Hey guys. Today’s guest poster is my long-time friend and advertising guru, Chris Montwill. He has studied advertising at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and Chicago Portfolio School (where he now teaches art direction), worked at several large ad agencies including BBDO & Hoffman York, and currently owns his own creative boutique agency based out of Chicago, Moniker Creative. If you dig his writing like I do, check out his advertising-based blog here.
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How many times have sipped cold Pabst Blue Ribbon and claimed it was the best tasting thing on earth? Probably a few. All this despite its gym shoe like scent and hangover inducing recipe. Don’t get me wrong, I drink the stuff, but…why? PBR falls into the same category as olives, caviar, scotch, coffee and wine. It’s an acquired taste- things we don’t consume because we like them, but things we learn to like in order to create a social bond or sense of exclusivity (Just look at the group of hipsters who made this beer all the rage). Advertising can just as easily create this bond. It is a part of consumer driven society, because it can reflect culture as well as create it. So it’s only natural to see acquired tastes develop from it. Take an easy one- McDonald’s. They have the largest advertising budget in the food category , and have been able to give us a taste for anything but real beef. You go to McDonald’s not for the great taste of protein and potatoes, but because you have a taste for “McDonald’s”? that savory patented combo of corn syrup, salt and beef.
Now, while there is a very short learning curve and very little exclusivity to McDonald’s, I think a true butcher would find the first bite into a big mac hard to chew.
I know this uses ‘acquired taste’ in a broad form so take a look at this vintage Miller Ad:
For many years, Miller tried to convince women to drink the champagne of beers. Which, if you’ve had it, it’s pretty far from being veuve clicquot. Fifty years later, they’ve decided to give someone else a taste for this beer, these guys:
This all has to do with a product and culture co-existing and adapting together. Miller High Life couldn’t be sold as a premium beer in the wake of microbreweries so they convinced another group of people to acquire a taste for it. Every so often, advertising helps us acquire a taste for something healthier even though it might be harder to digest:
The entire organic food movement owes its success in part to advertising. It created a club of elite foodies (who worship weekly at Whole Foods) to eat items that are not necessarily the sweet, calorie packed things we instinctually eat. Try a flax seed bar or some coconut water and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Advertising plays a part in creating culture and social bonds. It amplifies a voice in order to make a profit, while, at the same time maintaining an element of truth. As a foodie-phile myself, I appreciate its ability to create a common language for this new obsession and its ever changing ability to create a new palette. Even if that means I might have to eat a quarter pounder every so often. ~CM
