Getting beyond the packaging (marketing, labels, image)
Slick marketing and branding are in full force these days. But getting beyond the packaging should be in everyone’s best interest.
We’ve noticed this more often as of late. Almost ALL things (food products, gadgets, doohickeys, you name it) have high-end packaging. Well-designed logos and GOBS of “feel good” marketing mumbo jumbo plastered over every product on the shelves.
Maybe it’s time to STOP paying attention to this garbage once and for all. Entirely.
Psychological tricks are hard to crack
Why do I say this? Because, for example, before you open a bag of – let’s say – “Tortilla chips,” you probably have a fairly good chance of “reading the labels.”
We recently had a bag of (get ready) Gluten-Free, Sustainable, Forward-thinking, environmentally-friendly, charitable, “everyone goes to heaven” brand of chips, and it served as a great example.
The bag was slathered with so much crappy “information,” that you’d think you were witnessing the second coming of Jesus Christ. The feel good quota was exceeded by 1000%.
The chips? The second coming of a vomiting streak.
Lame in all aspects. A shitty product. Flavorless. Terrible texture. A ripoff. Robbery is more like it.
Sad thing is that I’m sure many people bought into the hype – and actually believed what they were eating was in fact, delicious. Haha!
This trend of “substandard” food with “WE ARE THE BEST” labeling is noticed by us.
SO MANY products lately offer such grandiose proclamations on their shoddy packaging – YET THE FOOD DOES NOT BACK IT UP.
And they still stay in business. HOW? Because people are dopes?
Time to re-think all of this.
And primarily – it will be one of our foundational goals next year to attempt to avoid most packaged goods like chips.
As addictive and temporarily satisfying they may be – they do not provide any long-term benefit to ANY of us.
Carry on.
If you’re reading this site, you probably do look at the label. You probably don’t care about the ads and the logo feces on the package. And Katy perry never sold you anything.
Then again, you will have to die some day, so go ahead and drink the poisonous sugar water and eat the flavored deep-fried corn meal. They can wipe the nacho cheese powder off your cold, dead fingers. My junkfood of choice is 5 Guys. Oh, and new favoritest thing on Earth, Red Robin. Yummmm.
Don’t live in the US, so I’d never heard of 5Guys or Red Robin. Looked them up and took a gander at the menus and prices: Yipes! They’d better be good! My favorite burger is homemade: fresh Argentine beef ground at the butcher’s before my eyes, then grilled by this geezer, melted slivers of an aged sharp artisan cheese somewhat similar to white cheddar, a fried free-range egg from the flock of the mom of a grandson’s friend, Tabasco, some ketchup, fried-transparent onion from the garden, on a lard-based bun baked by a guy up the road. Total cost probably under a buck. The only truly expensive item is the imported Tabasco ($22 for a 350 ml bottle), but I’ve been using it since age six, so… Tabasco’s one product that I consider unique; no other hot sauce tastes like it, not even close. Don’t recall ever seeing an ad for it way back when; it speaks for itself. Then again, I never see ads.
Can I come over tonight for a burger?
Sounds good, eh? Bit of a long trip, though! Country living has its charms, even in South America. And here I’ve been complaining about the food price hikes we’ve had over the past 13 years I’ve been here. When I arrived, beef ribs were under a buck a pound. Good ground beef was fifty cents a pound. Now? The rib cut (asado) goes for five bucks a pound and good ground beef is up to two bucks and change. Guess it’s not so bad after all. I can get a made-to-order pizza from the cafe up the road for $4.75, but I can make it at home (have a pizza oven) for a dollar using my own tomatoes, herbs and pepper flakes. The cheese is pricey (nearly ten bucks a pound), but it’s been aged for a year and a half and it lasts a month or so, more if I use it only for grating, but that never happens.
Red Robin is some substandard shit if there ever was, wouldnt pay 5 cents for that crap, might as well just eat the cardboard burger at micky ds
Seriously its extremely substandard food with a nice package, exactly the type of thing that this article was talking about.
Operating term was JUNK food. I can eat organic vegetarian whatever at home any day of the week, but my vegetarian spouse isn’t going to be making me a burger any time soon. You ought to see what passes for Thanksgiving Turkey with her. Tofurkey with tofu giblet gravy. Gack! I’ll take poison over tofu any day.
Preaching to the choir. Marketing works on a psychological level for the majority of the population.
I am part of a DINK household yet buy mostly used clothes and drive a 30-year old truck. I haven’t bought brand name anything for the sake of it since high school, and eat almost no processed/packaged food. I am in my 40’s and have bought two televisions in my life. I bought a washer and dryer 9 years ago for $20, and the dryer still works. I am in the minority and likely always will be. Coors Light and Bud aren’t the top selling beers in North America because of their quality.