A few months ago, you may have heard of or read some of the local buzz about the Travel Channel's Man v. Food episode shot here, in our very own Springfield, Ill.
Filmed in July, the episode will air at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, on channel 62 (Springfield/Comcast). The host, Adam Richman, will be chugging corn dogs at the Cozy Dog Drive-In, hammering down horseshoes at D'Arcy's Pint (join the group!), and feasting on five six bowls (maybe!) of Firebrand chili at Joe Roger's Chili Parlor. I've heard of the show, but haven't watched it before. My TiVo is ready to go, so I'm all set.
I'm writing about this not just to tell you about a show you may or may not have already planned on watching. There is another reason, and it has to do with how companies are either embracing or shunning online social media.
I received an e-mail today from someone at Room214.com asking if I would post some information about the upcoming show here, on the blog. Room214, as it says in big letters on their site, is a social media agency. After a few minutes of clicking around their site, it seems they are an ad agency who draws in business for their clients by leveraging the almost countless supply of bloggers, Twitterers, Facebookers, etc. to spread the word in exchange for a little something. I was offered a Man v. Food T-shirt. Why me? Well, this blahg of mine says Springfield, Ill., all over it. I would imagine drumming up hometown excitement for a show or an event is part of what they do.
I'm posting this because I think it's interesting to see how individuals and corporations are either interacting with or reacting to the Internet. There are so many headlines these days of some company issuing C&D (cease and desist) letters (or worse) to other companies or individuals for doing something they didn't like online. I won't go into details or give case examples because you most likely already know what I'm talking about. These seem to end in online backlash and bad press for the bully-company. On the other hand, there are cases, such as this, where non-traditional approaches are being taken to advertising and human interaction. Companies are actually asking us to talk about them, post their content (mileage varies heavily in this aspect), remix or parody their content, and a slew of other things those companies I mentioned earlier would have your head for. I can imagine the old-school corporate types having their doubts about following this path. As a blogger, however, I can tell them it's welcomed and appreciated. Just don't screw it up for yourselves by pulling a 180 in the future. I know this is nothing new, but we're still at a point where the negative experiences with issues such as this are still outnumbering the positive ones.
As for Room214, I did a little research on them before deciding to post this. The e-mail was entirely out of the blue, after all, so I wanted to know a bit more about the company. It turns out Room214 had a little online snafu of its own not quite a year ago. Search for Room214 online to find out more, but to summarize, there was a Twitter incident brought to the masses in large part by Kevin Rose involving the user twitter.com/room214 and Room214.com. Details are a little sketchy with the passage of time, but, apparently, this Twitter user was fearing the loss of his account to Room214.com. A co-founder of Room214.com responded - see the comments on the site - (video here, more here) and apologized for what became a mess out of a misunderstanding. Kudos to Room214.com for handling it the right way. Just for that, I'll gladly post what you sent me about Man v. Food (P.S., size XL please 
)
| What is Travel Channel's Man v. Food?
Host Adam Richman sets out to travel the country in search of the best places to do some serious indulging. Adam's quest brings him to some of the greatest traditional food the nation can serve up, and he takes on some epic food challenges along the way. Watch the series to find out who wins when Man takes on Food.
Springfield Episode Details
Adam's first stop in Springfield is to Cozy Dog Drive-In, which is a historical diner on iconic Route 66. This place is literally the "home of the corn dog" as rumor has it they invented this tasty batter-covered hot dog. Adam gets to see the homemade invention the restaurant still uses to fry 'em up. The diner serves up over 500 cozy dogs every day and they look delicious!
Next up Adam visits D'Arcy's Pint for a Springfield specialty: the horseshoe. What the heck is a horseshoe? Only one of the best hangover foods around! It's an open-faced sandwich made with Texas toast, your favorite meat (hamburger is the most popular), a mound of crinkle fries, and homemade cheese sauce. D'Arcy's makes over 700 horseshoes a day in over 500 variations!
For the main challenge, Adam hits up Joe Rogers Chili Parlor to try the Firebrand Chili Challenge. This extra hot chili is 9x hotter than the normal chili they serve. Tens of thousands have tried to eat it, but only 2,000 have succeeded in finishing one bowl. Adam is upping the ante by trying to beat the current record of 5 bowls of this fire-hot food. Will he do it?
Tune-in Wednesday at 10 E/P to find out! In the meantime, check out this sneak peek video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AebN1VFBGVI |
As far as these restaurants go, I've been to them all many times and love each one. After moving to Central Illinois, I was amazed that a meal like the horseshoe was not only socially acceptable but also loved. D'Arcy's 'shoes quickly made a believer out of me. Do your heart a favor, though, and go for the ponyshoe, the smaller version. I don't get out to the Cozy Dog much, but if you go there, try other things on their menu, too, instead of stuffing yourself entirely with delicious corn dogs. Their burgers are great. Lastly, I've had bowls of Firebrand (formerly "JR Special" . I don't know the story of that) many times, but not five bowls all at once. I just don't think I have the capacity. One bowl fills me up.