Urban Myths
Justin Viles and J.C. Navarro
It can all start with an e-mail or a couple of phone calls, and it can escalate into a possible international rumor or myth. According to About.com an urban myth is a “term used to describe an apocryphal – and actually false – story that plays on a general assumption or feeling shared by many, usually of fear or distrust, and that usually claims to expose a public danger (1). Urban myths usually push the lines of believability, and when one really tries to piece the story together and figure out the origin, he finds that it definitely does not prove to be true. They also appear to come with an endorsement like the FCC, the police department, the FBI, or even a newspaper. Urban food myths are no different from any other urban myths. They all start with lies about some sort of food or food company. The people who start these myths are either trying to make a bad reputation for the company or food, trying to scare people, or even trying to get a good laugh out of someone.
For example, an urban food myth began to circulate about Kentucky Fried Chicken when they changed their name to KFC in 1991 because the FDA ordered them to change it because they were not using real chicken for their products (Emery 1). Supposedly the fast food chain had engineered a more efficient way to manufacture their chicken by growing it without heads, beaks, and feathers. The chickens would then be hooked up to mechanical tubes and be fed the exact ration of food that would make them grow the most and best meat. According to the myth, the FDA forced Kentucky Fried Chicken to change their name to KFC because the chickens they served were really not chickens at all because they were headless (Weise 1). They supposedly also ordered KFC to exclude the word “chicken” from all their signs, menus, and advertising. People began to wonder if all this talk of KFC was true. All people really had to do was think about it. Isn’t a headless chicken still a chicken? And why do the menu and advertising signs still use the word “chicken?” And would hooking a chicken up to a complex machine actually be more cost effective than feeding them real feed? These are all questions people should have thought out before this myth about Kentucky Fried Chicken surfaced. Also, according to the company’s official web site, KFC actually changed their name because they wanted to remove the word chicken because they wanted promote a more varied menu (Emery 1). The verdict is that the KFC proved to be a myth all along. While KFC might make still make you sick, it is not because they are not using headless chicken.
Pop Rocks were put on the shelves in 1975 but it was in the years before they were released that they invented a process of using high pressure to capture carbon dioxide in hard candy (Chandler 1). Doing this would make Pop Rocks a fun candy to eat. It would make you laugh because of that tickling sensation you get when they explode in your mouth. But come to find out Pop Rocks were very dangerous or so people thought because of a myth but through time it became a legend. See this myth was that if you were to mix the candy with a carbonated drink it would cause the stomach to explode (Mikkelson 1). Even though Pop Rocks had been tested thoroughly people were still concerned. To make matters worse for the candy a rumor had started that little Mikey, the kid who at the time was doing the LIFE commercials, had died of an exploding stomach from Pop Rocks and Coca cola (Chandler 1). This was a serious problem for general foods, and they were forced to release 45 full page adds in major magazines and also send 50,000 letters to principals to hush the rumors of little Mikey (Mikkelson 1). In 1983 general foods stopped marketing the product but thankfully Pop Rocks are now back on the shelves scaring kids around the country or at worst just giving them the burps. After all these false rumors the myth still exists today.
As a kid do you remember the Tootsie Pop rappers having a star on them with an Indian holding his bow and arrow at the star, and do you remember hearing that if your rapper had this you could take it into a store and they would give you a free sucker (Emery 1)? Well as a child I thought this was true, and until I did this paper I still thought that this myth was true and so did allot of my friends. But come to find out the Tootsie Roll industries have been deflecting mail in request for free Tootsie Pops since the 1930s (Rosenblum). The funny thing is though no one knows how this rumor, this myth got started but very few people know it is actually just a myth. According to David Emery from About.com to this day some independent grocers do unofficially honor the supposed free Tootsie Pop offer when kids bring the Indian star rappers in (1). So all you kids out there hold on to those rappers because even though the Tootsie Pop rapper is just a myth your local clerks may too think that you can get a free Tootsie off of the star rapper (Mikkelson 1).
For years, a urban myth has been circulating high school and college campuses about the popular soft drink, Mountain Dew, being used as a type of contraceptive (Emery 1). It has been believed all over the country that drinking Mountain Dew will lower the sperm count in males. In 1999 the Wall Street Journal even ran an article stating that this rumor was running rampant from “Oregon to Washington, D.C., and from Texas to Montana” (Prichard 1). Officials from PepsiCo, the makers of Mountain Dew, have came out and labeled this as a complete Urban Myth. Most people attribute Mountain Dew’s sperm count lowering qualities to the amount of caffeine in the drink or also the yellow dye no. 5 agent (Pelisek). The FDA determined previously that the dye had no affect on lowering sperm count, and caffeine can actually make sperm more effective in their quest (Prichard 1). The myth started in the early 1990’s, but the recent growth of the legend probably has to do with the fact that Mountain Dew is the fastest growing major soft drink in the United States. The myth does have some health officials worried because young people may begin to substitute Mountain Dew in for real contraceptives which could result in far more pregnancies (Emery 1). Mountain Dew may leave a person on a caffeine high, but it will not act as a form of birth control.
Urban myths and legends have been circulating around the nation for hundreds of years. All it takes to start one is a simple phone call, e-mail, or even by word of mouth. Urban food myths are no different. They are spread by people wanting to gross somebody out, or make somebody dislike a certain food, or even to tarnish the reputation of the company manufacturing the product. Whether the myth be about Pop Rocks, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Tootsie Pops, Mountain Dew, or any other food, consider the source and ask yourself questions. Be careful because it is tough going in the food world.
Works Cited
Emery, David. “With All Dew Respect.” Urban Legends and Folklore. 2005. About.com. 2 April 2005
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa102799.htm
Pelisek, Christine. “Mr. Happy Does the Dew.” LA Weekly Archive. 21 April 2000. LA Weekly. 2 April 2005 <
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site= http://www.laweekly.com/ink/00/22/offbeat%2Dwriters.shtml>
Emery, David. “The Curse of Franchicken.” Urban Legends and Folklore. 5 Jan 2000. About.com. 1 April 2005 <
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa010500a.htm
Weise, Elizabeth. “Caught in the grips of an e-mail hoax.” USA Today Archive. 1999. USA Today. 1 April 2005
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site= http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/ccarch/cceli008.htm
Prichard, Sean. “Dr. Dew.” Mountain Dew Anonymous. 30 June 1997. Mountain Dew. 30 March 2005
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site= http://members.aol.com/seanborg/mtdew/mtdew1.htm
Emery, David. “A Tootsie Pop Mystery.” Urban Legends and Folklore. 2005. About.com. 3 April 2005
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa030701a.htm
Rosenblum, Larry. “ The Indian on the Tootsie Roll Pop.” Road Trip America. 2005. Road Trip America. 3 April 2005
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site= http://www.roadtripamerica.com/mttul/indian.htm
Chandler, Diana Lyn. “ Urban Myths Melted.” The Equinox. 25 September 2003. Keene State College. 4 April 2005
http://www.keeneequinox.com/news/2003/09/25/Features /Urban.Myths.Melted-474861.shtml
Mikkelson, Barbara. “The Death of little Mikey.” Urban legends reference page. 22 Jan 2005. 3 April 2005
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/poprocks.htm
Mikkelson, Barbara. “Indian Giver.” Urban legends reference page. 31 December 1998. 3 April 2005
http://www.snopes.com/business/redeem/tootsie.asp
