Papers coming soon!

Papers that I have written on Frito-Lay advertisements and a mini-ethnography about Frito-Lay workers will be posted soon!

An image from Pepsico's 2008 Annual Report: Proud American complete with American Flag

I think this image is brilliant. It expresses the triumphant spirit of the American worker during times of struggle. Note the posture of the man who is dressed as a mid-level manager might dress. Even the shoes are not those of a senior manager--they are workingman's shoes. His sensible khakis and lack of a tie suggest he identifies with the working class, but he is upwardly mobile. Like the people of Cedar Rapids, he is of proud character. Gazing outwardly, past and above the camera, he is looking to the glorious future of American ideals. Pepsico recognizes that by linking the Quaker brand to this image is linking Quaker (and Pepsico) to the American dream. Is this just another feel good piece or does it smell like neoliberalism?

Pepsico's 2008 annual report was published in the form of a slick 100 page magazine. I assume that it was distributed to all Pepsico shareholders, which would include almost all Pepsico employees. I immediately noted how similar this image is to the one I first posted from Good Fun. This is a perfect example of how not only Frito-Lay, but other Pepsico brands or companies used this classic propaganda aesthetic in company magazines during 2008.

FYI, Pepsico is the parent company of Quaker, Frito-Lay, Tropicana, and lots of other brands.

Composting 102: The rise and fall of the compostable bag

Photo from Good Fun, April 2009

In 2009, Frito-Lay introduced an innovative idea--a 100% compostable bag. For all of my criticisms of the company, this was an initiative that I fully supported. Unfortunately, many consumers did not. Why? The bags were "too loud."

Under pressure from consumers, Frito-Lay discontinued the compostable Sunchips bag a year and a half later: USATodaySunchipsstory

To Frito-Lay's credit, they claim to be working on (and have had some success) a "quieter" Sunchips bag. Currently, the new bag is only available in the original flavor Sunchips. See the company's statement: QuieterSunchipsbag

The photo above is another example of postmodern aesthetics that Frito-Lay's team of marketers and advertisers loves to employ. It's not so much about a "cool" aesthetic, but the idea is the same. The message is that by buying Sunchips, you are helping the environment. This, of course, assumes that consumers of Sunchips don't just throw the bag in the trash. Moreover, out of all the products Frito-Lay makes, only the original Sunchips get packaged in compostable bags. Perhaps I could be excited that it's the start of something revolutionary, but I won't believe the hype until this technology is used with more of their products and products from other companies. This can happen, and it should happen sooner than later.

The image of a plant growing out of the Sunchips bag seems to be an attempt to reach environmentally conscious consumers (even though it is in the company magazine directed at employees). I would suggest the group Frito-Lay may be trying to reach here is what Kathy Myers calls "Bright Greens" (222). According to Myers, "Bright Greens are anti-high-tech. They believe that even the paper used for advertisements should be as straightforward and factual as possible..." (222). After all, even the most militant environmentalists like an easy snack now and then. Yet, Myers' classification may not fully explain how the vacillations of "green" consumers. A consumer may not be considerate of their environmental decisions day to day. An area for further research would be to collect data on Frito-Lay employees' attitudes toward environmental issues.

For more on Myers, see "Selling Green," in C. Squiers (ed.) 1999. Overexposed: Essays on Contemporary Photography. New York, The New Press.

All natural?

I was not aware of this, but apparently, as part of Frito-Lay's "all-natural" campaign in 2011, they set up a makeshift kitchen in Times Square to promote this new marketing strategy. National Public Radio (NPR) covered the story and was criticized for basically running a commercial for Frito-Lay. Read the transcript below and decide for yourself:

NPR on Frito-Lay stunt 

My personal opinion is that, because the length of the story was quite short, NPR did the story as sort of a silly, light piece. They certainly could have gotten into the debate over whether Frito-Lay's claim of "natural" is accurate, or even what "natural" means in this context. But, throw in celebrity Padma Lakshmi, and the story does seem like mere promotion for Frito-Lay and the television show, Top Chef. How can Fritos and Cheetos actually be good for you?

According to the fantastic new website (beats Consumer Reports by a landslide) that I heard about on NPR the other day, these products aren't so good for you. Then again, what did you expect?

Goodguide on Fritos

Perhaps the real debate is whether or not Frito-Lay's ingredients truly are "natural" when the source of the raw goods used, e.g. corn, potatoes, wheat, are criticized for containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). See link below:

Milberg lawsuit

Again, I would conclude that the issue is not if these snack products are healthy so much as how they are being advertised. Is the photo of the family above in any way related to being "natural?" What does it even mean? Are they trying to pull the wool over our eyes or am I being overly critical? Maybe I probably should lighten up and be more fun and good like the nice people at NPR and in the wholesome image above.

Never Ending Polaroid

This is my friend, Chris Bickert, who was involved in a pretty interesting photo project called "Never Ending Polaroid."The link to the facebook page is here:

Never Ending Polaroid 

According to the website, the idea of Never Ending Polaroid is rather simple: "The Never Ending Polaroid is a project whereupon a Polaroid is taken of a person holding the previous Polaroid, creating the impression of a never ending chain! This started in 2001..."

It seems that the man behind the project, Bob (no last name found), is just beginning to post his collection of Polaroid online. His original picture of himself that started the chain can be found here:

Bob

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that at some point Kodak Polaroid film will no longer be available, so the project is, unfortunately, finite. Saying this, the project could continue. It would just have to change technologies. Instead of Polaroids, why not cell phone pictures? The subject of the photo could just as easily hold up a phone with a picture of the last person. I suppose it isn't as cool as a Polaroid picture, but there might be some solution to the loss of Polaroid film.

While it is aesthetically a cool project, the real interest in this project, for me anyway, is how the Polaroids work as social communication between subject and photographer, photographer and subject, and now between Bob and the rest of us. This is highlighted by the fact that Bob (and others?) write captions under their Polaroids. The connection goes beyond 6 degrees of separation. It shows how close we are to one another--in this case, via visual images.

I think there is fantastic potential for this project. I can't wait to see the next round of Polaroids and what might come next.

By the way, Chris Bickert's caption reads: "This is Bix! He helped us on the road for a bunch of tours and is terrified of lettuce!" 

I'm not sure who wrote that, but Chris is still terrified of lettuce.

Frito-Lay advert from National Geographic supplement (April, 2009)

This advertisement is from a National Geographic supplement (April, 2009). The target audience for this ad is, obviously, a National Geographic audience that is likely to support environmental causes and (admittedly without doing formal research) is largely of an educated middle class. Note the use of more formal images and a more sophisticated accompanying text than we would see in the Frito-Lay magazine, Good Fun. Good Fun, whose audience is Frito-Lay employees (largely blue-collar working class) uses a much more simplistic aesthetic and textual style. This is not to say that the ad proclaiming Frito-Lay’s devotion to all things environmental is complex enough to challenge the understanding of anyone but young children, but there is certainly a difference in approach.

In this National Geographic advertisement, several images are juxtaposed to reinforce the idea that Frito-Lay’s use of alternative energy (this selection of gleaming solar panels) will preserve idealized images of a beautiful world filled with nature—free from all things wasteful and unsightly (crystal clear waterfalls, pristine virgin forests, beautiful landscapes, sunflowers in full bloom).

Without fail, our consumption of Frito-Lay as a brand cannot be complete without some of the “cute” tags that are common to our understanding of Frito-Lay as “good” and “fun.” Even the recycling symbol is made of Fritos. So, the message is that Frito-Lay is an environmentally conscious company that still knows how to have a good and fun time. Who can deny themselves good and fun or fun and good? Brilliant.