E. Dwass

Disclaimers on TV commercials are common these days. From car ads warning us "do not attempt," to a toothpaste spot cautioning consumers to "use as directed," there's a lot of fine print accompanying the spiels. There's even one for mascara informing us that the lush lashes depicted onscreen are actually the result of false eyelash inserts, not the product being pushed.

But the ad disclaimer that worried us the most is for Cuties, the very popular seedless citrus fruit. No doubt you've seen the current campaign, which uses adorable kids to sell produce. The four spots promote the idea that Cuties are kid-friendly: "Kids love Cuties. Because Cuties are made for kids." But one of the ads in the series seems to represent a major mistake.

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flickr/Brent Schmidt

Bud Light Platinum

From Joe Six-Pack to Joe College, the face of the desired beer drinker has changed in the past few years with growing sales of craft beer brands and fruit flavors. Joe College, unlike his older and more blue-collar counterpart, Joe Six-Pack, is a "lot more experimental than [he] used to be, sampling craft beers, cocktails and flavored malt beverages." According to AdAge, Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors have been in hot pursuit of college-age drinkers and hipsters, respectively.

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Nickelodeon

SpongeBob SquarePants

Despite his relatively healthful diet of kelp jerky, seahorse milk and bran flakes, SpongeBob SquarePants is being accused of leading children astray in nutrition. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has placed a wanted ad with the Nickelodeon character looking disgruntled and rocking a 5 o'clock shadow in The Hollywood Reporter. According to the organization, in comparison to companies like Disney, Nickelodeon falls behind in junk food advertorial guidelines.

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Emma Courtland

Doritos Locos Taco Shells

If you were planning to bring a veggie platter to a Super Bowl party this Sunday, maybe raise your hands and yell, "Score!" Right.

Team Taco Bell dropped the ball this week, when their trash-talking anti-vegetable TV commercial was blocked by an aggressive Twitter campaign by irate people from Team Green.

Taco Bell admitted that it fumbled badly when it dissed folks who might opt for vegetables, instead of its meaty taco 12-pack. In the ad, the voiceover says that serving vegetables to football fans is like "punting on fourth and one" and that "it's a copout and secretly, people kind of hate you for it."

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E. Dwass

Walking through Target the other day, we were struck by something in the breakfast foods aisle. While most popular brands of cereal have a few varieties, Cheerios leads the way with a surprising array of flavors, which got us wondering: Do we really need dulche de leche Cheerios?

Since the introduction of Cheerios back in 1941 (called CheeriOats until 1945), General Mills has introduced and taken away different variations on a theme. There now are 13 types of Cheerios on grocery store shelves, which some fans of the original in the iconic yellow box think are 12 too many.

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E. Dwass

Some of the many flavors of International Delight

International Delight coffee creamer brought in some big comedic guns as part of its new advertising campaign. According to The New York Times, Peter Farrelly directed a new commercial for the nondairy flavored creamer.

The TV ad, which first aired this week, shows an exchange between a female passenger and a stern airport security man. When he asks for her identification, she whips out a bottle of International Delight French Vanilla and says: "My ID." The enthusiastic woman proceeds to pour some of the creamer into the security agent's nearby cup of black coffee. She's immediately tackled by a TSA team and interrogated for hours. Just kidding!

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Flavor Flav's House of Flavor

Flavor Flav's House of Flavor

Flavor Flav is hip hop's most legendary hype man, and he shows no sign of complacency in his oldish age. Last Thursday, on a Southwest jaunt from Burbank to Las Vegas, Flav commandeered the airplane's intercom to encourage travellers to dine at Flavor Flav's House of Flavor, his soul food take-out restaurant in Vegas. The stunt got us thinking: While not every restaurateur may be gifted like Flav in the craft of braggadocio and self-promotion, nearly any chef/owner can try his or her hand at a few aggressive promotional techniques. Read on as we've outlined Five Ways to Promote Your Restaurant.

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E. Dwass

Grocery store fliers

Did you ever try to make a shopping list from the grocery store fliers that arrive in most L.A. mailboxes each Tuesday? In theory the promotions are supposed to let us know about all the great deals taking place during the next seven days, starting on Wednesday. But some marketing guru evidently decided that making the ads as complicated as possible is a good way to get us to spend more. Depending on the store, there are in-house coupons, manufacturers' coupons, loyalty programs, club cards, contests, and deals like "buy one, get two free." It's enough to make your head implode.

To help you navigate the grocery store aisles, turn the page for a guide to area stores' discount policies, listed alphabetically. (And please keep in mind that these policies are subject to change at any time. Of course they are.)

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Flickr/elisasizzle

A dab of Nutella on mini toast

Nutella isn't a health food? But it's made with hazelnuts -- nuts are good for you. And chocolate -- doesn't chocolate contain healthy antioxidants?

Two class-action lawsuits against Ferrero, the maker of Nutella, say the company's claims in a recent TV commercial that Nutella spread on toast makes a healthy breakfast for children went a little too far, according to the New York Daily News. (One suit was for California, where the suit originated, and the other was for hazelnut-spread victims in the rest of the country.)

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chelle_1278/Flickr

Diet Coke

Jean Paul Gaultier, designer of Madonna's epic cone bra, now is set to style another icon: Diet Coke. The fashion designer was just named Diet Coke's new Creative Director for Europe and, as part of his creative duties, will create limited edition Diet Coke bottles and cans. According to his statement in Coca-Cola's press release, Gaultier wants to "show people the codes and signatures I love. The bottles have the shape of a woman's body, so it was great fun to 'dress' them."

As if the idea of Gaultier anthropomorphizing a soda bottle isn't enough, he also co-stars in a trio of bizarre videos with a few marionnettes. In all three, he plays a "Serial Designer" who, invigorated by Diet Coke, "helps" the marionnettes in the midst of a fashion crisis. The outcome, however, is less What Not to Wear and somewhat more awkward, uncomfortable assaults on puppets.

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