Baskin Robbins commercial rant

So am I the only one who has seen the new baskin robbins commercial? In the commercial, there is an overweight mom and a small kid sitting at the table, and the healthy dad is doing dishes and comes over and says to the kid "if you don't eat all your peas, we're not going to baskin robbins for ice cream tonight" and then he walks away and the overweight mom gets this crazy look on her face and starts shoveling the kids peas down her throat. I don't know why, but I just find the commercial to be so disturbing.   To be projecting the image of the out of control, overweight mom as being a positive, funny role for america...perhaps I'm reading into it too much. Additionally, what is up with parents using sweets to persuade their children to eat their vegetables??  Parents in my family do the same thing, but I wonder if they realize their kids would be better off if they DIDN'T eat all their peas and also DIDN'T eat ice cream, rather than to reward their healthy decisions with unhealthy ones.   What do you think?  Honestly...I don't eat at Baskin Robbins (I don't know if there are any stores around here, I'm in ben and jerry's country myself), but if I did, I'd probably stop because of those commercials. 

That is icky :(  I haven't seen that yet.

I feel the same way with "using sweets to persuade their children to eat their vegetables??" But I find myself (in my work as a child care provider)  trying to encourage the kids to EAT the vegies & such, and not often- but once in awhile I will say something like: You have to eat "this" before you get "that". I rarely have sweet treats but maybe once every few weeks. What I HAVE started doing is feeding them their meat/protein, vegies & milk and as they get some of THAT eaten- I serve the fruit. Otherwise- I have 8 kids mowing down the SWEET stuff and no room for the rest :) It IS fruit, but they will *only* eat that, if I give them that option. :) I'll have to say though, that I have been guilty of that myself with my own kids. Mostly because they won't eat vegies unless I "dangle a carrot" (dohnut)  I am not a good "baker" so generally it's ice-cream or something like that- stuff that is NOT good for them.  They get bummed because we don't have a lot of treats but I know what will happen- we will ALL eat to much of it :( I think a LOT of us need to work on that... it's been so inner bred in  most of us...

I haven't seen the ad either... and I hope not to! I solved the veggie problem with my son when he was very young.  Since he was about 3 he would come to the table asking if dinner was ready yet... I would just nuke his veggies and give them to him before dinner.  Of course he was hungry so he ate them!  To this day he eats his veggies first (still before dinner sometimes)  as for the dessert issue - I have never insisted that he clean his plate to get dessert.  He always eats veg first so that isnt an issue... but he wil often leave meat and or starch on his plate saying he wants to 'save room' for ice cream or whatever...  I think that is much more reasonable than the way I was raised...

I have seen the commercial, I see it everyday...but I didn't take it like you did. But now that you pointed it out WOW.  Because the first time I seen it, I was laughing my butt off.  Because to be honest if I loved Baskin Robins that much (I have never had Baskin's before) I would shove the pes down my throat! I just found it funny watching it. But you do have a point, and i totally agree with you.

Now I got a totally different message out of that commercial.  I didn't even look at the Mom as overweight at all.  I honestly just looked at them like a typical American family.  I found it hilarious when the Mom ate the peas. Now didn't you yourself do what you accused the commercial of doing by classifying the husband at the sink doing the dishes as the "healthy husband?"  Do you assume because he is skinny he is healthy?  See my point. There is another commercial from Baskin Robbins where a little chinese girl comes into the room and in a sad voice tells her grandfather that her Mommy said that if she didn't get an A on her test that there would be no Baskin Robbins.  The grandfather took a pen and changed the F to an A.   I think that was hilarious as well, but if we get sensitive about it we can construe it as child abuse and say that the grandfather was robbing his granddaughter of a good education. I don't know, perhaps we are a little too sensitive in this society.  I found it great that they put someone on television other than the blonde blue eyed size 2 wielding the mop!!!   I also don't think that the intention had anything to do with eating vegetables to get sweets. To me it is merely a commercial that shows the lengths people go to to be able to eat Baskin Robbins.   Hmmmmmmmmm, a Ben and Jerry's fan?? Surely you take issue with Chunky Monkey??? See my point?  Sometimes we have to realize that we are fat people, period. There are a thousand stereotypes in this world, we are just one of them.

I hadn't seen the one with the kid who lies about a grade to get ice cream, but yes--i also disagree with that. You're right--I did call him the "healthy husband" when I should have said "healthy-weight husband." I don't really feel that I'm being overly sensitive. I feel just as sensitive when I hear about popular movie stars being suspected of anorexia, and then when they put on some weight, hear that these same stars are looking pudgy, or must be pregnant...I feel like the messages sent to children and families are being overly skewed. I just wish that the "obesity epidemic" of the united states was being dealt with a little more seriously than it is currently. I felt like there was just as much wrong with the overweight mom shoveling peas down her throat as I would have felt if they had based the commercial around skinny people. The message still remains that it's okay to reward healthy decisions with unhealthy ones. Also, I don't eat ben and jerry's. I was only saying that I don't know of a baskin robbins around here...because ben and jerry's predominates. I thought the chunky monkey was referring to the chunks of banana in the ice cream, though.

You know, it's funny.  When I ended my response to you I said something about "us fat people."  I see by your ticker that you have also been successful in losing a tremendous amount of weight. Will we ever be "normal" and go on with life not wondering about all these things?  Will we ever stop calling ourselves "fat" or being hyper sensitive to the plight of the obese everywhere?  (Collective we, not necessarily me and you.)  I sometimes wonder if we are ever free of the constant scrutiny not only of others, but ourselves as well. I mentioned the stereotypes in the last post.  Black people as drug dealers, Italians as mobsters, Jewish people as penny pinchers, Polish people as stupid, fat girls as the "best friend", skinny girl as the "anorexic or bulimic one", the guy with the high pitched voice the "gay one"....you get the point.  Wouldn't it be nice if all of those things didn't exist? 

Ben & Jerrys IS the shizzle in my book, best of all best, but 'round here, B/R is the queen. B/R commercial...funny, now that you mention it, I did notice that mom was chubby first and foremost. Because you never see a chubby mom, except for the Pine-Sol lady and Roseanne Barr.  So that pissed me off that htye were, indeed making fun of chubbers.  Yes, it was mildly funny, cuz I identified with it. I'da eaten those peas, too!!!  LOL Hell, I'll still eat it once a year or so.  Dangerous place, that B/R. GLAD there is no B/J for thousands of miles.  We can get the pints, but I don't very often.

Ben & Jerrys IS the shizzle in my book, best of all best, but 'round here, B/R is the queen. B/R commercial...funny, now that you mention it, I did notice that mom was chubby first and foremost. Because you never see a chubby mom, except for the Pine-Sol lady and Roseanne Barr.  So that pissed me off that htye were, indeed making fun of chubbers.  Yes, it was mildly funny, cuz I identified with it. I'da eaten those peas, too!!!  LOL Hell, I'll still eat it once a year or so.  Dangerous place, that B/R. GLAD there is no B/J for thousands of miles.  We can get the pints, but I don't very often.