The Role Of Television In Our Trust Of Food
In Australia, two grocery companies – Coles and Woolworths – have more than 1,600 stores and control about 75% of the $85 billion grocery market. The companies have been accused of creating a duopoly, and their business practices have been criticized accordingly. This is happening in the context of more general debates about “negative environmental, animal welfare and health impacts of industrial agriculture and corporate food supply chains.” Like other supermarket chains around the world, Australian grocers have responded to these public relations issues with campaigns meant to regain consumer trust through corporate propaganda, including “reputational enhancement, direct quality claims and discursive claims-making.” For the Coles supermarket chain, the “Helping Australia Grow” campaign is an example of this strategy.
This paper analyzed the Coles campaign, including both conventional and “integrated” advertising placed in Australian reality TV programs such as “My Kitchen Rules.” In response to some Australian consumers believing that vegetables, milk, and meat come from “unclear” origins, the campaign attempted to personalize farms. They also seek to associate giant grocery chains with traditional farming practices using images of small, family-run operations dissociated from the larger agribusinesses industry. Their integrated advertisements show corporate representatives “deeply invested in, and connected to, the food they produce.” What’s more, the campaign shows “gorgeous” and “aesthetically perfect … piles of prime meat” while never showing the conditions of the animals used and killed to produce the meat.
The analysis is largely qualitative in nature and does not provide any results showing how the supermarket campaign affected consumers. However, the research serves as a primer for animal advocates who are interested in how supermarkets build – and create – consumer trust. It also provides supporting evidence that people are becoming increasingly interested in the sources of their food, and they are more likely to scrutinize the practices of farmer and grocers. What this means for consumer trust and for farmed animals remains to be seen.