning up in some skillet. It’s just a disaster! Cooking is so HARD! What a waste of time! The wife literally looks like she’s about to have a nervous breakdown.
Aaaaaand cut to the happy, happy family escaping the trauma and hell of a home-cooked meal together by heading over to Sizzler and for only $12 each (plus drinks, appetizers, dessert, tax, and tip, bitches!), they can get a huge platter overloaded with steak cooked in butter, prawns cooked in butter, and overcooked cheese-covered vegetables cooked in … butter! What a great value! Let’s do this every single night from now on honey! Imagine the money we’ll save!
Lesson learned: Cooking is expensive, difficult, and far too much work for the average American. On the other hand, eating at a chain restaurant is easy, frugal, and delish!
It kind of made me want to throw something at the TV. And then destroy America. But it also made me that much more glad I have Tivo and don’t have to watch commercials anymore.
We don’t have sizzler here, so I haven’t seen that one. Mitch and I love to yell (and throw slippers) at the Applebee’s one that advertises the CURB-SIDE PICK-UP of your call-in order. Not only are people to lazy to cook, but apparently also too tired to GET OUT of their car to go and pick up their fast food. Guh.
I seriously get all those restaurants mixed up in my head since I never go to them, but I think there is an Applebees one here advertising a great big steak covered with shrimp (soaked in butter), and then covered with cheese. Enjoy your heart attack! It’s appalling.
Oh that reminds me of another one I love: Outback is now advertising their special new “call ahead” service. Apparently, they have devised some kind of system wherein you call the restaurant on the telephone and ask them to “reserve” a table for you to use when you show up at a later time to eat! It is truly a novel concept, and whoever thought of it should be awarded some kind of prize.
Actually, it’s not like that. From what I can see when I drive by Outbacks on Friday or Saturday nights, there are usually tons and tons of people waiting for a table. Once we went there and the wait was something like 3 hours.
So what you can do now is call and just get your name on the list. So, you just sign up to wait, but you just won’t wait as long as those other morons who didn’t call ahead. That way you can get more dirty looks when you get a head start on eating your deep-fried onion.
I know some upscale restaurants who do this, too. It’s one step down from taking reservations. Chain restaurants can’t really take reservations.
I saw that ad too. Really made me mad that people are now making a home cooked meal out to be a nuisance than something to be cherished.
Think of it this way: people who buy into that “logic” get exactly what they deserve. Meanwhile those of us who cook and enjoy food will end up ruling the universe.