Do you own an air fryer or an Instant Pot? Right now, they’re two of the hottest kitchen appliances. Before Christmas, if you found out that the instant pot was Amazon’s most popular product, you might have been tempted to order one.

The instant pot is a compact, pressure cooker that can cook meat, steam rice, make yogurt, cure all disease, and improve your general well-being.

Marketing is a powerful tool in our world, and it’s particularly effective in the food and beverage industry. Appliances, produce, and products that have been around for decades or centuries are suddenly reintroduced to the public as essential items.

The convection oven, first available to the public in 1945, uses a fan to circulate hot air around your food to cook it faster. The oven’s use is not limited to culinary endeavors but is used in a variety of industries.

The aircraft industry uses car-sized ovens to manufacture parts for planes and helicopters. Convection heating isn’t a new technique. Until recently, amateur cooks had to shell out several hundred dollars for a new convection oven.

Now, you can buy one for under seventy dollars. The expensive convection ovens are still available, but their compact, economical cousins are all the rage.

These baby convection ovens are called air fryers. When I saw a commercial for an air fryer, I thought it was a gimmick that wouldn’t last.

The name seemed so ridiculous that I couldn’t believe that anyone would buy one. Fried air?

What does that mean? Is there a miniature nuclear reactor in the little fryer? Is it safe to leave it alone in your kitchen when it starts frying the air?

Like all products marketed to the general public, I was completely wrong about the air fryer. It’s a useful tool that can save you time. Since I was a kid, I’ve seen a lot of products that I thought were garbage become big hits.

The only one I was right about was New Coke. New Coke was sweeter, less carbonated, and more disgusting than any other soda on the market.

Coca-Cola managed to save themselves from a catastrophe by introducing Classic Coke. Eventually, all New Coke was replaced by Classic Coke, and the public forgot about the company’s blunder.

All of us, including myself, are influenced by marketing more than we like to admit. When I was 10, I owned a California Raisin T-shirt (it enticed bullies to beat me up).

The raisin was not a new product in the ’80s, but a marketing campaign from California made raisins seem cool and essential to all Americans. Marvin Gaye’s version of I Heard it Through the Grapevine played in commercials featuring dancing raisins.

Toy stores stocked their shelves with a variety of loveable raisin characters. I don’t think it was a bad idea to promote healthy food that is beneficial to your diet, but I think it’s strange that a clay raisin dancing to Motown influenced our eating habits.

The song, I Heard it Through the Grapevine, is about a sad guy who finds out that his woman is unfaithful to him. Why was this song used to sell delicious raisins?

Since the word grapevine is in the song, why wouldn’t you use it to promote dried grapes from California? A great song about infidelity is as good as any to use to promote healthy living.

Hoover could have increased their sales if they’d used Another One Bites the Dust to sell vacuum cleaners. Who would care if a song about a psychopath with a machine gun helped sell a record number of Hoovers?

Steve walks warily down the street

With the brim pulled way down low

Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet

Machine guns ready to go

Are you ready- (for a Hoover?)

Are you ready for this- (house to be clean?)

Are you hanging on the edge of your seat

Out of the doorway, the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat—

Freddy Mercury’s corpse shudders at the thought!

Advertisers take risks that may seem crazy when you analyze their motives as much as I do. I’m surprised by and respect the strange ways they push their products.

Many advertising campaigns that I thought were strange or creepy became incredibly successful. If I worked for a marketing firm, I would make all the wrong decisions.

Pillsbury-1985: Poppin Fresh commercial: That obnoxious Dough Boy will not help you sell biscuits. You want people to poke him in the belly to make him giggle? Who wants to buy biscuits after seeing Poppin Fresh molested by a human finger?

Wrigley-1983: The Juicy Fruit Ski commercial: What do acrobatic, skiers have to do with Juicy Fruit chewing gum? Will a rock song with mild, sexual overtones entice people to pop that gum in their mouths?

NFL-1996: Are you ready for some Football? Commercial: Hank Williams Jr. will not help you increase ratings. I feel like he’s screaming at me to watch football. Let’s get James Brown instead. He’ll put some funk into football.

I don’t believe that most advertisers are immoral or unethical, but they are smarter than we realize.

Pomegranates, avocados, and pistachios are more popular than ever. Twenty-five years ago, no one craved the juice from a pomegranate.

Their popularity is driven by clever marketing campaigns. Avocados are so popular that emergency rooms have seen an increase in avocado-related injuries.

I used to think that avocado was simple to cut open with a knife, but some people stab themselves while attempting culinary surgery.

I think that instant pots and air fryers are fine products, but I don’t have the physical space in my kitchen to include every appliance that is trending. I’m a sucker for advertising like everyone in America.

However, I try to consider if a new appliance will improve my life. Most of the time, the answer is no. For the time being, my life and kitchen are happy without fried air and digital pressure cookers.