Shopping offensive

Every Thursday, along with the regular mail, we get an inch-thick packet of ads for local supermarkets and drugstores. I like to look at these. We have 3 supermarkets chains whose stores I pass on a regular basis, and I always want to know who has cheap boneless chicken breasts, ice cream and produce. A couple of the supermarkets put a couple of mini-ads within their ads, and today, one of those was special.

I'm sure many of you know that February, which I think is soon, is Black History Month. I'm not sure exactly what that means and I doubt that it's important for me to do so. So it wasn't totally surprising to see a themed supermarket ad, titled, "A taste of Black History." I am now going to list the contents of this ad.

• Chicken pieces
• Fish filets
• Canned seasoned greens
• Oil
• Store brand frozen french fries
• Store brand Grape "Spread"
• Canned tomatoes
• Canned diced tomatoes
• Sweet potato pie
• Store brand mac and cheese
• Store brand oreos and graham crackers
• Store brand oatmeal
• Store brand refrigerated biscuits
• Fruit punch
• Store brand spaghetti-O's
• Orange soda and root beer
• Coke and Sprite
• Biotrue Multi-Purpose Solution (I have no idea...)
• Colgate toothpaste.

Yum yum, who wouldn't want a taste of that? Now I haven't really had many black friends since I was in high school, but something seemed a little odd about this. How about, well, "let's advertise fried chicken, cheap sides and desserts and sweet drinks! That should appeal to the demographic that will read this section of the Thursday ad pack."

Honestly though, I have to say I find this somewhere between dumb and intentionally offensive. I shop in this store regularly, and it's clear to me that the people running it have no clue about what they're doing, and now it's clear the marketing staff is in the same boat. They've been sold (again) recently. I can hardly wait to see what the new owners bring to the table.