Revisiting a classic, cringe-tastic Dharma-Burger

This week, “New York” magazine revisited a classic conflation of Buddhism and marketing.

Rod Meade Sperry
30 June 2016

New York magazine’s blog The Cut has a funny new post called “A Brief History of Terrible Yogurt Commercials Targeted at Women.” Among them is a classic Dharma-Burger. It’s so classic, in fact, that there’s actually a Buddhist book named after it.

The ad is for Yoplait yogurt. In it, two women in a luxurious spa setting are swooning over their Yoplait, trying to come up with words that explain just how good it is. One of them describes the yogurt as “Zen-, wrapped-in-karma, dipped-in-chocolate good.”

Cringe-tastic!

The book in question is Zen teacher Brad Warner‘s — you guessed it — Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate. When the ad first aired circa 2008, Warner —who clearly knows a good/bad thing when he sees it — quickly announced his intentions to name his next book after it.

Lion’s Roar has published Brad Warner a few times now — just check out these links to get started reading him. (You can see The Cut’s other Terrible Yogurt Commercials Targeted at Women here.) And you can “meet” Brad in Lion’s Roar magazine’s next edition of “Meet a Teacher,” coming in our September 2016 issue.)

Rod Meade Sperry. Photo by Megumi Yoshida, 2024

Rod Meade Sperry

Rod Meade Sperry is the editor of Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar’s online source for committed Buddhists, and the book A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation: Practical Advice and Inspiration from Contemporary Buddhist Teachers. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his partner and their tiny pup, Sid.