Being a freshman and having the new found responsibility of buying
all the food I intake; I must say this is a bit bombarding. All of the labels
just attack with exclamation points and fancy terms. Made with 50% less
plastic! No artificial colors or flavors! No preservatives! And my favorite :
Made with REAL cheese!( … Oh.. well what was that on my cheezypuffs the
other day?) This doesn’t even include the organic everything which is what
should have been sold in the first place. You can only imagine my disbelief when
I saw organic coconut water for sale in the grocery store. I mean with all the coconuts in the world why
there really inorganic coconut water for sale? Guess they really do find a way
to add chemicals to everything.
Anyway back to the labels. These marketing buffs really have
the ethos logos and pathos thing down. They have the green foods which are
supposedly making the world a better place appealing to ethos. Every item must come with a heart-warming
story about how families love our real, organic, naturally flavored,
great-tasting food item with ingredients from family farms which covers pathos.
They definitely hit the marketing goals out the park with logos based ads. This
is natural/organic/made with real ingredients so clearly it must be better!
As with any business,
the main goal of these companies is to make the most profit. They have clearly
found the way to do it. How many people buy that naturally flavored item
without even reading the ingredients? Yeah I’m guilty too. But even when I do read them I can barely
understand or pronounce some of the words. First there’s words like Guanylate
or Annatto which instantly gives me a headache. Then, after all the big words
it just says “natural flavor”… Ok natural flavor of what? So since being
ignorant to these things is not the way to go I decided to do a bit of research
and it turns out that the Code of Federal Regulation defines “natural flavor”
as “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate,
distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains
the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice,
vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or
similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or
fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring
rather than nutritional” (21CFR101.22). That’s a lot of flavoring for my
Vegetable Crisps. Food companies, as stated before, know how to make the most
money for themselves. They take consumers down a path of big words and even
bigger smiles hoping that no one will ask further questions. Furthermore, when
questions are asked they just lead to more questions without specific answers
and all you want is a snack to go with your movie. So you drop your thinking
cap and go with the one that tastes the best.
Ashley, I agree with you that food companies use rhetoric to distract consumers from what they're actually eating. It's funny, because as I read this I kept seeing mental images of the empty statements emblazoned across packages (my personal favorites are the pathos statements you mentioned. I used to eat this Greek yogurt that tried to appeal to the proud Greek, the animal lover and the health nut simultaneously. So much pathos on that little foil lid!). I applaud you for actually researching those mystery terms on the food label. However, don't be too hasty to disregard all food advertisements; some claims are legitimate and can guide consumers to making better choices. The trick is learning to interpret the grocery-store rhetoric. I love that you brought attention to this issue, though, because it's something people need to recognize. Like you said, so many people make less-than-beneficial food decisions because they're ignorant about their food, or too overwhelmed to discern which claims are valid and which are deceitful.
ReplyDeleteYes Alaina, I do agree that there is a bit of truth to food labels and they should not just be ignored. While there are companies out there that just try to trick you to make this most money, there are also companies the strive to provide quality food. Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteHey Ashley. The first thing that i noticed about your blog entry was the level of emotional engagement that the audience would feel in reaction to your rhetoric. I believe that this was the entry's strongpoint. The fact that you seem to be somewhat passionate about the topic appeals to the interest of the reader which urges them to continue reading. To this regard, the entry's successful use of ethos and pathos allows you to more effectively allow yourself to get your point across. I agree that food companies are very conscious of their use of manipulative rhetoric in advertising. The development of this point is done well in this entry as you repeatedly reinforce it with relatable, personal reactions to the food company's rhetoric.
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