Pure Relaxing Indulgence vs. Fun Candy Treat: The Language of Chocolate Ads

For my project, I will analyze the language used in two distinctly different categories of chocolate advertising:

1. Language of indulgence, solitude, and relaxation
2. Language of fun, community, and excitement

In order to control for differences between brands, I will focus primarily on three Hershey's products: Hershey's Bliss, Hershey's M&M's, and Hershey's Kisses. Bliss advertisements fall clearly into category 1, M&M's in category 2, and Kisses somewhere in between.

 * Are there important differences in the ingredients used? If yes, how does that difference reflect the intended experience of eating the item? If not, how does different packaging and language change the experience of eating the same food?

Possible experiment (In order to test the effects of language and packaging):

Group 1: Have the subjects watch an ad, read the packaging, and see the shape of the item before they eat each chocolate- ask them which was the most fun, the most decadent, etc
Group 2: Melt each chocolate and form into uniform shapes. Subjects do not watch ads or see packaging, and answer the same questions. 

* Bliss is newer, M&M's are older. Does the addition of Bliss to the Hershey's company reflect a trend toward category 1? Reference other similar new products like Dove Promise and Lindor Truffles. Here is also where the Kisses become important- I want to look at the evolution of Kisses ads over time to see if they reflect a movement toward category 1 advertising or category 2.

*How does the audience change? I think Bliss is heavily marketed to women, far more than M&M's, but I will test that hypothesis. I will also look at differences in price per oz.

Drugs, Sex, and Money

1. Metaphor 1:
DRUGS are FOOD
(Vehicle/source= Food, Target= Drugs)

and the associated:

USING DRUGS is COOKING

Ex)

• "Baked" or "fried" => High
• "Sugar/ Brown sugar" => Cocaine/ Heroin
• "Feedbag" or "sandwich bag" => Marijuana container
• "Salt and pepper" or "butter" => Majijuana
• "Baker" => Person who smokes
• "Flame cooking" => smoking cocaine over a stove top
• "French fries" or "soup" => Crack

2. Metaphor 2:

SEX is SWEET FOOD
(Vehicle= sweet food, Target= sex)
We've already discussed the idea of women as dessert, but in popular culture, sweet food can also refer to men and to the act of sex itself. The implications are similar: sex is characterized as a desirable commodity, a fun and tasty treat, and not as something hearty or substantial.
Ex)

• "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent, ft. Olivia- see how many sweet metaphors you can find (I've got at least 9!) This one tends to portray the female as the sexual, sweet food

•  "Lollipop" by Lil Wayne- Similar innuendos, with a few new ones thrown in. This time, the male is more associated with the sweet food

 

• There are also many other food-related sex euphemisms (such as making cookies=> sex) that I will not list here, but can be found online with a search of "food as sex euphemisms"  

 3. MONEY is BASIC/HARDY FOOD
(Vehicle= food, Target= money)

Like food, money is a valued commodity, and it is the resource which is actually used to buy food. This close economic relationship translates readily into a linguistic one through phrases like the following; notice also that these comparisons tend to involve more substantial, basic, and savory foods. "Bread and butter" for instance, is hardier and more important than "lollipops," and is thus characterized as more important but less of a treat than sex.

Ex)

• Bring home the bacon => to make money for your household
• Fork out/ shell out the cash => to pay money
• Dough => money
• Bread and butter => main income
• Fare => money for a journey or food to eat
• Gravy train => easy, high paying job
•  Another high quality song exemplifying this metaphor in pop cuture- "Get Dough" by Fast Money: 

Together, these metaphors fall into a special category of comparison- euphemism. Drugs, sex, and money, are all things that are either impolite or uncomfortable to discuss outright in public, so they are replaced by a variety of milder words. Talking openly about drugs in public can be dangerous or lead to trouble with the law, while talking about sex and money are considered socially impolite. However, these three subjects are still much-considered and much-discussed, so they are simply masked by innuendo. RSA Animate does a fascinating job of describing how euphemism and innuendo work in this video-

 

RSA here suggests that these words function at two levels, where the avoided topic is only thinly veiled by a more acceptable topic. Since food is such an acceptably discussed topic, it is an ideal veil. But if everyone involved can understand the obvious innuendo, why not just get out with it? Jump to 6:25 in the video for a great visual explanation- essentially, it hinges on the idea of mutual knowledge, as all parties involved understand what is going on, but no one has to directly recognize their knowledge.

By nature of euphemism and close social/economic relationships, the English language of food is tied closely with the dialogues of sex, drugs, and money. As Lakoff suggests, these relationships can become engrained in our actual understanding of the concepts, affecting the way we treat and think about our lives. 

Video credits: YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcnnId15BA&ob=av2e

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IH8tNQAzSs&ob=av2n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1HGcYQshM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU

Lolli-Pop Culture

After reading Caitlin Hines's article "Rebaking the Pie: Women as Dessert Metaphor", I did a little field test to see how the metaphor pervades popular culture; I was particularly interested in how women's consumer culture would deal with the common metaphor, so I popped down the hall and borrowed the December 2011 issue of Seventeen Magazine. While I perused the magazine, I kept an eye out for dessert references, and noted a couple of general observations:

1. As a pretty feminist magazine marketed to young women, Seventeen seems particularly sensitive to objectifying language. Most of their articles did not use the potentially objectifying dessert words common in the rest of culture. 
2. The influence of the dessert metaphor was much more noticeable in ads and product names. Even these names usually did not refer to a woman herself as a food, but rather associated the good qualities of a woman with sweet treats. 

Take a look at these examples from the issue:

 

During my search, these (above) were the only two dessert references I could find that were made by Seventeen writers themselves, rather than in the names of products or ads. "Peaches and cream" is associated with sweet flirtatiousness, and ideal lips are described as "candy-coated." Both maintain actual relevance to the look they convey- peaches and cream denotes a color scheme of the complexion, and candy-coated a level of lip shine. However, they still confirm the prevalence of dessert metaphors, even when they are used unintentionally. 

 The three clips above are examples of the dessert metaphor in ads and product names, hinting at the broader use of the metaphor in consumer culture- "Candy smiles" perfume, "Lollipop Bling" fragrance, "sugar plum" lip balm, and a "yummy beauty duo" begin to hint at the association of feminine beauty and sweet food. There's even a "babycakes" cake-pop maker featured below it, although that is at least a literal association! None of these representations directly equate women with edible objects, but they certainly reflect a culture that does. One brand of beauty products that was advertized is actually called "tarte"- I may do more investigation into this brand in the future, because I find it curious that women would want makeup named after the kind of girl Urban Dictionary describes as, " A woman, who wears too much make-up, stilletto heals, very short skirts, and tight revealing tops, often in faux-animal print, and generally has too much flesh on display, thus revealing herself as 'sexually loose'." ( Urban Dictionary Definition: Tarte )

One last representation I found interesting-

In a section headlined "Everything Guys Wish You Knew," a caption bubble shows a guy thinking "PLEASE DON'T CALL ME SWEETIE- IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!"  This actually made me laugh out loud, given everything we've talked about. I understand why it's socially unacceptable to call men "sweetie"- maybe because its objectifying and condescending. In my experience, girls don't like it much either.