I was recently in an airport killing time, so I stopped by a hair-care outlet. A curl-enhancing product caught my eye, so I asked the sales associate about it. She informed me it was made from all-natural ingredients, and the brand gives back and makes sure women workers in Africa are fairly treated and supported. Something boiled up inside me. How was it that she applied food marketing messages to a curl enhancer?
Obviously, I’m naive. That was apparent as I then sat on the plane and opened the inflight magazine to the 2019 Beauty, Health and Snack Must-Haves and saw these food-marketing terms freely bandied about for soap and deodorant. I did not know there’s such a thing as vegan, cruelty-free and palm oil-free soap. (Help. Is something wrong with palm oil?) For every product sold, one bar of soap and one month of clean water is donated to a child in need. I see. But tell me about the actual soap.
The list also featured a deodorant formulated by the daughter of a breast cancer survivor and is free from common unpronounceable ingredients. The company donates a portion of sales to breast cancer research and survivor support.
It’s official. Anymore, products aren’t sold by their personal beneficial qualities as much as by their contribution to society.
The description of a list of condiments highlighted on that magazine page sounded just like the soap and deodorant, if not slightly more condescending. It said, Condiments were bland products made with bland practices by bland companies. This inspired us to create the tastiest, award-winning condiments and dressings possible, using the finest non-GMO ingredients and ethical practices, such as certified humane free-range eggs.
I’m going to guess that this description was written by a magazine intern who filtered the product through his/her demographic (Millennial or GenZ) filter and freely concluded that bland equals any product or company that doesn’t do good—demonstratively.
And probably this intern is right. Restaurants have been waking up to this for several years, and there’s always news of brands taking it a step further. Today I read that Taco Bell is hoping to reduce antibiotics in beef by 25% over the next six years. It had already made a commitment to eliminate antibiotics in its chicken. All this is in response to customer demand.
We have to hand it to this generation that has always been known to speak up and only support products that operate in line with its ideals. I should not have been surprised to find that soap and deodorant are subject to the same ethical scrutiny. Every industry is under the microscope.
But I have a little request. In our food marketing, can we also say what’s in the product and how it tastes? Let’s talk about senses, spices, texture and flavor. Go back to terms that reflect balance, refreshment and deliciousness.
Tell me what you think.
Jody
