Nate- Nobody buys RAP SNACKS for the taste, homie. You buy RAP SNACKS because they are the bomb, yo. Holla!

Three things kill me here. First is that its Murphy Lee. I mean, he had like one song, two years ago. Another five years and he can make a comeback on NBC’s “Hit Me Baby 1 More Time VI”. Until then, apparently, he’s keeping his name out on the street by endorsing Red Hot Riplets. This is not quite as good as when Vanilla Ice had action figures, but I don’t think the Iceman ever had his own line of tasty side dishes either.

Second thing that kills me is that the NBA logo on his cap has been strategically altered so as not to infer any NBA endorsement of the product. Because the NBA already has their official crappy product to endorse…themselves.

Third thing that kills me is that Dirt McGirt is on one of the bags. Ol’ Dirty has been dead for over a year. How creepy would it be to eat potato chips out of a bag with a picture of a dead guy on it? Does his mother get emotional every time she walks into a 7-11 and sees a picture of her dead son staring back at her from the shelf in the potato chip aisle? I need to know these things.

Other than that, looks pretty good. Do yourself a favor and check out “The Message” section on the website. All kinds of “Don’t Do Drugs”, “Don’t Do Guns” etc. Basically a rap sheet, no pun intended, of bad stuff the product endorsers have done. One of those “Do as I say, not as I do” kind of things, no doubt.

I’m just a white guy who lives in the suburbs. So what do I know?

I know if I see a can of Pringles with Lionel Richie on it, I’m buying it, that’s what. You bet.

Michael, you understand more than you think. It is rediculous. That’s what makes it so awesome. One thing I love about America is that we are able to laugh at ourselves. Take it from a South O girl - anyone who is really into hip-hop culture would shake their head at this packaging. It is in no way an example of good design, hip-hop or otherwise. but it is hilarious. I particularly like the arch in the background. That’s tough.

Michael, I live in Buffalo and get up to Canada regularly (I was just up in Burlington, ON this past weekend) and I see a lot of Canadian TV and hear a fair amount of Canadian radio. Aside from a slight differentiation in pronunciation, there’s not a whole heck of a lot of difference between our two countires (certainly, there is no country more like the US than Canada, and vice versa). Although you may not have Rap Snacks, surely you don’t live in a cave (you appear to have internet access), so you must have come across some similar examples of marketing of Canadian products. For those readers who don’t live near the border, I can assure you that Canadian marketers use the same methods as those of us “south of the border” — they are not immune to “xtreme” products and celebrity enorsements.

In fact, when I was in Canada last week, I bought a beach umbrella emblazed with Bruno Gerussi’s* visage, and a “Littlest Hobo*” X-Treme Hot Dog.

I’m not sure how you can not “get it.” Yes, it’s a stupid (and unintentionally funny) product, but it’s pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? Using celebrities to target a very specific audience is nothing new, and although this is very poorly executed, it’s neither something unusual in the world of marketing nor an example of something uniquely american.

• Sorry, these references are for Canadians and those of us living near Canada only

PS. If I ever see a can of pringles with Lionel Richie and Chewbacca on it, I’m buying every last can the store has in stock.

I don’t really get us either.

What’s interesting to me, and maybe this is the local marketing, but Saint Louis is cool now. I was going to move out of this city, but now I’ve got all these rappers telling me this is the place to be. I think I’ll move out of this city.

Though this seems like a joke. I see it as a group trying to capitalize nationally on Nelly’s “local feeling” success. I guess this would come sooner or later. It will be successful.

I was amazed that out of the thousands of attendees at the HOW conference this week, I saw only about 15-20 African Americans and even fewer Hispanics. I say this to say that the lack of diversity in the design world shows through in the absence of minorities in visuals but it’s never more evident when they design or market to “us” from this vacuum.

I can honestly say that sometimes I see visuals/advertising targeted at the minority audience and I just want to scream “I’D RATHER BE EXCLUDED YOU MORONS!” (I’Äôm looking at you MickeyD’Äôs).

Having more minorities in the design world would help. But in today’Äôs ever shrinking world and new global society it’s even more important that EVERY designer have culturally diverse education and experiences or at least reach out to partners within those cultures for design advice.

To that I would like to add that I am seeing better marketing that includes AA’s, hispanics, gays, senior citizents, etc. these days.

You guy’s are FOReaking hilarious ‘bling-esq’ ‘supa-flava photoshop filta’. I’m plagiarizing all that. And is re-diculous like repeating the diculous?

Oh, and if the chips had Ice Cube on them, I could relate.