Simmering controversy
Crock-Pot maker to fans of This Is Us: Our slow cookers will not kill you
A friendly warning: Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler. This Is Us, NBC’s award-winning blockbuster series, is known for its tear-jerking tendencies. Call it mawkish.
Call it manipulative. The most cynical might call it emotional terrorism.
But now it’s come to, um, this? Culinary terrorism?
The show’s two-season path to revealing how — spoiler reminder! — patriarch Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) died firmly places the blame in the Jan. 23 episode on a faulty second-hand slow cooker, the humble, downright beloved appliance.
A CROCK-POT. SERIOUSLY?! Turns out that scene with the sweet old couple was actually another flashback to the time when Jack and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) were still expecting the arrival of their triplets.
And the man, hoping to salvage some of the junk his wife wants tossed, offers the cooker to a newly married Jack and Rebecca. “Only two years old, but there’s a lot of great family meals to be cooked in that. You gotta fiddle with the switch, but it works.”
Serious or not, viewers had things to say:
“My mom just threw our crockpot out #ThisIsUs#SOSIMILAR” — Chelsea Stevens (@ChelseaMS731)
“I get married in less than 2 months and suddenly I feel the need to remove the crockpot from the registry. WE. DONT. NEED. IT. #ThisIsUs” — Lauren Luna (@_vivalaluna)
If you closely analyze the footage, you’ll notice the appliance is merely shown to say “slow cooker.” For better or, now, worse, the Crock-Pot brand has become synonymous with slow cookers, so it became a natural target for people’s ire and tears. We inquired with Crock-Pot. Here’s what it had to say:
“Crock-Pot understands the concerns brought up by last night’s episode of This Is Us, and we too are heartbroken by the latest development in Jack’s storyline. However, it is important that our consumers understand and have confidence that all Crock-Pot slow cookers exceed all internal testing protocols and all applicable industry safety standards and regulations as verified by independent third-party testing labs.
“For nearly 50 years with over 100 million Crock-Pots sold, we have never received any consumer complaints similar to the fictional events portrayed in last night’s episode. In fact, the safety and design of our product renders this type of event nearly impossible.
“In addition, and most relevant to the concerns consumers are having after watching the recent This Is Us episode, our Crock-Pot slow cookers are low current, low wattage appliances with self-regulating, heating elements . ...
“The switches within our slow cookers are subjected to additional internal testing, which includes a rotary knob endurance test, rotary knob force test and flame burning test and constructed of self-extinguishing, flame resistant material.
“Our hope is that the team at NBC’s This Is Us will help us in spreading factual information regarding our product’s safety.
“While we know their primary mission is to entertain — something they have continued to excel in — we also feel they have a responsibility to inform. Just like many fans, we will be watching next week’s episode to see how Jack’s story progresses and, regardless of the outcome, we want consumers first and foremost to know they are safe when using their Crock-Pot.”
Series creator Dan Fogelman also took to Twitter to defend the kitchen staple.
“Taking a moment to remind everyone that it was a 20 year old fictional crockpot with an already funky switch? Let’s not just lump all those lovely hardworking crockpots together. #ThisIsUs”