Food styling: Good marketing or deception?
How often do you order from a fast food place, only to find that item you ordered is vastly different from the one pictured on the menu, the commercial, etc. Maybe it's missing a few condiments. Maybe it's that the bun isn't glowingly golden. Or maybe it's been squashed beyond recognition. Whatever the reason, it doesn't look like what you ordered and you would feel pretty gyped if you weren't so darn hungry.
Those glowingly delicious versions of the food you're eating can be attributed to food stylists. Yes, there are people out there who make a career on getting food to look good. They use fancy lighting and an array of other props to make the food look perfect. Sometimes the food they use isn't even real, so it would be impossible to match. For example, real ice cream usually melts before a good shot can be had, so food stylists often create a replica using (ick) mashed potatoes, or (double ick) lots of lard and some sugar.
Obviously, if we knew that we would end up with a smushed, burnt burger, we might not be so inclined to go out rightthissecond and buy one. That's where food stylists come in. But it begs the question: are the companies who employ these techniques tricking us into buying something, or is it just good business. What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-17-2006 @ 3:14PM
bmcclure said...
I remember seeing a TV special in the late 80s early 90s about commerical tricks. I thought this was common knowledge now days. My favorite from that show was the elmers glue on the cereal to make it look like the milk settled on it.
I'd call it good marketing, no one wants to see a flattened burger on TV. And they arent deceiving anyone, we all know what we're getting in reality.
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12-18-2006 @ 9:42AM
David Schloss said...
Every product ever photographed or shot to film or video for the purpose of selling it has been styled. Period. End of story. It's not really raining or snowing in commercials with rain or snow. Fog is not rolling in on commercials with a mysterious feel to it. Bright sunny interiors of houses are in fact plywood constructions on a set.
Models? Covered in makeup to hide blemishes. The clothes they're selling? Pinned, held back with tape and even stapled together to look good.
There's really nothing secret in the fact that ads aren't reality. They're designed to entice people, there's not the least bit of secret involved in that.
Yeah, you wouldn't want to eat the things photographed under hot studio lights all day, because if they can stand up to the lights, they're not real food. But that's not really news.
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