Front and Back Stages: Goffman applied to the Food Industry

The topic of last class consisted of a discussion on the food industry and the types of advertising they engage in to promote their product and hide its often grisly origins.  The commentator and creator of Food Inc. described a disconnect between consumers and producers of food.  We as consumers are no longer aware of where our food is coming from and the processes involved in creating it.  One way the food industry creates this disconnect is with the brand images they show.  Their product is often described as "farm fresh" and has a picture of a traditional farm with a red barn and green fields.  This is simply not the case.

Interestingly enough, Erving Goffman, a noted sociologist, was brought into the conversation.  And many of his thoughts on impression management can be directly related to the food industry and their attempts to hide their true image.  Within impression management is the concept of  the front stage and back stage of anyone's personality.  The front stage consists of a highly managed impression that one uses with friends and in daily contact to provide a desirable image to others.  The back stage is an area where one can relax their impression management and act as they truly are.  The food industry uses a front stage impression to convey a message to consumers about their product but their backstage is highly industrialized and not ideal for most consumers.  They are a two-faced industry that promotes a highly superficial and downright erroneous image of themselves.

I feel it is imperative to once again reconnect with the origins of the food we eat.  It is important to shorten this gap between us and the food industry for regulation purposes and to forecast any possible detrimental affects it might have on our society.

Advertising and the "child obesity epidemic."

After watching the documentary Food Inc. I began to wonder about how food advertising affects its viewers and what types of advertisements are most prevalent.  And according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation a vast majority of the ads that kids see on television are for products that nutritionists are telling us to eat less of.  The study found that children under eight see one advertisement for nutrition or fitness for every 26 food ads and for preteens, it's one advertisement for every 48 food ads for preteens.  The ratio is worst of all for teens; seeing one health conscious ad for every 130 unhealthy food ads.

The plethora of unhealthy food advertisements that children are subject to may be a perpetuating cause for the child obesity epidemic.  Television has become so ingrained in our society that it is no longer a luxury of entertainment but part of our daily existence.  A normalcy that is now overlooked.  These young children are bombarded by these unhealthy food advertisements a majority of the time and begin to internalize the message as it becomes part of their routine; making it a habit.

However, there is hope.  Recently, a task force of lawmakers, FCC commissioners, broadcasters, and food and beverage executives conducted a meeting as policy makers are putting increasing pressure and accountability on broadcasters to address obesity.  Ten major food and beverage marketers, including McDonalds, voluntarily agreed to devote at least half of their advertisements to promote healthier diets and lifestyles for children.

As awareness about child obesity and accountability towards marketers increases, let us hope that progressive steps will be made to educate our youth about healthy living.  We are truly facing an epidemic that must be addressed through the forum that helped to perpetuate the problem in the first place.  It falls on marketers and advertisers to set the bar to reverse their image and re-inform the public and specifically our youth about healthy food options.

Where Does Rape Fit in to Advertising

I recently discovered some controversial ads by Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana.  Both ads contain a single scantily clad female surrounded by shirtless males in aggressive stances.  The public backlash of these photos describes them as promoting violence against women and rape.  I realize that the United States is known for its proliferation of sex in the media and advertising.  It is part of our cultural history and is now a societal norm.  But where do we cross the line -- some would agree, with the Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabanna ads.

It is the American ideology to push the envelope and go where no one has gone before.  That is what makes America what it is today.  But I would have to agree that these ads push the line between art and sadism.  Even if rape and violence against women is an extreme view (which isn't a stretch) of this photo, it definitely is promoting aggressive hegemonic masculinity and male dominance over women.  This seems odd in an era where women have almost reached parity with men in terms of the wage and gender gaps in our society.  However, maybe the shock is what these advertisers were looking for.  The motivation might have been to create controversy in order to promote their name, but unfortunately not their image.

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2007/03/stefano_gabbano.html
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2010/10/calvin-klein-ads-banned-for-promoting-rape.html

The Polls are In and it's Internet Baner Ads by a Landslide

In an era where individualized advertising is the preferred technique, Facebook is one of the most popular forums.  Many of us can recall banner ads on our profile page that are tailored to our interests by tracking our movement on the internet.  You might think that this is the most effective technique to grab our attention but you'd be wrong.

AdweekMedia/Harris Poll conducted a survey to find out what kind of advertising people were most likely to ignore.  And a majority of the vote goes to Internet banner ads.  43% of those surveyed stated that Internet banner ads were the advertising type they ignored the most.  Internet search-engine ads also did poorly- 20% claiming they ignored them the most.  So why is it that these types of ads are most likely to be skipped over and disregarded when they show a great amount of individual connection.

As far as Facebook goes, it seems to me that people have no desire to follow a banner ad because that is not what they're on Facebook for.  They are looking for a connection to their peers and family and not for an advertisement that they are bombarded with constantly.  In addition, these banner ads have become almost ubiquitous across the Internet; so much so that I can't recall the last one I noticed simply because I ignore them all.  It could be that the amount of these ads is overwhelming and the actual importance of them is minimal.  They have simply become background, part of the landscaping that comprises the Internet.  They are just a piece of the structure that, more or less, has very little importance or influence over our daily lives.

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3iff352c323b9a2c10626c155c7736411a

The Rise of Communist China; The Fall of Traditional Advertising

Upon reading about the history of advertising in China I found  the development and extreme shifts in the role of advertising fascinating.  It seems that China has seen advertising bloom, have it completely taken away, and then have it reemerge in contemporary society.  One aspect of advertising in China that I found particularly fascinating occurred as the Communist regime rose to power in 1949.

With the advent of Communism in China came the complete removal of traditional Chinese advertising up until that point.  Traditional advertising was replaced with propaganda media with the ultimate goal of serving the Communist party.  This extreme and sudden repeal of advertising is hard to imagine.  This made me wonder how life in the United States would change if modern advertising as we know it was suddenly taken away?

So much of what we fill our time with throughout the day are supplemented by advertisements.  The TV we watch, the flyers and billboards in the city, the internet ads, etc.  Our whole environment would be transformed and seem boring compared to our normal visuals.  The numerous opportunities we are presented with on a daily basis would disappear and our knowledge of so many products would vanish.  Some might find this change pleasing and a refreshing change of pace, but I would think a majority of the population would begin to miss the normalcy it has come to claim in our lives.  It is a staple of the environment and is just part of our world in the United States.  This all is not to mention the economic benefits advertising has and the many forums it sustains merely with its presence.  All in all, the thought of having a world without advertising is like taking a piece out of a puzzle.  It would be incomplete and the picture that is our daily lives would become skewed and ambiguous.

Consumer Segmentation Research Paper

Just recently I finished my research paper on the systems and concepts that are used to categorize consumers into distinct groups to be marketed to.  I'd like to reflect on several points that peaked my interest in my research and development of my paper.

One method used to segment consumers that was discussed in class was the VALS system, which seemed to be a very popular and modern choice for marketers and advertisers.  However, during my research I uncovered another method, the LOV (List of Values) that involves providing subjects with a list of values and having them rank them or having them choose their two most important values.  What was interesting is that in one research paper I uncovered, which was slightly dated (1978) it compared the two systems and found that the LOV system was more effective in segmenting consumers.  But in our class readings the only method given was the VALS system and other methods were left out completely.

And later during research I found that the method described in class readings was actually a revised version of the VALS system; termed VALS 2.  However, this distinction was not brought up in the reading and the new version was misleadingly labeled VALS.  The updated version of VALS has slightly different consumer categories and contains only eight categories and not the original nine.  I wonder if the new version of VALS, VALS 2, is now more effective than the LOV system.  I would like to find more research on the comparison of the updated VALS 2 version and the LOV method and see which ones are used more commonly by marketers and advertisers.

Wal-Mart: Beauty and the Beast!

Wal-mart, possibly the most dominant and profitable retailer of recent, has come to wear two masks.  One the one hand they are this profit-driven evil that crushes small town Mom & Pop shops without remorse.  They drive labor costs down to a bare minimum forcing other stores to change their policies.  By the way, as of 2006, the Wal-Mart full-time employee earned & 9.76 an hour.  They also import a majority of their products from China, destroying U.S. manufacturing jobs, some who's business' previous major client was Wal-Mart itself.  

However, on the other hand they provide an efficient and convenient service to Americans at the lowest price possible.  This benefits many working and middle class Americans who don't have the money to shop at other local businesses where the prices are higher.  

The polarization of Wal-Mart is extreme and continues to grow as the store does.  While there are major benefits there are major detrimental effects.  One Fortune 500 article by Jerry Useem stated that, "If you're a consumer, Wal-Mart is good for you. If you're a wage earner, there's a good chance it's bad. If you're a Wal-Mart shareholder, you want the company to grow. If you're a citizen, you probably don't want it growing in your backyard. So, which one are you?" 

As time goes on and criticisms and boastings about Wal-Mart increase I do believe that one image will prevail for Wal-Mart-- a negative one.  While the low prices are desirable the cost of "low cost" is too great.  In an economy where the source of big business is becoming a heated and studied aspect, the image of Wal-Mart will deteriorate.  However I don't expect Wal-Mart to quit expanding and dominating the market but I do expect public criticism to catch up with Wal-Mart and hopefully it will instigate a sel-examination of Wal-Mart and its practices.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/03/08/363689/index.htm