"Only In A Woman's World," Frito-Lay's new Sex and the City-inspired commercials have already started running on TV and more print and online advertising will be rolled out early this month.

Though the four cartoon women are shown gabbing over Frito-Lay products, it's a little unclear what's being advertised in the commercials. Mainly, the commercials focus on the friends worrying that bikini season is approaching, obsessing about hot guys, and crying hysterically at the loss of their hairdresser or "skinny mirror."

In the worst commercial/webisode, Episode 2, two of the friends visit "Cheryl," who is home sick and hasn't been able to eat in days - but lost four pounds. The other two swoon and say she is "so lucky." One remarks: "You guys are whack jobs, you know that right?" Maybe so, but Cheryl says she can almost fit into her skinny jeans!

The unbelievably involved website also features commercials, games, and e-cards. In the "meet the girls" section, we learn tons of information about each character's job, weakness, and relationship status. Is knowing that Anna's favorite author is Toni Morrison, that Cheryl, the stay-at-home mom, "puts everyone else's happiness first," or that Maya "hides how much she spends on shopping from her husband" supposed to make women want to buy chips? The one thing that would make us life-long Frito-Lay customers (aside from, of course, the company producing delicious snacks) is an ad campaign that shows women eating potato chips like normal human beings, without making a self-loathing comments about their weight.

Earlier: The Complicated Business Of Getting Women To Buy Crap

And, of course, if you spend the 256% unit price markup for the luxury of buying your food in 100-calorie portions, that's the nice thing: you're allowed to have more than one. Encouraged, even! That's the innovation. Of course, the 100-calorie snack packs prey on our perceptions that we have no self-control.

But consider this: of all the reasons psychologists have been pointed to for conspiring to make us binge on massive quantities of food, that's number one — the sense you've lost control. (Well, that and pot.) (Also, I'm sort of making that up, but it's true.)

So why buy into that evil notion? Why not just, say, eat when you're hungry? Skip dinner if you go overboard? Go take a walk, change into sweatpants, whatevs? Because it wouldn't feed the CYCLE. The cycle tempting, daring, BEGGING us all to buy something, ANYTHING, to help us cope with the fact that we hate ourselves. It started with King Size snickers bars and Super Size meals and double quarter-pounders and ended with Alli and Anna Nicole Smith's tragic, tragic death.

It's a cycle I see before me every time I find myself confronted with a drugstore rack of 100-calorie snack packs.

Break the cycle.

And oh yeah, don't forget not to buy the new 100-calorie Girl Scout cookies.

100 Calorie Packs Are Convenient, But At What Cost? [Detroit News]
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