Food Advertising or Food Disaster?

Whether we like to admit it or not, food plays a major role in our daily lives. It not only shapes who we are but our surrounding cultural landscape. Likewise, our environment –the people we know, the school and church we attend, and the media we ingest—has a large influence on our consumer and food decisions. These gastric choices have a long term affect not only on our bodies but other aspects of our lives as well.

If we are what we eat, then why do we allow others to dictate such an important part of who we are and what food culture has become? When I first began these journals, I knew that food advertising would be a great research topic for me because I’ve been a “foodie” (extreme food connoisseur) since I was little. My mom was the homemaker, while my dad worked to support the family. We didn’t have much money, but that never stopped my mom from making delicious meals that were also healthy!

I often curiously watched my mom as she commandeered our grocery cart down the aisles of the grocery store. With a shopping list held tightly in her hand, she would scour the store for deals. However, price was not her only concern. No, the food had to be wholesome too. Mom’s favorite grocery pastime included reading every ingredient label for every food item on every shelf. It’s no wonder why grocery shopping gives me anxiety now.

It didn’t occur to me until recently that my mom is a Food Nazi. I wasn’t allowed soda, juice, or potato chips (among many other things). Mom found Lunchables and frozen dinners to be laughable; and fast food was out of the question. Don’t even get me started on sweets, of which I was only allowed to eat on special occasions and lovingly devoured.

Food was also an important topic at the dinner table. I would always quiz my parents about the meals we ate because let's face it - I'm nosy. I also wasn’t allowed to participate in the cooking process until middle school. What kind of cheese was on the pasta? How do tomatoes grow? What kind of meat is in a “meatball?” How was that meat killed? Why couldn’t we eat something else?

Experiences like this led to my quick introduction to the food pyramid. I guess my parents wanted to get it over with early. Mom and Dad essentially told me that food served different functions for our bodies and that I was supposed to consume certain amounts of each food group to stay healthy; however, they also admitted that even “junk food” was okay in moderation. So here I am now, a college student living on my own without the comfort of their nest. I’m fortunate to have food-conscious parents who guided me into good eating decisions. But what happens when someone hasn’t been educated on health and nutrition? What results when parents, teachers, clergymen, etc. don’t guide us on our gastric journey? How much of an influence does the media and more specifically, food marketing, have on our bodies and the surrounding cultural landscape? These were the questions I sought to answer.

In my quest, I read several essays on psychological and cultural theories, as well as, observed numerous commercials and articles on food. I believe that the most influential of my reads was Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project. In Fed Up with Lunch, Sarah Wu (Mrs. Q) decided to eat school lunches for one school year and anonymously blog about to raise awareness about the poorly funded and regulated school lunch program in her school district. She religiously took pictures of her meals, kept a food journal, and investigated every ingredient on the children’s plates. Wu also encouraged other food enthusiasts to contribute essays on the topic. Additionally, Wu started the “Titanium Spork Award” to recognize leaders in health and nutrition like Jamie Oliver (Food Revolution), Ed Bruske (The Slow Cook), and Ann Cooper (Renegade Lunch Lady). Wu’s blog (and book) sparked a food revolution and encouraged people to become more involved and outspoken about the food their families ate.

What I liked about Fed Up with Lunch was that Wu’s ideas were simple. If we receive proper nutrition education and access to healthy foods early in life, we will continue to make good eating decisions throughout it. Wu stressed that not only parents but schools, food service providers, and the government should ensure that children were not being short-changed where their well-being is concerned. A majority of Wu’s students were on the discount meal program at her school and the school district cut corners when ordering their meals. The problem with this is that not only were these lunches often the most important meals in the students’ day, but they were also extremely unhealthy and packed with high fructose corn syrup, fat, fillers, and “anti-foaming agents” (I really wish I was kidding about the last one!). Wu believed that these ingredients contributed towards sugar rushes (hyperactivity) in her children, as well as, “sugar crashes” (sluggishness) which affected the student’s ability to pay attention in class. It is honorable for someone to raise awareness for children’s nutrition, but why should adults care about what we eat?

Some may wonder why doctors and dieticians are so fanatical about healthy eating. Let us begin with a brief review of the food guide pyramid. You do remember it, don’t you? The food guide pyramid is broken down into six groups: fats, oils, and sweets; dairy products; meats, beans, and nuts; vegetables; fruits; and carbohydrates (bread and rice). These groups are assembled in order of the smallest number of required servings per day to the largest number of servings. One can learn the importance of each food group when looking at them individually. Fats and sweets provide us with instant taste gratification but have little-to-no nutritious value; while dairy gives us calcium which is good for our bones. The meat, beans, and nuts group provides us with protein which help us build strong muscles. Fruits and veggies offer us much needed vitamins and carbohydrates give us a good source of energy. If you are what you eat, then you should want to eat well.

Eating isn’t that simple though. A variety of factors influence someone’s consumer decisions including: age, sex, and economics. Food advertising plays and extremely large role too; what’s most intriguing is that according to the Edibles Advocate Alliance, “Generation Z –the most tech-savvy of all generations – is already more than 20 million strong and the only marketing that has an effect are digital media campaigns through TV, film, and the internet” (“What’s Wrong With Our Food System?”).

According to the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, 3-17 year-olds have an annual purchasing influence of $15 to $90 billion. They also say that parents are two to three times more likely to name a child – not themselves – as the family expert for selection of fast food, snack food, restaurants, and new breakfast cereals (Kraak and Pelletier).

I think most advertisers would agree that children are the most impressionable of their target consumer markets. After all, they want whatever the kitschiest new toy is regardless of the price (because let’s admit it, they have no concept of economics and how money works). They try to be cool like their favorite actors and performers by eating the snacks that Nick Jonas likes or flaunting clothes like Miley Cyrus wears. Advertising towards children is obviously a no-brainer. Especially when you factor in the fact that many kids come from households where both parents are working, so there’s less oversight on the TV they watch, music they listen to, who they hang out with, or what they eat. Mom and Dad buy little Jimmy his favorite cereal not because it’s healthy for him, but because it results in instant gratification for both the child and parents.

“When kids reach their schools, being cool and normal are integral parts of their social identities – leading to peer pressure of what they have in their lunches, what they eat from the cafeteria, and more”(“What’s Wrong With Our Food System?”). According to one Kaiser Family Foundation study, “From an annual perspective, kids see upwards of 230 hours of advertising and more than 30,000 advertisements for toys and food; 50% of all advertising time on children’s TV programming is food alone” (“Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States – Kaiser Family Foundation”). These facts may not seem so alarming until one looks at what the food advertising is aimed towards. “34% of food advertising is for candy and snacks, 28% is for cereal, 10% is for fast food, 4 % is for dairy products, 1% are for fruit juices and ZERO PERCENT of advertising to children and teens is for fruits or vegetables” (“Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States – Kaiser Family Foundation”). Did Veggie Tales suddenly drop off the face of the planet? Are kids really that disinterested in eating healthy?

As it turns out, the answer is a big “NO.” As Wu found out in Fed Up with Lunch, kids like food that looks good. Obviously they’re going to eat the decadently, golden-brown frozen French fries over a wilted, topping-less salad. A lot of prepackaged food (much of what is served to children) is cut into fun shapes or dyed attractive colors. Wu found that instead of offering plain broccoli to a child for instance, they’re more than happy eating a bowl of mixed vegetables in kid-friendly colors that grab their attention in the food line. The same goes for fruit. Children will eat fresh fruit if given the option, but due to the short amount of time allowed to ship, store, and serve it, schools are afraid of spoilage and a loss of revenue.

Feeding kids food out of a can is more cost-effective for parents and schools in the short-term because they have a longer shelf-life. However, eating such foods packed with salts, sugars, meat byproducts (what does that even mean?), additives, and other carcinogens can lead to health problems in the long-run. If you couple poor-nutrition with lack of exercise (recess anyone?), you end up with a generation of obese, diabetic, asthmatic, and high-cholesterol-having people. Now that isn’t good, is it?

When conducting my research I came across several interesting commercials. The first commercial featured Emmanuel Lewis during the heyday of his acting career.The commercial opened with various clips of a smiley Lewis sitting at a table and happily eating Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks. “As the following series of unrehearsed scenes should tell you,” the narrator said. “When Mrs. Paul’s asked critics to try their crispy, crunchy fish sticks and filets, they gave them a rave.”

“When was the last time your kids had this much fun eating something this good?” the narrator asked. Since little kids all around the world could relate to Lewis from TV, it makes sense that they would annoy their parents into purchasing the food their favorite actor ate. I have no doubt that if Mrs. Paul’s critics were kids, they would give such a product good reviews.

What we need to remember is that just because something looks good – doesn’t mean it is good for you. In a recent MSNBC news report titled “Should you defrost your diet?” the reporter said that frozen meals can be a problem for “salt-sensitive” people as well as those with high blood pressure, African-Americans, and older adults. How about that? Mrs. Paul’s has an African-American child selling food he shouldn’t eat. And not once did I see an ingredient list in that commercial. What irks me is that they aren’t the first company to do this. Companies should really start considering the long-term affects their products will have on customers, especially if they would like them to stay loyal and stick around.

While advertising aimed at children has a slew of problems, the same can be said for advertising aimed at adults. Let’s begin with men. I don’t know why it is, but commercials always seem to push men to be more masculine, tough, and lady-killers. The first “male-centric” commercial that I viewed was for NYPD Pizza. A male narrator opened with, “We dare you to challenge NYPD against any of our competitors.” The commercial concluded with a male customer stating the facts, “Ninety-nine cent slices, great value, forget about it!” My biggest complaint with this commercial was that the narrator’s accent; I felt like I was watching The Godfather sans “Guitos.”

What also bothered me was that the narrator overly-exerted his tough guy stance. Since when is pizza manly? Everyone I know eats pizza! What I also noticed was that upon first viewing the commercial one would think “Oh the restaurant is decorated nicely…oh it’s pretty ethnic.” However, this was totally not the case. Of the two token employees featured in the clip, both were in subordinate roles as either a server or cook. I was amused by the fact that the only two women employees pictured were pretty. I guess one can attribute that to scopophilia and women’s sole function of to-be-looked-at-ness. Are there really no ugly servers out there? I could care less about what my server looked like as long as my food was made right. I always thought that NYC was a melting pot so I didn’t find the picture that the commercial painted to be very accurate. Then again if you’re a store owner trying to entice a stereotypical middle-aged, white male into your restaurant, I guess it would be the perfect picture to paint; one where he felt in control.

Another commercial that I viewed was for Hulkster Cheeseburgers. Some may remember Hulk Hogan from his wresting days, and at the height of Hulkmania he released the Thunder Mixer (blender) and cheeseburgers. The burger packaging featured Hogan flexing his muscles and holding a burger the size of his head. The burger was advertised as “flame-broiled;” In actuality, Hulk’s monster-sized burger was about the same size and cost of a McDonald’s (100% pure beef) double cheeseburger and that flame-broiled patty was actually a mixture of beef, water, and tofu. How many manly men do you know who would purchase a tofu burger if advertised as such? Isn’t such labeling deceptive to the consumer? Hulk is known for being an extremely healthy athlete but these burgers cried, "coronary failure!" Luckily, the general public was not stupid enough to think that if they chowed down on some Hulksters, they’d spurt Bruce Banner muscles and win wrestling titles. This product failed.

If men should eat food to become beefcakes, then where do women fit in? Apparently we are not supposed to look like we eat food. At all. No, according to food advertising, we are to have waif figures with glowing skin and luxurious hair. A great example of this was a Godiva chocolate commercial that I came across recently. Women and chocolate are like the perfect so it seems pointless to advertise such a product. Right? Wrong. Women tend to be the purse strings in a relationship and treating oneself –even to sweets– is usually reserved for special occasions. Godiva found its way around such a notion. The commercial featured several clips of beautiful, luxurious women being waited on by attractive men in a vineyard setting. Each lady eyed her companion seductively and in return, the man handed his lady friend a box of chocolates. What was the hidden message? “No, you cannot possibly self-indulge, so instead you must rely on sex appeal to get what you want.”

I wonder what a guy would think if he viewed this commercial. The food models were not only beautiful but powerful. They were depicted as having the upper hand over the males who foolishly followed them around, longing for their attention and touch. Freud said that women can only exist in relation to castration and not transcend it; essentially, a woman can only be a bearer and not maker of meaning. I disagree with him.

I also don’t want to accept cinema’s formative structures in Mulvey’s essay on the topic. She said that pleasures are offered through scopophilia (“the pleasure in looking”) and narcissism where we are fascinated by the characters’ likeness and recognition (to ourselves). I suppose a woman could view the Godiva divas and pine for their glamour, but then the chocolatier is no longer peddling chocolate but selling self-esteem. I do agree with Mulvey’s observation that women on film are not only glamorized but also sexualized; especially where the female falls in love with the protagonist and becomes his property. This is what one can assume happened in the chocolate commercial when the characters exited the frame.

Food advertising’s biggest fault becomes obvious when stereotyping minorities. When I originally reviewed cereal commercials on YouTube, I came across a clip from the “Chappelle Show.” Chappelle Cereal was a spoof that makes fun of the vain, superficial cereal commercials fed to kids every Saturday morning; however, it also made some great cultural statements. In Willis’ essay, “Symbolic Creativity,” he said that cultural commodities should be viewed as catalysts and not just products. His essay distinguished between different types of consumer identities and how group identities can be transferred to you when you purchase certain products. In Chappelle’s cereal commercial, actors sold Caucasian children a “fun” cereal “complete with purple crack pipes, brown musicians, and black and white observations.” Obviously, Chappelle was employing satire. However, depictions such as this are often pedaled by media and advertising... An unfortunate, close-minded portrayal of a very multidimensional community.

The same can be said for Crunkjuice’s advertising. Lil’ Jon used his role as a hip hop rapper to create a culture in which he could embrace such a stereotype, as well as profit off of it. For those who are unfamiliar with Crunkjuice, it is an energy drink named after its predecessor, a concoction of Redbull and Hennessey that was popular in the black community. The crunk lifestyle (booze, babes, and parties) was something we were marketed to aspire to. In Dick Hebdige’s essay “Subculture,” he stated that we should not underestimate the power of “spectacular” subculture in its metaphor for anarchy and semantic disorder. Hebdige explained that subculture aims to express forbidden contents like class-consciousness, behavior codes, and unnatural articulations. While these commercials spoke on behalf of a marginalized people’s experiences and identities (probably un-approvingly) they also exploited their consumers. Who bought the sugar-saturated drink? Tweens. And who was again portrayed in a poor light? The black community.

After immersing myself in all of these cultural texts, I can safely say that I still self-identify as a foodie; but a frustrated one at that. I would like to believe that food can be a nutritious gift shared by all–a friend that can bring people of various ages, sexes, and backgrounds together–because let’s face it, it’s both tasty and emotionally rewarding. However, I’ve also learned that large corporations do not respect where our food comes from and the impact it has on our bodies and the surrounding environment (economically, politically, or otherwise). Admit it: kids (or anyone else for that matter) don’t need sweets 24/7; men need to focus on building more than just man-meat; and women need to put down the Slimfast and embrace a yummy yet nutritious meal. Additionally, the media and hence food advertising, tends to portray minorities in a subservient and primitive light; which also is not cool. We’ve allowed these companies to reduce us to sacksful of flab that are always in need of improvement. The time to take a stand is NOW.

Put down the Honeybun and do the math! Major food corporations are making oodles of money by selling us stuff we could do without both physically and financially. Instead, we –and I mean communities as a whole because this needs to be a group effort—need to lay down the law. Don’t you dare put that slop on my kid’s lunch tray if I’m not allowed to read the ingredient label. Quit packing the end caps of my local grocery store with candy and instead showcase some ripe fruit or delightfully colored vegetables. Yes, I can eat that red velvet cake without gaining 28,908,308 lbs. and the key to it all is moderation. Moderation is something that we often forget even in the non-food aspects of our lives. If we can recall the food guide pyramid lesson from earlier in this essay, all food is OK when you don’t overdo it. Society as a whole needs to embrace the literature surrounding nutrition and take the time to learn from it. Passing the gospel on is really the only hope to shape our food-conscious culture into something we can all benefit from.

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