Dumb Product of the Week #1: Greatest time to be alive or End of civilzation?

I was at the grocery store yesterday in the cake mix aisle. You know...the aisle with all of the muffin mixes, cake mixes, cupcake mixes (don't get me started as to WHY cake mix and CUPCAKE MIX are two separate products) and the baking stuff. It's a fun aisle, filled with memories of childhood birthday parties and licking the bowl. I've accepted that making cake from scratch is something few Americans do anymore. I get that. I don't judge. Lord knows I've added egg, oil and water to a few box mixes myself. But then...I saw this...

Shake-n-Pour CUPCAKE MIX (what distinguishes regular cake mix from "cupcake" mix, I'll never know), Fun Da-Middles (cake mix with a packet of filling. This is really the only extra thing in here), and dumbass Cereal-Flavored MUFFIN MIX. ARGH!

Okay...let's start with Shake-n-Pour: This is the king of products for lazy people. I suppose I was okay with the version for pancakes, even though I think it's just as stupid. Add water to a jar of mix, shake it up, pour it in some muffin cups. POOF! You have cake! Or more specifically, CUPCAKES...which, though not commonly known, is actually just regular cake in a muffin cup. But perhaps since the label indicates it's cupcake mix, maybe it explodes if you put it in a cake pan or vaporizes suddenly if placed in a doughnut pan. I'm not sure, I've been too afraid to experiment with this to find out.

If you truly do not have time to add egg and oil to a boxed cake mix then maybe you should reconsider doing anything in the kitchen at all. Isn't baking fun? Why are you trying to save time here? Getting the damn batter into muffin cups is the hardest part (who can do this without spilling some?). "Thank goodness I saved that 2 minutes by skipping adding egg and oil to this mix. That's two more minutes of life-saving Cancer research!!" - said NO ONE EVER. Seriously? Shake-n-Pour is an abomination.

Now...Fun Da-middles: I assume this is a word play on "fundamentals". Nice try, but the name Fun Da-middles sounds pretty stupid. Say it a couple of times out loud to yourself. Sounds stupid, right? Yeah. Someone got paid to think of that name. Now think about THAT.

Well...I have to actually give it to Betty Crocker here...this is labeled as a cupcake mix, and I'm okay with that. The product concept is that you get to make fun cupcakes with a filled center. How cool is that?!! Seems kind of magical! Until you watch this instructional video.

So...wait...you're telling me I could actually just grab some strawberry jam or whatever filling I liked and do the same thing with some regular cake mix? SHENANIGANS!!!

Lastly, this brings me to the cereal-flavored muffin mixes. It's also important to distinguish that these are MUFFINS, not cupcakes. I suppose they don't want to call it a cupcake if it's not shown frosted in the picture. So that's where Betty Crocker draws the line...hey wait!! Scroll up a little! Those Fun Da-Middles aren't frosted!! THEN WHY THE HELL DO THEY GET TO BE A CUPCAKE? I digress...

 Looks like they're offering a Cocoa Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Reese's Puffs Variety. Seems like a fun idea, right?

"Here's a muffin that tastes like a cereal we make that you can buy. Except, it's a muffin...so...it's different."

Now, to be totally fair, this isn't new. Snickers Ice Cream, Girl Scout Cookie Kit Kat, etc. But do we really have to keep doing this? The fact that they can replicate the flavor of a cereal without actually adding a cereal should be enough to steer you away from this. I will admit that the idea of a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Muffin is slightly appealing because, let's be honest...who didn't eat this as a kid? It's a cereal that turns soggy in milk in 30 seconds, but yet, you loved its cinnamon goodness. It tasted kinda like cinnamon toast. KINDA. But hey, who's got time to actually make cinnamon toast anymore if we are down to Shake-n-Pour?

It's also imperative to point out that the Reese's Puffs muffin mix, tastes like a cereal, which tastes like a candy. Read that sentence over and just think about that for a second. I'll be first in line for the Reese's Puff's Muffin Candies, which taste like the muffin, which tastes like the cereal which tastes like the candy.

What do you guys think? Do you think these products are amazing or a sign that we are all losing our creativity and motivation to put effort into anything anymore?