Posts dated: July2007

I’ve just been asked if I’ve seen King Corn. Indeed I have and highly recommend it. It’s great fun. Two guys buy an acre of land, plant corn on it (a scene well worth the price of admission), watch it grow, harvest it, and film the process. I adored the scene that shows how they make their very own high fructose corn syrup, the planting scene of course, and the very last one (which I won’t spoil). You can read about it on the King Corn website. It’s going into distribution. Has anyone else seen it? What did you think?

I am at the Festival of Ideas in Adelaide this week and checked out the local supermarket. Shrek was everywhere. I counted at least ten special displays of Shrek-illustrated foods positioned at the ends of 5 aisles, along one entire wall (with a blow up Shrek doll), and in stand-alone areas. Shrek III has arrived in Australia but does Australia really need a store full of Shrek-green Froot Loops (devoid of fruit, of course), Shrek cheese-flavoured snacks, Shrek-illustrated chocolate flavoured biscuits, and Shrek candies? And a local McDonald’s also has a Shrek tie-in. This is about one thing and one thing only: marketing junk food to kids. Not a good idea.