False Advertising

I love commercials. I have ever since I was a kid. I remember lying on the floor of our family room, laughing at one commercial or another while my family rolled their eyes at me behind my back. I still love commercials today and more often than not can be found watching infomercials as well. I am convinced that I NEED every single thing they are trying to peddle on tv.

During football season there was a soup commercial that sucked me in. Campbell's Chunky Steak & Potato soup. I think the commercial showed the mom of a huge football player feeling satisfied after eating his hearty Chunky soup. I am not a huge soup fan and rarely eat it at home, but I love steak and I love potatoes. I figured this must be the soup for me. I ran my little self to the store and bought two cans. Advertising influence at its best.

Today I finally decided to eat my soup, and I got a nasty little surprise. It contains mushrooms. To the average person this would be no big deal, but to me, it's a travesty. I can't stand mushrooms. Granted, I am probably a pickier eater than most, but of all the foods in the entire world, mushrooms have got to be my least favorite. I can't even stand the smell; it makes me nauseous. Eric kindly cooks his mushrooms outside on the bbq so I don't have to be offended by the smell. The only time I can tolerate a mushroom is when it is in a recipe calling for Cream of Mushroom Soup, and even then I have to pretend like I don't see the little gray specks.

So imagine my disgust when I started stirring my soup, only to discover wretched little gray things floating amongst the potatoes and steak. I grabbed the can to see if I had misunderstood the premise of this soup. Nope. Nowhere on the front does it list a mushroom. I flipped the can to the back, and listed in the ingredients is mushrooms. Ack.

I'm eating the soup. Now I'm just having to be very careful to not mistake a yummy piece of steak for a nasty mushroom, and that irritates me. Had I realized there were mushrooms in the soup, I probably would never have bought it in the first place. I think Campbell's was trying to trick me. Evil Campbell's.

I wish I liked mushrooms. Heck, I wish I liked many more vegetables. It would make my life easier. I'd have many more food options available to me. But I don't. In the meantime, however, I guess I will have to be more vigilant when it comes to getting sucked in by commercials.