Wednesday, February 24, 2010

From the Enchilada Files: The End of Metaphysics

The Paletón Corona (a chocolate covered marshmallow lollipop) used to be an inquisitive child's first introduction to the wonderful world of philosophy and metaphysics.
Here is why:



Used to be, until recently, that the label of the Paletón showed a kid holding in his hand a Paletón, which inside had a kid who held in his hand a Paletón, which in its label had a kid holding in his hand a Paletón, ad infinitum. But more amazingly, this lead your young little kepaleh to think that you yourself were holding in your hand your Paletón, which could very possibly mean that you were just another kid inside the Paletón of a kid bigger than you, who was held in their hand by an even bigger kid and so on and so forth, ad infinitum. This begat enormous questions about our place in the universe and the very nature of our identity. Now all we have is this:

You can see the tragedy. Gone is the kid inside the kid inside the kid. Gone are speculation, awe and wonder. I want to personally murder the marketing genius who thought that taking the label off the inside paletón would create "appetite appeal". But such is the power of destruction, the stupid tunnel vision, of marketing.

4 comments:

  1. Fascinated by the concept of recursion and the Droste effect, I remembered the Paletón and browsed the Internet looking for a picture of it, and I found your post and I heartily agree that this is an incredible tragedy. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:29 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:30 PM

    I'm 20 years old and as far as I personally remember its been the new image pictured above. i just recently stumbled upon the old image and i also don't understand why they would change it.

    you can see the old image here: http://www.candywrappermuseum.com/faces.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. In the States, there was the Pet Evaporated Milk can: a cow in a can in a cow in a can in a cow in...you know. I had the same existential questions as a child.

    Here, at the bottom right: http://www.petmilk.com/products/

    ReplyDelete