Capital and Commodity - Advertising

This lecture studied the overwhelming role of capitalism in our society, the value we attatch to purchased items in relation to status, and the effect of advertising.

Foodtown Advertisment. Photographed by myself on 19/05/2010. Bus from Otara to Britomart

The advert I have selected to study in closer depth is a set of Foodtown posters situated around the upper walls of a bus. I will concentrate on one in particular, as it is the poster which initially caught my attention.

The element of this advert which intitially baited my interest was the fact that the story does not immediately have an obvious purpose to the viewer, other than to provide interesting facts on the benefits tomatoes and potatoes. Usually, if there is a narrative within an advertisement, it will be evident at some point throughout the text. This narrative, however, concentrates soley on objects which are not a brand in themselves. A bus is a perfect place to situate this advert as most viewers will not have another visual activity, thus they will be looking for visual stimulation and have time to read the advert in full. When I reached the end of the advert, I was confused as to what it was advertising, as I had not consciously absorbed the information on the left hand side of the poster. This enticed me to indulge my curiousity, and I saw it was an advert for Foodtown, which, by chance, we happened to be passing.

The combination of image and text works very well in this situation. The two types of visual information compliment each other as whichever the viewer is drawn to first invites a glance at the other side of the poster. It also covers two types of audience - those who respond more strongly to text, and those who respond more strongly to images. The image is appealing and the text opens 'Native to South America...' which sounds interesting and exotic - not qualities one would necessarily usually associate with a tomato as they are so common in everyday life. Personally, I processed the facts about the goodness of the products, then looked at the image and considered how easy it would be to make the simple, delicious looking dish. The advert states the recipe is available at Foodtown. Immediately, it has created a situation where the viewer is tempted by the product, and provided an affordable, easy outcome for attaining it.

The right hand side of the advert appears to be quite harmless and non persuasive. The standard, simple looking font, lack of brand and simple title 'Tomatoes' puts forth a non biased approach. Hand in hand with the simple facts, it gives the impression of endorsing a healthy lifestyle and the wellbeing of the viewer and providing light entertainment, as opposed to driving hard a sale. This gives an impression of goodness, inviting the viewer to trust the advertiser. The Foodtown name and logo at the top left of the image provides context. It does not seem to appear to attempt to persuade the viewer to shop there, but it subliminaly imprints the identity of the mind of the viewer, whether or not he or she consciously ignores it. I also like the linguistic choice of vegetables featured - potatoes and tomatoes. Visually and sonically, these words are similar and this creates a harmony. It also caused me to look twice to check that I had read the word 'tomato' correctly in the first instance, as the text continues on without a break to discuss potatoes, and this jolted my attention. Foodtown have cleverly disguised the fact that they are advertising their own produce. Usually, when a supermarket advertises a product, it is of a certain brand. The lack of branding associated with vegetables is used to their advantage here, adding to the non biased impression they wish to convey. The viewer would probably not stop to consider the advert long enough to realise that they only sell Foodtown vegetables. This may seem blindingly obvious, but the lack of slogan sitting all over the product adds to the 'we are not trying to sell you anything, we want what's best for you!' message.

The red and yellow colour scheme is rather unimaginative yet effective. It is famously used in advertising for many food brands, particularly within the fast food industry, such as MacDonalds and Wendys. Perhaps this fast food connotation highlights the simplicity of the preparation of the dish. The bright, contrasting combination creates an eye catching aesthetic. I was also drawn to it as it reminded me of pop art, which is obviously a movement in itself to appeal to a low culture art society, as well as being based on this advertising culture which appeals to the masses.

Much of the human reaction to colour is subliminal, and consumers are generally unaware of the persuasive effects of colour. Some basic colour theory denotes that red represents speed, passion, excitement, strength and urgency. A key nugget of information with regard to the colour red, is that it enhances the metabolism, increases respiration rate and raises blood pressure. It is also the colour most commonly used in national flags. The use of red, therefore, would grab a viewer's attention and subliminaly create a sense of excitement and urgency, as well as having physical affects on the body in relation to food consumption. In nature, yellow is one of the most unignorable colours. Some connotations of yellow are joy, hope, optimism, idealism and sunshine. Thus, these colours together make a powerful and persuasive combination to sell the product by creating positive, passionate energy towards attaining the pictured sustenance. The colour scheme is reflected across the poster, emphasised in the red and yellow of the tomatoes and potatoes.

A further strengh of this adversiting is that almost identical posters are repeated all over the bus and occupy the entire advertising space. The repetition hammers home the effect and different recipes are used to hold the viewer's interest.

This is a clever advertising technique for the reasons I have discussed, but also because it is an easy way to entice a consumer into the shop, which would then persuade them to spend more money on further products.

Further advertisement on the same bus. There were others but it was rather impractical for me to capture them all!

I will briefly also discuss this advert, but in less depth. The main difference is the featured product - broccoli. The viewer is reeled in with an interesting fact, informed of the health benefits, kept interested with another fact then hit with the claim that brocolli is 'a form of protection against cancer'. This is rather a large claim to make. Cancer in our society is currently a seemingly uncurable disease to many people, just as influenza and other ailments have been throughout history. This sentence would have a strong influence, and leaving 'cancer' as the final word definitely creates impact.

This advertising dumbs down information and therefore the viewer, increasing the chance of selling the product. Even the name 'Foodtown' is patronising and obvious - as a person who did not grow up with Foodtown, when I first arrived in New Zealand, I found it comical that a supermarket would have such a dumb sounding and literal name. This goes hand in hand with the advertising to create a consumer who is used to being targeted in such a way, ensuring this method will continue to work.