My apologies for posting this late on Monday instead of the normal Friday publication date. If you’ve been reading the site lately, you know I was in Michigan learning to build bike frames for the last two weeks, and Friday was spent packing up my frame and traveling. I had intended to write this up over the weekend, but instead decided to reintroduce myself to my son and daughter. Better late than never.
Mike Ditka's salsa sitting on top of a snow covered trash can, its rightful place
In honor of my trip to Niles, Michigan which is just an hour and a half train ride from Chicago, I’ve picked a product that I actually found for sale in the the local supermarket. This week’s Dumbest Product of the Week is Mike Ditka’s Hall of Fame Salsa. For those unfamiliar with pro football or early nineties Saturday Night Live skits, Mike Ditka was an NFL Hall of Fame player in the sixties and was more famously the head coach of the Chicago Bears in the 1980s including coach of the 1985 Superbowl winning team (and their non-award winning, painful to watch Superbowl Shuffle.) Despite the hubbub of winning a Superbowl, Ditka came to eventually let all Bears (da’ Bears) fans down and was fired in 1992. After a short and dismal run as the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, he did what any famous, yet failed sports personality does and moved to TV to become a commentator.
Well, ladies and gentleman, Mr. Ditka has yet again let the Chicago area down with this attempt to cash in on his minor celebrity. While in Niles, my classmate Andrew had the courage to purchase da’ Ditka’s salsa which turned out to be bland, canned salsa marked up and packaged with the likeness of the Ukrainian-American Hall of Famer. In fact the label on this salsa is both comic and mildly offensive with a mug shot of Ditka photoshopped to include an enormous sombrero and pacho. While this salsa may go well with kielbasa sausage, those wanting to spice up their Mexican fare should take a pass, perhaps enough passes to match Ditka’s 427 career receptions.
Enjoy your week, and get out and ride your bike.
Read the previous week’s Dumbest Product of the Week.
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on Dec 16th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I agree the salsa is terrible it is a over-marketed lie he try to appeal to the drunks like himself but I think he drank all the booze. It sure does not taste like anything but expensive tomatoes. What a scam.
on Dec 17th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
May I nominate this carbon-fiber dinner table for next week?
http://www.stylepark.com/en/established-und-sons/surface-table
on Dec 28th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
[...] of their Dumbest Product of the Week series. They’re not always about cycling products (take Mike Ditka’s Hall of Fame Salsa or the Banana Guard for example), but the column gets especially good when they turn their sights [...]
on Jan 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
[...] weeks nominee, Cadel Evans’ Winners energy bar, surpasses previous nominee, Mike Ditka for shamelessly cashing in on minor celebrity. According to the reporting of the Australian paper, [...]
on Jan 9th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
[...] first, whether blindly following current trends, representing yourself as something you are not, or repackaging a mediocre product to cash-in on fame, all receive my highest contempt as modern day [...]
on Jan 29th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
[...] poked fun at Yakkay, at Cordarounds, and at DryHigh, pointed to the silly in Ditka, Ferrari, and vests [...]
on Jul 15th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I LOVE this salsa! It is DELICIOUS!!!! A lot of the money goes to charity!!!!! (the Grid-Iron Greats)
Anybody out there do anything better for charity, lately??