While watching TV for this artifact, I realized that society is focused around TV shows and advertisement. I caught myself eating a lot while I was watching TV, popcorn and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are a favorite. Then I started to realize how so many of the commercials are about food, and generally it is about fast food and other “junk” food. These commercials state their opinion on how this food is the next best thing, even if it isn’t. They want to trap you in the business of junk food because once you are hooked, it is hard to break a habit. It seems that everywhere you go, the movie theater, driving down the road, malls, sporting events, all advertise some kind of food. Take the Super bowl for example. Companies spend millions of dollars on the commercial space of this most watched game. Many commercials portray the happiness and fun by the consumption of these unhealthy foods with friends, most advertisements are about beer. Well, beer is made up of carbohydrates. So what do you think will happen to your body by consuming many beers? What we don’t realize is that they have the “attractive” person doing the advertising, who is skinny and toned, when in reality, if you eat what they advertise, you won’t be like that. You will probably become unhealthy and obese. Many show the positive side of food verses the negative, not only consequences, but also the origins. If people were to even watch a half hour of Food Inc. their stomachs would turn and they would probably get sick from knowing what actually goes into their food. Most of the fast food restaurants would probably go out of business with the consumer knowledge of the quality of the food. Big companies disregard this fact because the advertisements sell. If people appear to be having fun, and the food looks good, people are willing to follow the commercials lead.
1. With the knowledge of Food Inc., are you more worried about the origin of your food?
2. How often do you watch TV? How many of those commercials that you see do you disregard?
The public face of advertising is always a wonder to consider. With food quality decreasing, we need to believe the inverse, a constant increase. After seeing Food Inc I was caught completely off guard, and immediately began to question all my food. While it has helped me watch my intake, the subject has not produced much utility.
ReplyDeleteI don’t always watch television, when I do, I tend to ignore advertising, or at least the audio pitch. The image placement cannot be ignored completely, though. While I can’t account for how this affects me, the subtlety must be doing something.
It might have been helpful to focus on one artifact (one commercial, the commercials during one television show) to focus your thoughts. Your general observations about food advertising are good, but spread a bit thin.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think so much food advertising is for junk food? Why is most beer advertising for crappy light beer? How would a company advertise broccoli, for example? And if a company did advertise broccoli, would we trust that it was telling us the truth?