Ah, weird athlete endorsements. Along with a rat pack that includes Sean Hannity, Dennis Miller, and Glenn Beck, Sacramento Kings guard Jimmer Fredette endorses Daily Bread, a company that packages food that they claim will last up to 25 years. Who needs food that will last up to 25 years? Well, there are reasons to have it around—in areas where natural disasters are likely, it's a great idea to have some emergency supplies on hand, and if you were to go on a long camping trip, you might want the same—but the short answer is, basically, people counting on a looming societal collapse. If you listen to the testimonials (and I dare you to listen to Dennis Miller's testimonial without at least considering suicide) the thing that comes up over and over again is what 'uncertain times" we live in. On the sidebar of the "Why Prepare" section of their website, Daily Bread has a scrolling ticker that reads, ominously, "Calamities on the rise: what's in today's news..."
That section explains,
For decades, government and religious organizations have urged people to prepare themselves by storing extra food and water. In light of recent disasters and unsettled economic times, it is becoming easy to see the importance of doing so.
Without warning, each of us may face a storm in our own lives. While we cannot control when these things may happen, we can prepare ourselves to weather the uncertainty.
A storm so bad you need 25 years worth of food! It's hard to imagine a storm that severe.
If you're curious about Daily Bread or want to learn more about what looks (from a distance! admittedly, from a distance) like something of a crazy-person scam—well, so do I. There isn't a whole lot of information out there, but threads on GunBoards.com and SurvivalistBoards.com are skeptical, saying that the products are overpriced, that the company is "playing on people's fear of an uncertain future," and that ordering anything comes with strings attached. Those forums are actually the only place you can find much chatter about Daily Bread, an odd circumstance considering the line-up of celebrity endorsers.
FoodStorageReviewer.com burned Fredette thusly:
We here at the foodstoragereviewer.com are always in favor of spreading the message about emergency preparedness and food storage in particular. In fact, we are in favor of anything that will get people off the couch and get them to start doing tangible things to get prepared. It's just slightly humorous that this message would be shared by an NBA basketball player who is currently riding the bench.
These commercials (there's a series of four of them, including the one above) max out at about 2,600 views on YouTube, and the comments don't seem to take them very seriously. Are there any Deadspinners out west (we're thinking Utah, probably) that have seen these on television? Is the company what it looks like—a freeze-dried food seller that benefits from apocalypse anxiety by applying large mark-ups—or is there more to it? Has anyone asked Jimmer Fredette about December 21?