SE2 - Food Advertisements

SE2: Compare at least two food advertisements. Describe their design and rhetorical function. Who is their audience and what are their appeals? Based upon those appeals, what can you say about food cultures and values?

Food advertisements are created very carefully and worded in a specific manner in order to appeal to a specific target audience. How an advertisement is put together says both a lot about the values a certain type of audience favors as well as a lot about food culture as a whole. By comparing a set of advertisements one is able to see the differences in values for a specific demographic or target audience and learn about the role of food in society. I have decided to analyze an ad in Runner’s World magazine dealing with Panera Bread, as well as an ad in fine Cooking magazine dealing with Belgioioso cheese in order to see how the structure and layout of the ads give information about their target audience.

The first ad that I came to observe was as rather simplistic ad located in a running magazine called Runner’s World. The layout of the ad itself is very simplistic with only a picture of a large chicken salad in the center, a 2 sentence paragraph in the bottom left can corner, the Panera Bread Logo on the bottom right, and some text written in a circle around the salad plate. As I mentioned before, the ad appear very simple and is very neat and to the point. Having the large chicken salad in the center of the page and the text encircling it draws the eyes towards the center of the image and focuses in on the leafy-green color of the lettuce and the white, fresh texture of the chicken. Around the chicken salad plate, the text reads, “Antibiotic-free chicken in every bowl – Food you can trust in every bite.” The logo in the bottom right just has the regular Panera Bread symbol, but around it are the words, “ Live consciously – Eat deliciously.”

Being placed in a runner’s magazine, it is made clear that the target audience are athletic men and women that are interested in running and other physical activities associated with exercising. It is for this very reason that the Panera Bread ad contains health conscious vernacular such as “consciously” and “antibiotic-free”. Along with appealing to the health aspects of their chicken, Panera Bread also includes descriptions talking about how delicious their food is. This goes on that people don’t just want to eat healthy food, but also great tasting food. The best of both worlds is something that these people want to have and it is for this reason that Panera Bread is stating that their chicken is both healthy and delicious. Based on this ad alone one get to see that people care about the health effects of food and thus want to buy products that state some kind of health benefit or are natural or without preservatives. It also goes to show that healthy eating is also associated with a bland taste, so advertisers have to go on and state that their product is also palpable and great tasting. People want to eat something that they will enjoy and make them healthier. It just goes to show just how important health and taste are form this audience.

The second ad is one advertizing Belgioioso cheese, and is a print ad in the Fine Cooking magazine. This advertisement is much smaller than the first, only being half a page vertically. The layout is a little more complex because it depicts a variety of cheeses (blue, provolone, asiago, and gorgonzola) atop a t-bone steak, chicken, and hamburger. The center of the ad has some large, white text that reads, “Artisan. Hand-Made. Superior Quality.” Underneath this large text is a small paragraph describing how the cheese making is a craft and how the cheese ads a unique depth of flavor to a steak or hamburger. It also describes its Italian influence and describes its cheese as a specialty.

The audience for this specific brand of cheese is probably chefs and people that enjoy cooking gourmet meals. Having a spot in Fine Cooking magazine, this ad caters to an audience that cares about gourmet ingredients and fine dining. Similar to the findings in Freedman and Jurafsky’s analysis of food, language, and culture, in this particular ad, vocabulary is very important because it is trying to appeal to a higher class of people, specifically people with higher socioeconomic standing. The use of words such as “artisan”, “hand-made”, and “superior quality” are specifically chosen to convince the reader that this cheese is authentic and worth buying. The ad appeals to people that care about where their food comes, how it is made, and its quality. These values go to show that some people care greatly not just about the taste of their food but also about the authenticity of the food they eat. Food history and craftsmanship are factors that are just as important as flavor. What this goes to show is that authenticity plays a big role in how a food product is perceived and may influence is a person will buy the product or not.

From these two advertisements, one can see that food ads play on the values of its audience and use them to have greater influence on the choices people make in regards to the food they decide to eat. However, these values that people care about don’t just give an indication of what food them might like, but also a look into cultural and societal issues. For instance we see that people care greatly about the taste and health implications of the food that they consume. We also learned how authenticity is also a value that people care about because it allows people to feel good about the food they buy or eat and deepens the bond that people have with food (not just eating food for survivial).