Food advertisements are everywhere, and they can impact us in many ways. Today, I want to point out some ways food is marketed towards consumers and the best way we can interpret it.
Good vs. Bad
Food ads can be the biggest contributors to the demonization of foods. They typically label comfort foods and fast food “bad”, and fruits and vegetables “good”. They do this to sell their products and paint certain foods in a bad light. An example of a food advertised as “good” are blueberries. They are known as a “superfood” because they provide many rich nutrients and antioxidants, but this causes some people to believe that if they eat so much, they will be healthy. Eating so many blueberries can take away from other nutrients you need such as proteins and quality grains. In reality, all food needs to be eaten in moderation and too much of anything can have negative effects.
Pretty vs. Ugly
This is one that I see a lot in Instagram post and commercials. They create what looks like perfect food so that people are more drawn to it. This can increase sells and create a sense of perfection in society. For example commercials may use materials to look like the foods that they sell, but in reality the food doesn’t look like that.
An example of how many pancake commercials are made.
How we see fries in media vs. reality.