Here is the funny story: two youtubers played a trick on some food experts. They bought some snacks from McDonald’s and then reshaped them, presenting these “specialities” as organic meals to high-end food experts in the Annual Food Convention. Guess what responses they received?
“I like it, it’s pure. It’s just a pure, organic product and that makes it very tasty.”
“I feel warmth releasing in my mouth.”
“It’s nice and firm, has a good bite.”
“The structure is good. Yes, not too sticky.”
Shocking news, experts! These were just McDonald’s, the most unhealthy and disgusting junk food in the world.
This ironic story reminds me of the Seth Godin piece we talked about in class. It’s exactly the same here. When the youtubers told the experts these were organic meals made by their high-end restaurant, they believed it, even though they were the experts. I feel sad about it, but we have to admit that their responses reflect the value of our whole society. The current consumer culture favors high-end consumer items and luxury experience so much that people can be easily deceived when they hear about these words. People tell themselves their own stories and make themselves believe what marketers and sellers want them to believe. What should we do about this situation?
I like your take on this, Katharina--that it shows how our expectations follow the expense of our purchases. I think it may also show, though, that we would all love healthy organic food that TASTED like McDonald's. McD's has been really successful at (literally) engineering its food to appeal to our tastes: wouldn't it be great if there were real food, real actual food, that had those same appeals?
ReplyDeleteIt seems like all of what we consume is due to the ideas people tell us and put into our heads. Just like they thought the food they were eating was healthy because someone told them it was organic, we are told certain products we use are better than others for us, whether they actually are or not we buy those suggested items and start to believe in them.
ReplyDeleteI think the same, Marissa. Even experts cannot tell the difference once their minds are affected by the idea of organic and healthy food. Our minds trick us and persuade us to follow what they believe. We do not eat food with our mouth any more. We eat them with our brains.
ReplyDeleteIt is surprising to see that even the experts were fooled by what the youtubers said. If the experts fall for this trick, aren't we consumers even more likely to believe that something that is organic, when it is actually not.
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