The Brief

OCA tutor Dawn Woolley wrote a regular blog on the weareoca website called ‘Looking at Adverts’​.
Read one of Dawn’s articles and write a blog post or make a comment on the site in response.

Introduction

The first thing to note with this exercise is that the blogs by Dawn Woolley no longer contain any images or video media. I’m not sure what the reason behind this is, but can’t help to be amused at the irony of looking at advertisements without actually being able to see them. In order to make this exercise meaningful, I decided to look at the series of blogs, try to identify an advert from the description and then find the missing image from the internet. I settled on the advert for Lurpak butter in Looking at Adverts 3

Response

I chose this advert because I vividly remember my reaction to the television campaigns by Lurpak that featured the strong textual and spoken work elements. The missing images from Dawn’s blog are shown below[1]:

Wooley begins by addressing the way that a company that produces a product that has negative connotations, being high in saturated fat, highly calorific etc, had elected to counter with a narrative of all-natural and homely. They adopted an approach that appeals to our sense of nostalgia, with the historical image of butter being central to our diets for centuries. She points to the clever use of national identity as well, shunning the potentially divisive view of modern Denmark within the Eurosceptic demographic for the historical image of the Viking. When I recall the TV campaign, I remember it using the legendary Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, whose physical appearance and voice immediately conjour the idea of big, strong men. Although a different nationality, Hauer’s spoken word conjured an image that somehow aligned with that idea. When we look at the first image we see these elements connoting the same sense of masculinity. The oversized egg surrounded by the buttered toast has particular connotations in the UK where the latter are referred to as soldiers. The suggestion with the scale of the objects in the picture implies the butter only actually plays a small part in something much bigger, emphasised by the use of empire. This ties in with the idea that mosts things, even unhealthy foods are ok in moderation. The use of big/small also comes through in the other images. The huge scale of the meal being removed from what we are told is an oven suggests that big food that feeds our families is a good thing, with the added text pointing to masculine strength again. The idea of big, strong men is clear here but tempered by the idea of providing for family, which somehow seems like a positive idea despite the blatant sexism that goes with it. In the third image, the use of scale is more simple. The composition makes the cupcakes so big as to not allow any other distractions. The text takes the idea of wholesome further by suggesting that the food is a treat made possible by the butter within it. When I look at all three pictures, I can see the themes that we covered in Context & Narrative [2]. In one of the exercises, we deconstructed an image from a magazine or newspaper for the elements that clearly signify a meaning, such as food but also connote something based on what our knowledge and experience bring to it. When I look at these images, I am immediately nostalgic about my own experiences of natural food growing up and my fascination with the Vikings as a child. It would appear that Lurpak have pitched the advertising perfectly at me because I no longer see an unhealthy food-stuff or even an overly masculine ideal, but instead a sense of comfort and fondness through postmemory.

The second part of Wooley’s critique of this photograph deals with the difference, that is ‘what this product is’ against ‘what it is definitely not’. The former is used to belittle the latter a way that Wooley refers to as rhetorical figure in the field of advertising. The first image’s idea of the powerful empire not being built on something as insignificant as a museli bar is clear, but it’s a supplemental element to the picture. Without the text, the photograph can be interpreted as being of wholesome food, with the juxtaposition of the egg and buttered toast suggesting something that makes us feel good. However, when the rhetorical figure is added, it strengthens the idea that ‘this is what you want, not that other rubbish’. In the other images, the same use of this technique can be seen more subtly. The idea of an oven being where you make food seems straightforward enough, but the statement suggests what the alternative might be (in this case a microwave meal) without actually naming it. The same attitude towards the pre-packaged is seen in the third image. Wooley’s conclusions about the campaign suggesting a complete disregard for food fads, favouring the enjoyment, comfort and fuelling that food gives us instead, are relatable. Lurpak has managed to create a campaign that both conforms to stereotypes (sexism, imperialism etc) and challenges them, suggesting that tradition isn’t always a bad thing if we don’t overthink our food. All of this in order to sell butter, which is the one element that need not actually be included as a contextual element in the photograph.

Conclusion

I realise as I write this that I am doing what Wooley herself said that she could easily continue doing, which is to further investigate the meanings within this advertising campaign. The complex narratives and clever way that the company has manipulated our postmemories and brought their emotions into the present is palpable. I was reminded during this exercise of the milk campaign of the early 1980s [2]. The advert featured two young football fans entering a kitchen for a drink, we assume after playing the game. Straight away, we are presented with the rhetorical figure of milk (which the first boy drinks) and lemonade (which the second asks for). The latter’s revulsion soon gives way when the former states that their footballing hero said that if he didn’t drink it, he would only be able to play for a small team. When the second boy hasn’t heard of them, this makes the point of the importance of drinking milk. The final written text in the advert states that “there are times when only milk will do”, an idea that it somehow makes your dreams come true. Until reading Wooley’s series on advertising, I had simply seen this advert as amusing, but now it is clear how clever the use of context in the form of written and spoken word can be. It connects a visual with an idea or desire in a way that it cannot easily achieve in its own, which could be seen as manipulation or merely capturing our imagination. Either way, these advertisements increase product sales.

References

[1] Wieden + Kennedy, 2011, “Lurpak – Kitchen Odyssey”, Advertising Campaign, https://wklondon.com/work/kitchen-odyssey/

[2] Fletcher R, 2020, “4) Exercise 2: Decontstruction Task”, OCA Blog Post, https://richardfletcherphotography.photo.blog/2020/10/30/4-exercise-2-deconstruction-task/

[3] Unknown author, 2007, “Ian Rush, Accrington Stanley Milk Advert, CLEAN AND IN FULL!”, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pieK7b4KLL4