Last time I was in New York, we stumbled onto The Pump. We were hungry, we were in a hurry, and we’re the kind of assholes who’d rather starve than eat non-organic bison. Luckily The Pump took care of all of that with a killer menu of organic, healthy, chic “fast food.”

I’m hyped to see that their marketing is as savvy and aware as their menu. Their new witty, satirical, retro-tinged online promo vid subtly taps into part of a larger conversation that been evolving the last few years; of what exactly we’re eating, where it’s coming from, and what it’d doing to us. I’d never really looked at the side of a cereal box until I started reading the frighteningly enlightening work of Michael Pollan. His best-sellers “In Defense Of  Food” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (both highly recommended, by the way) are at the forefront of a social rediscovery of “food.”

Created by Dark Igloo,  “Do You Eat Crap?” speaks to the new food movement with a series of snappy, detailed parodies of a whole series of food ads from the last few decades. The cheese spot above is my fave – it’s a perfect throwback to those ’80s, Doyle Dayne Bernbach-esque copy-heavy prints ads, right down to the font. Oh, what I would give to have been a copywriter during the glory days of long copy. A boy can dream…

To me the best part of the spot is that it’s informed by the growing hyper-awareness of food culture but it’s not sanctimonious in its stance. In fact, the video is totally hilarious, but the more interesting bit to me is that I don’t think the real meaning layered behind the humour would have been possible even five years ago. People just weren’t aware enough. While I think it would be still be funny no matter, what really makes it so killer is that it’s a total insider wink to its target: people who are willing to spend $15 on an organic, free-range lunch  and who want to feel like they’re in on the joke everyone eating at Burger King isn’t. And those people, myself among them, like to be winked at.

Via Kitsune Noir

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