The argument here is clearly that people should be eating food that not only benefits them but also benefits the environment and society. This is clear through their use of metonymy as the flavor of the cereal is referred to as socially and environmentally responsible and how those adjectives go well with milk, just like typical cereals such as Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Puffs. Ironically, they also mention at the bottom of the ad that they are not your typical cereal company. They even make a pathetic appeal through comedy to say that "typical" isn't even in their language. I don't find it funny but maybe the older crowd that are in dire need of flax oil and omega-3 will have a bit of a giggle. On second thought, probably not.
I am not sure what magazine this ad came form but I assume that it was well placed. This ad appears to try and garner a certain audience's attention in a hope to make them buy the cereal. The appeal is quite clear. They are trying to make the audience feel better about buying the cereal for a few reasons. For one, being environmentally and socially aware is quite "in" now a day. People love the idea of being "green" and caring about the environment. Some of those people love to even show it off. Examples of people showing off would fall under Hollywood stars. See George Clooney. No seriously. Go look at George Clooney's 2006 Oscar speech and see how long it takes you before you are running for the nearest trash can or toilet. Please, I can wait.
(tapping feet)...
Once again, off course, but making a point. This cereal wants to make people feel better about themselves for not only eating it, but for buying it.
Another appeal that is made through this advertisement is how the company makes the cereal seem like its more than a cereal. One could even argue that they are trying to say its the Captain Planet of cereals. Maybe even the Jack Bauer of cereals. They build up this idea that buying this cereal that buying the cereal is just like "having respect for the cereal". The fact of the matter is that it is just cereal. While some may buy it so they can show off their caring side for the world, they aren't really doing all that much. There are bigger moves that can be made by the average family to become more environmentally conscious then buying an organic cereal. In fact, it is probably better for the world if the family doesn't even drive to the local store to buy the cereal. Well maybe that's not totally true. I guess it depends on where the family lives and where the store is and if you use a car and... off topic again. Sorry.
As you can tell by the tone of my little rant here, you can see I find this ad to be quite poor. Its pathetic appeals are quite pathetic in their attempts to convince consumers that this cereal is the end all be all of the world. Look, if people want to eat healthy, they will. There is this little thing called the Internet in which people can search for tips on how to eat healthy. i personally don't need or don't care for an ad like this to tell me how I can help the environment.
Ah, I am now absolved. I can return to my happy self.
I would like to agree that this is a good example of Metonymy and also argue that is a prime example of Hyperbole. "Eat well." "Do good." Those two simple phrases are seemingly unattached, yet this add tries to make a clear connection between eating well and doing good. Two things, that in all honesty can be connected or cannot be, it is completely ambiguous. When someone is chewing a mouthful of this granola they are not solving the world hunger problem, or even stopping global warming. They are simply fulfilling the human need for food to function at an optimal level.
ReplyDeleteI must also agree with Dsimon that this add reeks of smugness. As if we are all evil capitalists unless we agree with Nature’s Path and their belief that “business can be done with respect for people and the planet.” This is basically an ultimatum, or a pathetic fallacy. No one among us is going to argue that business should be run in a way that doesn’t take into account workers and the environment. Furthermore just eating Nature’s Path granola does not make an individual aware of and more compassionate towards workers and the environment. This is a completely illogical argument.
If you really wanted to be responsible with your grocery buying you would need to concentrate on buying locally and also buying fairly traded products. Organic is all good and fine but if you are buying organic products you should really look at how far away they are coming from, after all burning jet fuel tends to release some CO2. Locally grown foods, on the other hand, come from your community with none to very little pollution caused by transportation. In this case you would not only be being environmentally conscious but also community conscious. Fair traded items are also community conscious. Fair trade meaning the workers in another country, usually much poorer than ours, is paid a decent amount for their product rather than a big corporation buying the products dirt-cheap and selling them to us for an inflated price. This is a much more logical and direct way to build an environmentally friendly worldwide economy.
At the end of the day buying this cereal says nothing about you, and if you think it does then you are sadly mistaken. The issue is so much more complex than what cereal you eat and whether it is organic or not. The claims this add makes are not very surprising, after all you are not going to sell much of anything if you advertise without exaggerating. Imagine if the slogan was “Eat this, its good”, this doesn’t say near as much as eat well do good, but at least its honest, or maybe it isn’t I have no idea if this granola is any good or not.
From the moment I spotted this ad its glaringly obvious attempt at appealing to a "green" crowd wreaked of falseness. The ad's main text jumps out at the reader as if to say, "If you buy this cereal you are helping the planet." The company also adds the lame joke that it goes well with milk to lighten up the mood a bit. If that doesn't make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside then the box sure will. The picture of the cereal box greatly compliments this ad depicting such words as "organic" "flax seeds" and "omega-3." These are all good and healthy things, but I really don't see why the folks at Nature's Path feel the need to poster half of their cereal box with these words and advertise to the world how close to nature their company really is.
ReplyDeleteThe cereal's mantra is "Eat well" "Do Good," which uses the ethical fallacy of moral equivalence to make the consumer feel like they might be saving a few trees by eating a bowl of this environmentally conscious company's great grains. Wake up people! Eating cereal, even one that's loaded with flax seeds and all other sorts of organic goodies, is not going to save the world. Which brings me back to the fact that this ad is absolutely fake and only appears a certain way to lure in would-be-customers. That's not to say that I don't like my share of good cereal, because god knows it's a staple of every nutritious college student's diet (along with a healthy serving of malted hops and barley).