WSDE Essay: Why we buy aesthetically appealing food and food packaging.
Original thesis: We have been conditioned to buy pretty, packaged foods by marketing and advertising schemes designed to make us think we would feel better about ourselves if we bought this product. It's not true that it would make us feel better, but our subconscious mind is drawn toward it and the convenience of packaged food.
McDonald’s, Burger King, Coca Cola, Sprite, Gatorade, Snapple, Lays, Doritos, Cheetos, Hershey’s, Nestle, Kirkland, Kellogs, Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, Walmart. What do all of these have in common? Packaged foods and brand names. More than likely, every household will have one of these products or go to stores that sell these products. They are often bought based on advertisements seen on television or the sheer convenience of “needing” such a brand and having it on the shelf of the nearest store. But they aren’t products that a person might actually “need”, they are products companies make people think they need and it will make them feel better if they get it. People are conditioned by marketing and advertisements to buy the most convenient, colorful, packaged products to fulfill a false desire.
I. Conditioning
a. Raised by marketing
II. Marketing
a. Psychology
b. Colorful packaging
c. Price and economy
III. Convenience
a. Comparison to old days
b. Obesity
c. No one wants to look around for other things
IV. Closing
a. Often, the false desire isn’t necessarily good for health
b. What can change?
c. What can make it better
