OCA preloader logo
Looking at adverts: 3 - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

Looking at adverts: 3 thumb

Looking at adverts: 3

I have chosen this advertising campaign for Lurpak, a Danish butter brand because I think it deals with potential negative associations in a very clever way. Butter itself isn’t the most appealing of products given public perception of the dangers of high cholesterol in saturated fat; on top of that the company is Danish, which might alienate a few euro-skeptic consumers. Despite that, they blend nostalgia, home comfort and national pride in positive language designed to make you feel good – or at least worry a little less.

empires

The adverts work by setting up an opposition between the comforting foods created using Lurpak and a less favourable alternative; toast and muesli bars, home cooking and ready meals, hand prepared and mass produced food. The dishes are not fancy; they are everyday foods for everyday people. They contain a message that food prepared lovingly in the home will protect the consumer from the outside world. The word ‘Empire’ creates equivalence between family and nation. It suggests that you will protect the country by cooking for yourself and your loved ones. An empire – something big and important (and troubled by imperialism, racism and other unpalatable ideas) is coupled with something unimportant and small – a muesli bar, which gives the advert a humourous effect. In advertising this is called a rhetorical figure – where contrast (between big/small, global/domestic) is used to encourage the viewer to add meaning. Rather than say ‘looking after your family helps the nation’ it expects the viewer to ‘read between the lines’. The ‘advertising-work’ done by the viewer increases the likelihood that they will remember the advert and think favourably about the product.
The use of the terms ‘might’ and ‘strength’ seem to evoke a type of masculinity that could also be read as nostalgic. In a TV advert the male narrator says “Mankind wasn’t built on just baby leaf salad…Stomachs full, we march forward on meals forged with our own two hands.” Using words like ‘build’ and ‘forge’ could lead the viewer to think of industry and working class labour. The food is rich in carbohydrates connoting fuel for manual work. This type of advertising might not appeal to a female audience, who are often assumed to be health conscious. But this advertising campaign has a message for them too. Not only are women invited to forget about calorie counting, they are also encouraged take pleasure (and time) in food preparation.
SMSince the 1970’s adverts have used feminist ideas to sell convenience foods. The products may have changed to appeal to contemporary health-conscious consumers –‘sealed in freshness’ and ‘microwave steam-meals’ rather than salt laden lasagnas and micro-chips – but the message of being too busy to cook has come to symbolise the career woman.
one-offs--pride
These adverts are quite consciously conservative; notions of empire, family, strength and pride are used to promote the idea of cooking and eating at home. Food is not about trends or healthy eating, instead it is source of fuel for work (empire building) and comfort (against the outside world). The adverts seem to give the audience the permission to return to British food, manual labour and home cooking…
I have barely scratched the surface with this campaign – the visual style deserves analysis on its own! I will be interested to hear what you think…


Posted by author: Dawn Woolley

6 thoughts on “Looking at adverts: 3

  • These are really interesting. The ‘homeliness’ of the theme in the smaller images at the foot of the article are a lot less contentious than one that invokes ‘Empire’. Perhaps the Danes are less troubled by their Empire then we are and it’s a bad reiteration.
    Of course, the other four are not without the problems as you point out, but an idea of comfort food is something we can probably all get behind.
    The transgression seems important. Liking butter is seen as sinful, but also acceptable and luxurious at times. “Allow yourself pleasure, you know you want to” is the over-arching theme. Can ’empire’ really be co-opted into that agenda or narrative?
    As to the look of the images, the pared down appearance back up a no-nonsense kind of attitude to life that would allow butter in (rather than effete ‘spreads’ of all kind). They are macho images (and very different from the Silvikrin one you wrote about earlier), but macho images of domestic stuff. Is male pester power now something that exists?

  • Strangely the lower 4 images remind me a bit of photographs of molten metal …its partly the colour, but also the wording chosen…..as though baking was somehow akin to working in a forge. Equating baking with production and what made the nation ‘great’ 🙂

    • Absolutely – the oven and forge or maybe engine are collapsed together to give the idea of food as fuel for heavy work. The warm tones give the impression of intense heat which I think masculinises the domestic – making it feel more extreme than common kitchen appliances!

  • I’ve just realised that there’s a probably inadvertent pun in the Empire image. They’re soldiers, aren’t they?

    • Ha, I didn’t think of soldiers! So there is a definite comic military message…the war against hunger perhaps?
      I think you are right about the importance of transgression – the opposing texts set conservatism and comfort as transgressions of healthy eating and shop bought goods, and as you said – no one is going to really take issue with comfort so they inadvertently accept the other conservative messages too. It seems a home cooked meal can get rid of bad tastes – even imperialist ones!

  • I think it’s interesting that the food is so monumental. It’s shot from that worm’s eye view and there’s a balance/symmetry in the composition that all adds to the sense of sturdy , strong product.I think the egg may have been morphed in as it seems too big for the toast and therefore the sense of power in breaking it down may be pronounced.The museli bar thing really is laughing at us oat eaters and I think that humour contibutes to its success as an advert. Who doesn’t love white toast with real butter?All those featured foods, like Mums and Grandmas’s used to make, are real comfort foods and that retrospective feel fits in with current trends towards nostalgia towards the past and slow living .

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

> Next Post Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014

< Previous Post Laura Strong

Back to blog listings