Short Essay #2: Food and Advertising

Welch's Grape Juice Commercial

The Juice Diet

    

                There is a growing trend in America; foods that are marketed as the healthier option have become popular. Healthy Choice meals, Kashi cereals, 100 calorie snack packs, and diet soda have taken over the shelves. Discussion around organic verse chemically treated produce has exploded. Even some restaurants are required to publicly list the calorie content of their meals. Americans seem to be more concerned about what they are consuming and producers have responded. Coca-Cola came out with Coke Zero, a drink almost exactly like Diet Coke (it contains no calories) but with different sweeteners. Slogans such as “100% natural” and “0 trans-fat” have cropped up on packaging; new products have arrived containing less calories and little to no sugar.  Advertisers have harnessed this new trend towards healthier foods; many commercials and ads appeal to the health conscience. A prime example of this marketing can be found in Welch’s Grape Juice and Ocean Spray commercials.

                The old Welch’s Grape Juice commercial features a young girl, Shyann McClure, talking about the drink. By analyzing this thirty second spot, the health appeals are apparent. The commercial first attracts the consumer with the juice’s naturalness. From the large lettering on the label, reinforced by Shyann’s voice, Welch’s is established as “100% grape juice.” We are also assured that “Welch’s never ever adds sugar…it’s naturally sweet.” These phrases appeal to the want for a natural product with no artificial flavoring or chemicals. What is advertised is what you get, with no hidden agenda. In addition to being natural, Shyann tells us the Welch’s “doesn’t just taste really good, it’s also really good for you, too.” Though not specified beyond this, that phrase serves to make the consumer confidant that the product won’t harm their bodies. Furthermore, the bottle’s label sports a red heart with the words “healthy heart” visible. Because America is a culture that also likes good tasting foods, Shyann adds that Welch’s Grape Juice is delicious.

                 In these three appeals – to naturalness, health, and taste – Welch’s and Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice advertisements share many similarities. Recently, Ocean Spray has been utilizing an ad campaign that features two farmers standing in a cranberry bog. The specific commercial cited here is geared towards the health benefits of the Cranberry Cocktail.  Almost verbatim with Shyann, the commercial ends with the slogan “tastes good, good for you.” While this sums it up, the farmers also go into detail about their juice; according to them “it’s also packed with powerful nutrients that cleanse and purify your body and help strengthen your immune system.” This list of facts and its strong word choice of cleanse, purify, and strengthen, are a powerful tool, drawing on both logical and emotional rhetoric. The words “contains 100% Vitamin C” also flash across the screen if the former health appeals weren’t enough. While Shyann told us about the all-natural ingredients Welch’s Grape Juice, in the Ocean Spray commercials, the naturalness must be inferred. From the setting of the cranberry bog, we make the connection that the juice is made directly from those berries. And again, just as Welch’s Grape Juice was delicious, Ocean Spray Cranberry Cocktail “tastes real good.”

                Welch’s and Ocean Spray use authenticity when advertising their juice. Authenticity can be defined as a rhetoric device that appeals to emotion; it shows up in advertising when tradition is cited. Tradition can be anything from the history of the business to the locality of the product. Both the juice commercials use the locality of their respective ingredients to add authenticity to their product. In the Welch’s ad, Shyann points out that the great taste of the grape juice is due to the Concord grapes. The Ocean Spray commercial is more subtle; the local appeal comes from the authenticity of the setting with the farmers wading in the cranberry bog.

Though Welch’s and Ocean Spray both appeal to the health conscience, they target different audiences. Welch’s Grape Juice uses the cuteness of Shyann as an appeal to mothers and the paternal instinct. With her childish language and pigtails, she represents every child in any family. The commercial is appealing to the parental need for their child to grow healthy and strong. Ocean Spray markets to a much larger audience; their commercial has something for a large age range of consumers.  The comedic visual of the younger farmer playing dodge ball to protect you from the “bad stuff” draws in a younger audience; it’s fun. The two farmers themselves represent a wide age group, showing that anybody can enjoy Ocean Spray’s product. The fact that they are farmers also targets another class. Their simple vernacular and hardworking look appeals to the every-day, working class person.

                The purpose of advertisements is to attract consumers. To do so, advertisers must look at the way people feel and think to make the most successful ad. Because of this process, looking at how an advertisement appeals to its audience can tell a lot about the consumer’s values and culture. From these two juice commercials, it can be inferred that Americans have become more health conscience. The products are being marketed for containing 100% juice and being “good for you.” But, while Americans want to think they are eating healthy, they don’t seem to want to sacrifice any enjoyment. The taste of each product was still emphasized. Americans want things to be natural, good for them, and taste great.