(Click on image to biggify)
You'd be forgiven for mistaking the Hamster's Lunch as a lunch for hamsters. No, it's intended for human consumption. You can buy a box at Coco's in Los Angeles, where nearly every product on display includes a helpful explanatory note.
Hamster's Lunch $4.45
Rice crackers and a hyper realistic, mercilessly charming hamster figure.
Note: We would like to thank Microsoft Windows Mobile for sponsoring mobile posting on Boing Boing. In the coming weeks, we'll be using the system to post audio, images, text, and video.
Here's a little more information about the sponsorships and ads on Boing Boing:
— Boing Boing's been running ads for years. It's a little surprising
that so many readers are only just now realizing it.
— This kind of sponsorship — in the immediate case, Microsoft
Windows Mobile — is structurally no different from sponsorships and
ads Boing Boing's done in the past.
— In fact, Hewlett-Packard sponsored a series of audio posts just
last year, no one made a fuss about them, and they certainly didn't
affect what appears in Boing Boing (aside from allowing some of it to
be an audio feed).
— In further fact, this kind of advertising and sponsorship has also
been going on for some time now in many other major weblogs. We
repeat: it's a little surprising that so many readers are only just
now realizing it.
— The presence of major advertisers and major advertising campaigns on high-traffic weblogs is not evidence of a conspiracy to somehow buy off the
online audience. Those high-end ad campaigns exist because the weblog-reading audience is now large enough to compete with old-media
advertising venues like print magazines.
— Finally, and most importantly, no advertising or sponsorship has
ever had any effect on Boing Boing's content or editorial policies,
nor will it influence them in the future. Our editorial content is
completely independent of our advertising.
I hope that answers your questions. Thank you for reading Boing Boing!
— Mark Frauenfelder