Radio Ga-ga

Rant mode...

Have you heard the latest radio advert for McCain Micro Chips? You know, the microwavable boxes which contain barely half a potatoes' worth of scrapings which always either come out slightly under-done or completely incinerated?

Well, if you haven't heard it, here's a (very) paraphrased version:

Small annoying boy (SAB): Mum, can Simon, Mark, Gary, Paul, Peter, Carl, Andy, James, Christopher, Ben, David, Kevin, Luke, Charles and Tim stay for tea?

Ridiculously-consenting mother: (slightly exasperated) Yes.

SAB: Oh, and Daniel, Greg and Stephen.

Annoying voice-over woman: Thank heavens for McCain Micro Chips; real chips in three minutes. Chin up, mum.

Now, apart from being bloody irritating as adverts go, can you spot a flaw in the premise here?

To save you the bother of counting them, sonny boy asks for 18 friends to stay for tea. Assuming that he's going to eat as well (and assuming that both mum and dad - if he hasn't already moved in with his secretary - aren't eating), and also assuming that mum deems a cardboard box containing half a dozen shards of potato will suffice for an evening meal for a group of growing boys, all she has to do is cook 19 boxes of Micro Chips.

Let's also, logically, assume she has only one microwave oven.

It will take 57 minutes to cook the chips. 57! If, on the other hand, she slapped several baking trays of oven chips in her regular oven (along with something else to make a proper meal) she could feed the lot of them with about half an hours cooking time.

New slogan:

McCain Micro Chips - half the food in twice the time.