mechtopia
Food advertising: what annoys me.
I thought I'd rant about food advertising. When I watch the TV, some adverts make me seethe with the amount of careful language manipulation that goes on. Quite frankly, I'd rather they tried to entertain me, than mislead me. Here are some of the methods I've seen used to peddle food to the masses.
They tell you what's not it it, when what's in it might be more important.
What do I mean? Well, what's completely natural, has no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, is 100% sugar free, and forms part of a healthy, balanced diet? Lard, that's what. When you listen to a food advert, whatever they don't mention that could be in the food, that's probably what's in the food. If it's full of fat, it's natural and has no chemical additives. If it's completely artificial, then it's low in calories. Even some of the worst things can be spun to seem good by one measure or another: Product X: now 100% arsenic free!
Distancing yourself from a claim.
Reading this blog post could help prevent death by shark attacks (but it probably won't). Smearing butter on your forehead might help you get a job (but it probably won't) Eating product X could help support your immune system that might help keep your heart healthy (You fill in the gaps).
Pretending to sell to the baby.
Yeees, who is a gullible consumer? coochy coochy coo! This food is full of vitamins, isn't it liddle babby, wabby woo! Putting a baby in shot is license to treat the consumer like an idiot, and hope they'll fill their tummy wum wums with your prodddy woddy wuct.
Random Statement.
Why not round off your advert with a random statement that doesn't follow from anything you've said, but a viewer might confuse with the narrative? Product X. Because you're not a mass murderer.
Statistical jiggery pokery
The trick of reversing the percentage is getting a bit old now. You used to see claims of things being "95% fat free", which is just another way of saying "this product is 5% fat!" but consumers are getting wise. A newer approach with percentages is, in my eyes even less useful to the consumer: the "made with" claim. "Product X is made with 100% chicken" might suggest that the product is all chicken, but the crucial word here is "with" and not "from" - by saying that it's made "with" 100% chicken, all you're saying is that if your food is 30% chicken, 100% of that 30% is chicken. By replacing the 30% statistic with the word "with" you free yourself from the burden of facts.
So what annoys you about food advertising?
Posted at 04:42PM Dec 04, 2009 by ohp in General | Comments[0]