The power of Advertising is huge , be it good or bad especially when it comes to food advertising.
There are some really good bits of food advertising and then there are loads of really bad or false advertising.
Advertising comes in so many different formats or media that bombard us the consumer with all kinds of messages on a regular basis. Everywhere you go or look you see things be they foods, cars, houses, products of all different kinds .
One of the worst for Fake or misleading Advertising is that land of the Golden Arches “Mcdonalds” They regularly show images of these giant sized burgers and fries , and we all know and accept that what we get in that little brown bag is going to be 100 times smaller than the picture but we still accept it as being ok … why is that?
My Husband and I were driving through the bottom part of Parnell in Auckland a few weeks ago and stopped at the traffic lights and to our left was this huge poster for Mcds showing a meal deal that had small fries with it , while sitting there we worked out that the size of the fries on the picture would have been equivalent to six of the small size fries you would normally get. Now I know that its just a poster and that its only aim in life is to encourage you to buy this meal, but its still lying to you , giving you false hopes even though your rational mind knows your not getting what the poster says size wise.
There should be strict laws in place to ensure that what your looking at on a visual level is the same as what your getting on a physical level. Its a bit like labeling laws they have to be fairly precise and true to the product so that you the consumer are actually getting what it says on the packet.That that mcmuffin with the big strips of bacon and a gorgous looking soft egg and cheese you see on the board is the same as that tiny lump of muffin with the single rasher of bacon and that hard solid egg and plastic cheese that you get wrapped up in paper on your order.
An Example of a really good piece of advertising is at my local fruitworld vege store in New lynn , they have a picture on the outside of their shop of this gorgous deliciously soft poached egg on wholegrain toast topped with ground black pepper and flat leaf parsley. I have had to stop parking in that particular spot as every time I see it it makes me want to lick the poster and go straight home and have poached egg on toast. The size of everything on the poster is realisitic and it just looks so delicious and inviting.Now if Mcds and other food advertisers can take a leaf out of the people who made this egg posters book the food would be presented more true to what it is and people subconciously wouldnt feel cheated.
