Food is a big part of people’s lives. It is necessary for survival and everyone must eat it. Food plays a big role in media through sending various messages and by dominating the advertising industry. By purchasing and consuming specific brands, food groups, and amounts, a message is sent to the buyer, seller, and all people around who observe this happening.
What people buy expresses a message of how much disposable income they make, what their political beliefs are, and how they wish for their body to look like. Mark Pursehouse expresses the large influence media has on us by writing about how "the danger is of entirely missing the levels at which these tabloids are recognized (the identities and investments they serve)..." (Looking at the Sun: Into the Nineties With a Tabloid and Its Readers 205). Media forces people to take on an identity when buying a specific food. Media stereotypes certain foods to specific races, religions, and genders. If a man buys steaks, lobster, or items from a high end store or restaurant, he is saying that he has lots of money. Media imposes into cultures by branding them to particular foods. It is often seen in advertisements that Asian people will be eating rice or sushi, and Black people will eat fried chicken or watermelon. This is shown in the pictures provided.
The picture below shows Whole Foods grocery store where the customers pay a higher price for excellent customer service, high-end food, and fresh groceries. Customers here deliver a message of having a steady solid income, and wanting good quality food.
People who purchase organic foods express messages of wanting unprocessed foods from a safe and natural environment where animals and nature are unharmed. This often portrays a consumers' political views of being left-wing. Many foods communcate ideas beyond hunger, such as politics, race, or desired body image.
This is a model of a thin woman made out of peaches. This expresses that in order to look very thin and feminine, women must consume fresh fruit such as peaches.
McDonald's has recently recieved a poor image due to health studies and experiments. It has become a place where their consumers have little income and are generally overweight. If a person eats from McDonald's they are often frowned upon through media, such as this picture having the McDonald's logo and catch phrase branded on a person's obese arm.
This woman is eating an apple and drinking water, which shows that in order to look very thin and healthy, such as the woman shown, you must eat and drink the things that she is eating and drinking. This advertisement speaks to women and lets them know that they must eat fruit such as apples in order to be thin.
This picture shows how America has received a poor image for consuming large amounts of fatty foods. The ad shows that Americans are involved in unhealthy foods from a young age, and continue these eating habits into adulthood.
Eating at a fancy dinner setting such as the one below shows high power and income.
This man is interested in the organic fruits and vegetables below, which hints toward his political and social views. Media transforms simple grocery shopping into a way of delivering social status and portraying a public definition of one's self.
This ad is for chicken fingers named "Obama-Fingers". This ad is stereotyping Black people for liking chicken and relating it to our current President Obama who happens to be Black. This ad delivers the message that all Black people love fried chicken, especially Barack Obama, the President of the United States.
This ad is making fun of Black people and portraying that all Black people love watermelon. This is a stereotype within media and ads such as this continue to deliver this message.
These cookies are in the shape of elephants and American flags. The elephants are representing Republicans and by eating, baking, selling, or buying these cookies, people are expressing politics through the medium of food.
This is a creative combination of different foods to represent a graveyard. The use of gummy worms, candy pumpkins, Oreo crumbs, and cookies with "RIP" on them deliver the message of a graveyard through food. Much of our culture revolves around food and the combination of different foods can deliver an even stronger message through media.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteYou raise an interesting case that is often times overlooked in our culture. The source of your food seems to be related to income for many families in our area. It appears that stores such as Whole Foods indicate a higher income. Interestingly enough, Whole Foods places their stores careflly so that they are typically in higher income towns.
These images are very powerful. I had no idea that there were outwardly racist food items out there of this magnitude. I think that the pictures helped show how strong your argument is.
ReplyDeleteFood can definitely be used to stereotype a group of people. The images you posted were very ridiculous and displayed that racism transcends many boundaries. Additionally, food is definitely used by consumers to display one's social status in society. Think about the type of alcohol one drinks or the type of steak one orders. Great topic.
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