Sports Star Endorsed Food Products

GOOD

George Foreman: The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine

A.K.A. The George Foreman Grill.

We’ve all seen George’s grill. A good portion of us probably also own one too. While, no, it doesn’t really have anything to do with boxing, the GFG was at least billed as a presumably healthier way to grill foods and help people eat like athletes. One of the few un-terrible celebrity endorsed products. Since being introduced in ’94, Foreman’s sold over 100 million of these bad-boys, earning him over $150 million, which incidentally is waaaaay more than he ever made as a fighter.

BAD

Hulk Hogan: Pastamania

Pastamania was about as close to being real pasta as pro-wrestling was to being a real sport. If you’ve ever tried Alphaghetti or Zoodles, you’ll understand what Pastamainia was all about. Unlike Foreman’s product, which was supposed to make you healthier, Hogan’s pasta was simply designed to fill you up if you ate enough of it. Unfortunately a tender piece of leather could probably make the same claim.

Paul Newman Endorsed Food Products

GOOD

Paul Newman: Newman’s Own Salad Dressing

Paul Newman’s brand of salad dressings were made all the more delicious by the fact that their proceeds didn’t go towards buying Paul a bunch of new stuff. The late, great Newman had a heart as big as his appetite for salad and donated 100% of the profits from his Newman’s Own line of dressings to various charities.

BAD

Paul Newman: Newman’s Own Organic Peanut Butter Premium Dog Treats

Eesh. Can’t really say it’s totally bad since it’s all for charity and whatnot, but there’s something about putting the silver-screen legend’s name on a peanut butter dog biscuit that’s a little less dignified than it needed to be. Probably should just have stuck with people food.

Rapper Endorsed Food Products

GOOD

Snoop Dogg: Snoop Dogg Hot Dogs

Shameless money-making scheme? Of course! But it’s not like Snoop ever really pretended like that wasn’t the driving force behind every move he ever made. Plus, it’s funny ‘cause his name has ‘dog’ in it too. The idea for this product is boiled down most succinctly in a quote from Bing Worthington, Snoop’s brother/manager: “There aren’t any celebrity hot dogs out there. Who’s the competition? Ball Park? Imagine a long, skinny hot dog just like Snoop!”

BAD

Ol’ Dirty Bastard, A.K.A. Dirt McGirt: Rap Snacks – Dirt McGirt Potato Chips

Spittin’ hot fire gotcha hungry? Look no further than Rap Snacks, the ODB potato chip! We’re already at a loss as to why this got released after the rapper’s death, but it feels extra-wrong that the man himself isn’t even making any scratch off a product this ridiculous. The bag of chips also inexplicably says “Think Responsibly”, which you wouldn’t think was the credo of a man who escaped from his court-mandated drug treatment facility to spend a month on the lam before being arrested while signing autographs outside a MacDonald’s in South Philadelphia.

Crooner Endorsed Food Products

GOOD

Kenny Rogers: Kenny Rogers’ Roasters

There’s something strangely fitting about The Gambler opening a rotisserie restaurant specializing in wood-fired chicken that doesn’t even really seem like selling out. It’s also hard to hate on something that inspired an entire episode of Seinfeld. Weirdly, even tough the chain of eateries went bankrupt here in North America, it continues to grow in popularity in Malaysia and the Philippines. Go figure.

BAD

Smokey Robinson: Smokey Robinson’s Pot Roast

With a whole line of frozen foods emblazoned with the catchphrase, “The soul is in the bowl,” one can’t help but picture a sharply dressed executive handing a grinning Smokey Robinson a large, white laundry sized bag with a huge dollar sign printed on the side.

Random Celebrity Endorsed Food Products:

GOOD

William Shatner: William Shatner Ketchup

We’re not sure why, but it’s hard to get mad about William Shatner ketchup. Things to like? It wasn’t a whole line of mainstay products but rather a one-shot, special edition bottle put out by Heinz. It was done for charity and raised $45,000. The bottle actually said, “Fixes burgers at warp speed.”

BAD

Ernest Hemingway: Ernest Hemingway Marinades

And congratulations go to Ernest Hemingway for being the first Nobel-Prize winning novelist to inspire his very own line of marinades. WTF. The idea was to have marinades with, “robust flavors inspired by the adventurous locations associated with him.” Adventurous locations/flavors such as, Bimini, Spain, Key West, Kenya and…Idaho…Odd though, that whoever came up with this didn’t see the conflict of having someone who was a raging alcoholic in life endorse sauce.