Food
advertising is increasingly more important in our daily life, since it plays an
indispensable role in our preferences of food, which means it directly affect
our health and mood. Different individuals have various preferences. So food
advertising becomes a kind of culture, which is worth studying and analyzing.
For me, the most important step of food advertising is to target the potential
consumers and find out their preferences. Nevertheless, the exigence of food
advertisements is to induce people to choose their products, no matter who the
target consumers are and what their products are. So I would like to show
several food advertisements and how do they appeal to their audience.
The
first picture is a creative advertisement of Burger King. Even though it is
simple, this picture lefts us a lot to think about. The chapped lip in the
picture exaggeratedly shows that the burger is so big that it can even make our
lips chapped, which also reflects the slogan in the bottom of the picture: Real
big burgers. Therefore, it might not be a surprise for us to find that people
from lower and middle classes are the main target customers of Burger King.
Here are the two apparent reasons. First, this advertisement focuses on the
large size of burgers instead of their heath and taste. Second, large size
suggests that people can buy more food with little money. Most middle and lower
class people pay more attention to the quantity and prices of food, hence,
these two strong appeals will undoubtedly attract them. This refers to the
cultural preference mentioned in the “Authenticity in America” written by
Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky. Moreover, education level is always the main
method to distinguish different social classes. The language used in the slogan
of this advertisement is easy to comprehend; it has no complex grammar and
uncommon vocabularies. So the simple language of the slogan supports my
speculation that people from lower and middle class are the main audience of
this advertisement and the target customers of Burger King as well. Besides the
social status, people who are on diet are not the target consumers of Burger
King since these burgers are full of meat and calories.
As
for me, it is an extremely creative and successful advertisement, concisely
showing the main demand of Burger King’s target consumers and inducing people
with direct visual impact. From this picture, I find that “large quantities of
food” is the food value of these people preferring Burger King.
Unlike
most advertisements of Burger King and other fast food emphasizing generous
quantities and low prices, the focus of Larkburger’s advertising is generally
centered on the health of its products and environmental protection. Hanging
the ingredients signboard of its products on the wall, Larkburger highlights
its natural ingredients and eco-friendly equipment; Making food out of 100%
natural materials, Larkburger cooks in pure canola oil and its products have no
preservatives or additives; saving energy and protecting the environment, Larkburger
uses energy efficient commercial equipment, reclaimed timber, biodegradable and
eco-friendly packaging. Moreover, the signboard also mentions that it is 100%
wind powered. All the factors mentioned on the ingredient signboard contribute
to the distinctive products of Larkburger, appealing to the people who are on
diet and the upper-class individuals. Upper-class individuals are more likely
to care about the nutrition, raw materials and manufacturing process of food.
Also, people who want to eat with low calories may prefer Larkburger because
using canola oil makes Larkburger’s products are free of trans fats.
Not
only health and the natural ingredients, but also the sense of protecting the
environment of Larkburger attracts a large amount of people. Looking at the
second advertisement of Larkburger, I find the beans are packed into a box made
out of paper while many restaurants use plastic containers. It apparently shows
the healthy food and environmentally friendly packaging of Larkburger.
Protecting
environment is becoming increasingly more important in the present-day society,
that is, eating eco-friendly food will become the mainstream of the times in
the near future. The green consciousness, therefore, is the most meaningful and
superior advantage of Larkburger’s advertising, which really benefits the whole
society. So the three strong appeals of Larkburger are: health, low calorie and
protecting the environment.
When
it comes to the green consciousness, the organic food of Whole Foods is also a
representative instance. This is an advertisement of Whole Foods: “Food in
Reverse” . At the beginning of the video, it says “People are thinking
backwards to take the food movement forward,” which means that the focus of
numerous individuals tends to move from having enough food and eating whatever
they like to the quality of food. People now pay more attention to the
manufacturing process and the raw materials of food, which pushes our eating
preference to a higher level- eating healthily and organically. Then the video
starts asking some questions about food. For instance, “Where did it come
from?” “Was it generally modified?” “Did it live in a cage?” and “How many
artificial ingredients are in there?” It starts with a series of questions,
generally inducing the audience to consider the source and the manufacturing
process of the food they are eating and advocating people to think before they
eat. This good start validly encourages its potential consumers to think about
the idea of organic food.
The
video of Whole Foods actually consists of two small videos. One is on the
right, showing some questions and ideas; another is on the left, showing the
source and the manufacturing process of its food. It is called “Food in
Reverse” in that it plays the process from cultivating food to eating food in
reverse. Undeniably, it is a direct and vivid approach to show its natural
ingredients to consumers, making a promise that all the food in Whole Foods are
organic. Further, the whole process of its food serves as a logos, supporting
and verifying the idea of organic food.
The
target audience of Whole Foods’s advertisement could be anybody, in that this
video is similar to an educational short lecture instead of a commercial. All
the sentences in the video are calling for eating healthily and organically.
But people who are on diet and upper-class people may prefer Whole Foods. In
the end, the video says “every bite has a story” and encourages people to learn
more about the stories behind food. This video is attractive in that it shows
the whole manufacturing process of food in reverse, effectively proofing that
the food of Whole Foods are all organic.
According
to the advertisement of Larkburger and Whole Foods, the food value of numerous
Americans trends to be eating for health. It does not reveal that eating fast
food like Burger King is wrong; comfort foods do not have to be healthy and
organic, eating for pleasure is always the first priority. Nonetheless, we
cannot deny the strong tendency towards eating healthily, and also, it becomes
one of the most popular slogans in many food advertisements.
Wow, ur first advertisement is really interesting. It's attractive for anyone to buy a larger burger with the lower prize! Also, you analyzed and explained the two advertisements in detail. :)
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