Music, Food, Starbucks, and Seattle. . . What More Could a Person Ask For?

9/5/07
Bumbershoot
1) An umbrella
2) Large music festival in Seattle over Labor Day weekend.
I was told that this music festival was named Bumbershoot to emphasize the changing of seasons, which in Seattle, means the use of an umbrella.
Sponsored by Starbucks and other large corporations, this festival was abundant with subliminal and boldly obvious advertisement. Most of which, was geared towards food. Advertising is one of the tactics that makes large corporations so successful. So successful in fact, it is scary. In the movie, Super Size Me, it was stated that kids can associate “feel good” memories of their childhood to places and will then return to those places as adults (or throughout their lifetime) to revisit those happy feelings. In the specific case of the movie, the place was McDonalds. McDonald’s have birthday parties, they have play structures, and they have free toys (collectors items) that can be found in the happy meals. Kids want the toys and associate the good memories they had at McDonald’s and it subconsciously stays with them throughout adulthood. At Bumbershoot, this was a tactic used by Starbucks. At almost every corner there was a Starbucks stand passing out free tastes of their pumpkin spice latte. Admittingly, it was good and I wanted to go buy one. So they’re very convincing, and I guess I am not immune. Maybe someday soon I will walk past a Starbucks and order a pumpkin spice latte and they would have won. Or maybe, I will be adamant about never ordering one as to represent a small personal victory. Who knows?
I don’t think I have eaten nearly as much, nor as unhealthily as I did in those three days than in the entire time that I have been in Seattle (a little over two weeks). Being the sleuth that I am, I decided I was abnormally more hungry than usual for three reasons. 1) There was enough second hand pot smoke to give me the serious munchies. 2) There were food booths everywhere not to mention the delicious smells of popcorn and hot dogs wafting in the air 3) everyone was eating. The last two reasons were tactics I am sure. There was every possible fast food option a person could think of as well as Mexican, Thai, and Indian food. However, the absurd prices had me returning to the pizza, ice cream, and hotdog stands (which were by no means cheap). It is unbelievable how much money I spent solely on food in those three days. The amount of money made off of all the profits on food sales must be outrageous. What ever happened to packing picnics? Have we gotten so lazy that we would rather pay double or even triple the regular price for a slice of pizza and convenience? Not to mention, there was hardly any healthy food being sold. There were no fruit cups, and none of the food stands were selling salad. We were more or less being forced to eat junk food. Being in the Pacific Northwest, (with all the hippies) I was extremely disappointed in the all-together lack of organic/ alternative food. I mean that’s how this music festival originated right? Because of Seattle’s alternative/ metal music explosion. . . So where were the local farmers? What happened to the revolution?