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Appealing to the Ethics of the Consumer: The Use of Rhetoric in Healthy Food Advertising Recent research studies have shown that vegetarianism is growing in popularity among young people (Marcus). There are compelling ethical and health reasons behind choosing a vegetarian diet. A typical vegetarian diet consists of mainly fruits, vegetables, and grains. Meat, chicken, and fish are excluded, but some dairy and eggs are not. With such rising popularity, the market for healthy foods is becoming increasingly competitive. Lightlife Foods, Inc. produces vegetarian foods and plant-protein meat substitutes. Their products can be found in the freezer section of many American supermarkets. In 2012, Lightlife released a commercial titled “E-I-EI-O.” In their commercial “E-I-E-I-O,” Lightlife uses the juxtaposition of farm animals created out of vegetables to highlight the positives of vegetarianism in order to promote their brand of meatless entrees. “E-I-E-I-O” focuses on Lightlife’s frozen meat-alternative products. The commercial is approximately one minute long and can be found here: http://www.laika.com/details.php?id=494. I chose this particular commercial because of the complex juxtaposition it uses by creating a traditional farm out of only vegetables. It asks the viewer to imagine what a farm run by Lightlife would look like. The commercial uses the melody to the familiar children’s song “Old Macdonald Had a Farm,” but rewrites the lyrics to narrate what is happening in the commercial as well as the benefits of eating Lightlife food.

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The commercial opens on a farm scene that looks to be created out of fruits and vegetables. A small child begins to sing “Old Macdonald Had a Farm,” but substitutes “Lightlife” for “Old Macdonald.” In front of the viewer, there appears a cow. The cow is made out of different types of vegetables, especially peppers and mushrooms. As the commercial progresses we see the sun is rising in the background. The commercial goes on to show other parts of the farm and other animals made out of vegetables. During this time, the child is continuing to sing “Old Macdonald,” but lyrics about “great taste” and “healthy” are added in. As the commercial approaches its finish more lyrics about healthy eating are wedged in. It then cuts to a shot of the planet Earth created out of vegetables with the phrase “Enjoy a world without meat” printed across the screen. The ending shot is back at the farm where two packages of Lightlife food are being framed by a cow and a chicken with the words “Hearty 100% Vegetarian Delicious” in the upper right of the screen. These are Lightlife’s slogans and they are placed at the very end of the commercial so the viewer can remember them easily. In an article for Business Insider Carolyn Cutrone interviewed advertising experts to find out how they create a successful slogan. It turns out that it takes a lot of skill and luck to create a concise and meaningful slogan. The main idea is to try to truly capture the essence of a brand (Cutrone). With their choice of slogans, Lightlife is trying to go against the stereotype that vegetarian food is bland and not filling. Comparatively, Lightlife wants the viewer to remember their products as being delicious and enjoyable to eat as well as satisfying. This commercial is broadly aimed at anyone who wishes to eat healthier and specifically at vegetarians. The use of fruits and vegetables in the creation of Lightlife’s “farm,” relates to their message that their food is fresh and 100% vegetarian. The ad agency behind the creation of Lightlife’s message and slogan is Venables Bell. At the time the commercial was released,

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Lightlife was a subsidiary of ConAgra Foods which is a large food production conglomerate. Making a specific commercial for one of its smaller brands may point to a desire by ConAgra to become a more visible player in the healthy food market. As healthy and clean eating become the norm for many American families, large corporations such as Whole Foods, Inc. are beginning to advertise aggressively to compete within the healthy food category (Halzack). As such, advertisers are always looking for new ways to appeal to the potential customers of a product. In fact, according to New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott, increasingly advertising agencies are going so far as to open up in-house divisions solely dedicated to researching the ways in which consumers behave and make choices. Most importantly, much of this innovative work puts greater emphasis on integrating up to the minute psychological and economic research in order to adapt to the increasing sophistication of consumers (Elliott, B3). To create “E-I-E-I-O,” Lightlife chose stop-motion animation experts Laika Studios. Laika Studios is behind many of the most recent stop-motion animation features such at The Boxtrolls and Coraline. Using stop-motion animation is a very complicated and time-consuming process. “Instead of using computers to render images and smoothly move characters, stopmotion animation on films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, requires animators to move tiny puppets a fraction of an inch at a time and then photograph them. The photos are strung together and become a film. On The Boxtrolls, they were able to complete 1 to 2 minutes of footage per week” (Pomerantz). Lightlife’s commercial may only be one minute long, but weeks of work went into making it. Furthermore, it’s a technique not often used in making commercials. When this commercial is viewed in a string with other more typical filmed

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commercials with actors, its look and detail will stand out when compared to the rest. Lightlife was probably hoping that this contrast would enhance their commercial’s memorability. The most obvious pattern of frequency in this commercial is the song and its repetitive nature. The tune is one we are all familiar with and can easily get stuck in a viewer’s head because it’s repeated so much in the commercial. They also repeatedly use a cow and the color green is very prominent throughout. The colors of the vegetables used to make up the animals and vegetation of the farm are in bright contrast to the more muted surface and sky colors. The texture of the planet made out of vegetables towards the end of the commercial stands out against the flat blue of the background. In an article for Psychology Today entitled, “Why We Prefer Certain Colors,” Professor R. Douglas Fields describes a study on color preference that was conducted at UC-Berkeley. The study found that subjects preferred colors that they associated with objects they had past positive experience with (Fields). Likewise, the advertisers behind the Lightlife commercial may have chosen to use lots of greens and blues to not only emphasize the naturalness of Lightlife’s foods, but to bring up positive associations in the consumer’s mind related to green and blue items, like a green juicy apple or clear blue water. The combination of those two colors is also reminiscent of the colors we associate with the planet Earth and emphasizes Lightlife’s claim of having a “low carbon footprint.” There are also anomalies all throughout the commercial in the form of animals being made out of differing fruits and vegetables that move. Trees and buildings on the farm are also made up of fruits and vegetables. My favorites are the endive “trees” in the background.

There is a moment when one of the chickens pulls its head off of a pepper chopping block that coincides with the beginning of the child listing all the positive things about Lightlife foods. The child sings: “Now cruelty free here, and earth friendly there, and less pollutants, and

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less waste, and smaller carbon footprint, and finally a vegetarian product that turns into a hearty delicious meal without actually eating meat, and a better world everywhere” (Lightlife). This is the moment of intensity in this commercial and it combines many types of rhetorical appeals. Most importantly, the chicken narrowly escaping death focuses the viewer’s attention on the part of the commercial that Lightlife wants a consumer to hear the most, all of the positive things associated with eating vegetarian and how their product accomplishes them and is also satisfying to eat. Superficially, the chicken saving its own life has some emotional appeal, but the biggest appeal that Lightlife is trying to make is ethical. In an essay for the website Big Think, journalist Derek Beres cites research indicating that the toll livestock production takes on our planet is much higher than that of produce production. “It takes 51.9 times more land and resources to produce a comparable amount of calories and micronutrients from beef than hemp seeds, and a staggering 2,900 times more than kale. As for water, beef requires 52.7 times more than an equivalent micronutrient profile of sweet potatoes” (Beres). In this commercial, Lightlife is asking the viewer to consider all the benefits of eating vegetarian and to weigh it against the costs of eating meat. They want the viewer to consider them both in respect to themselves and to the world as a whole.

Finally, there are some psychological undercurrents happening in this commercial as well. As mentioned earlier, the song used is quite repetitive and is highly likely to get stuck in a viewer’s head. The use of a children’s song with children singing it brings to mind images of innocence and joy. Accordingly, Lightlife may hope that the viewer then associates those images with their company and product. While the commercial is targeted broadly, it should appeal especially to young children and the parents of young children. Researchers at Stetson University found that advertising messages can affect the food choices made by young children aged 3-5

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(Ferguson, Contreras, and Kilburn, pg. 170). Generally speaking, appealing to young children may encourage them to try new foods and to develop healthy eating habits early on in their lives. Simultaneously, the way in which the commercial was made, using stop-motion animation just like the popular children’s movies The Boxtrolls and Coraline, may encourage positive associations. Lightlife is hoping parents and children that enjoyed those movies will see similarities to them in “E-I-E-I-O” and will thus be inclined to feel positively towards their product. Lightlife’s primary purpose with “E-I-E-I-O,” is to promote its brand of meat-alternative foods with the greater argument that eating vegetarian is better for the health of the consumer and the health of the world. Furthermore, Lightlife wants to promote its products not only to vegetarian eaters, but to anyone who is looking to eat healthier in general. The use of stopmotion animation gives real-life detail to the idea that Lightlife’s food is fresh, even though it’s frozen. The patterns of frequency and moments of intensity combine to reinforce the emotional and ethical appeals being made my Lightlife in this commercial. Even with all of the serious themes present in their message, the tone of the commercial is very upbeat and happy. Lightlife wants you to take eating healthy seriously. Through the use of such vibrant colors and textures however, they also want you to feel that eating their food is joyful and satisfying.

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Works Cited

Beres, Derek. "Vegetarianism as a Political (and Religious) Tool." Big Think. N.p., 19 Mar. 2013. Web. 31 Jan. 2015. http://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/vegetarianism-asa-political-and- religious-tool

Cutrone, Carolyn. "How To Write A Slogan That Customers Will Spread For You." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 13 Nov. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-write-a-slogan-2012-11 . Elliott, Stuart. "A Quest to Learn What Drives Consumer Decisions." The New York Times [New York, NY] 30 June 2010, Business sec.: B3. ProQuest. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. Ferguson, Christopher J., Sandra Contreras, and Madeline Kilburn. "Advertising and Fictional Media Effects on Healthy Eating Choices in Early and Later Childhood." (2013). Psychology of Popular Media Culture. Fields, R. Douglas, Ph.D. "Why We Prefer Certain Colors." Psychology Today. N.p., 1 Apr. 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. Halzack, Sarah. "The Growing Popularity of Organics Is Both Good and Bad News for Whole Foods." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 5 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2014/11/05/the-growing-popularityof-organics-is-both-good-and-bad-news-for-whole-foods/ .

Lightlife Foods. “E-I-E-I-O.” Online video clip. Laika Studios. Laika. Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2015. http://www.laika.com/details.php?id=494

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Marcus, Mary Brophy. "More Young People Go the Vegetarian Route - USATODAY.com." www.USATODAY.com. USA Today, 14 Oct. 2007. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-14-veggie-kids_N.htm .

Pomerantz, Dorothy. "'The Boxtrolls' And Why It's Crazy To Do Stop-Motion Animation." Forbes Magazine. Forbes, Inc., 26 Sept. 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2014/09/26/the-boxtrolls-and-why-itscrazy-to- do-stop-motion-animation/....