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Deconstructing Dinner

Tainting the Purest Taste Buds

Podcast: 'Deconstructing Dinner' weighs in on the Whopper Virgins controversy.

Jon Steinman 24 Dec 2008TheTyee.ca

Jon Steinman is producer and host of Kootenay Co-op Radio's program Deconstructing Dinner. A new podcast with notes is posted here every Friday afternoon. All Deconstructing Dinner podcasts can be found here.
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[Editor's note: This is a summary of a podcast you can download or listen to from this page.]

Controversy has been stirring in newspapers and on Internet blogs about Whopper Virgins, a recent marketing gimmick launched by global fast-food giant Burger King (BK).

Crispin-Porter and Bogusky is the PR firm behind the seven-minute film, which shows BK's flagship Whopper hamburger being taste-tested in some of the most remote places in the world. The Inuit of Greenland, Transylvanian farmers of Romania and the Hmong of Thailand are the subjects, and their reactions to the homogenous staple of American fast food have garnered mixed reactions in North America about the ethics of such a feeding experiment for commercial and entertainment values.

Deconstructing Dinner adds its comments to the debate and presents a reworked version of their film. We hope that our version tells a more revealing and accurate depiction of why Whopper Virgins has generated so much controversy.

While fast-food corporations continue to export American cuisine and customs, more Westerners are embracing old-world traditions. Also in this episode, we meet the producers of a feature-length documentary film about the growing backyard chicken movement. Since its release in late 2008, Mad City Chickens has screened at a number of North American film festivals and will be available on DVD in early 2009.

Guests

Tashai Lovington & Robert Lugai, producers, Mad City Chickens (Madison, WI) --Tashai & Robert collaborated to form Tarazod Films. Tashai is a program producer and NLE editor for a Madison area television station. Robert is the education director and program coordinator for a Madison area television station.

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