Food Network and Foodies: Loved and Hated?

Last week I brought about the topic of how blogs are becoming more popular when choosing to view food entertainment. Due to the increasing popularity of Food Network and many other networks’ food oriented programming, the food industry is moving in a new direction. Food entertainment is beginning to show face all over bookstores, magazines, television, blogs, and commercials but some people are having a hard time with the idea. This week I chose to comb the blogosphere in hopes of finding some information on my topic of choice, the new dislike for foodies becoming a topic of entertainment and the effects of food network on advertising. The first blog I came across, The Daily Beast (see top left), written in the style of satire by, was created to address issues of interest to the editors. The post, “Foodies Make Me Sick,” discussed one writer’s hatred for people referring to themselves as foodies. Comedian Jessi Klein (VH-1, CNN, Comedy Central) wrote the original post, which made everything she disliked magnified in a humorous way. It did however raise an interesting question about the use of the term foodie in every day culture. After looking on another food-oriented blog, I realized that it did anger some foodies, which made for some interesting controversy. The next post I stumbled upon a post from one of my favorite blogs, Food Network Addict (see right). This post entitled, “Alton Brown New Face Of Welch’s, Can’t Compete With Cute Kids,” discusses how Food Network star Alton Brown has become the new face of Welch’s Grape Juice and that the traditional cute kid is gone for the next year. I chose to comment on each of the posts in hopes to get a response about the popularity of food entertainment and its effects in the advertising world. My comments can be found on each of the blogs as well as below.



“Foodies Make Me Sick”-My Comments:


First off, I would like to thank you for taking the time to write this article. After reading the article I realized that some people probably do feel like foodies are just a bunch of snobs with nothing else to do. Comedians tend to make a big deal out of little things, which is great, but this still raised the point about foodies. You opened your article with, “The other day I passed a fancy new restaurant in the West Village from whose windows camera bulbs were popping with lightning intensity. I assumed there was a fancy-pants magazine photo shoot in progress and peeked to see who was posing. A model? An actress? SJP? Wrong. It was a chicken dish, bathed in professional lights, the center of attention for a team of attendants who were hovering off to the side, waiting to attend to the chicken’s every whim. A surreptitious little piece of tinfoil was propping up the chicken into a sexier, more angled pose, the poultry equivalent of a girl on the cover of Maxim,” which I found hilarious. Obviously you realized this is a food photography shoot, which can be tough due to the nature of cooking.

Just as comedy, music, acting is a craft, so is the art of food design as well as cooking. Due to the increasing popularity of food as entertainment on television, movies, and in magazines do you feel that comedians are going to continue to use foodies in their acts? Do you feel like the term foodie is being thrown around too much and that it is turning negative? I am a foodie, but not of the obnoxious foodie persuasion. I did not feel offended at all by your post, in fact I think that sort of foodie needs to gain a new appreciation for what food really is and not just the status. Do you feel like being a foodie is a fad? I think given your job is entertainment, it would be interesting to see your thoughts on what might happen to food entertainment if it is considered a fad.


“Alton Brown New Face Of Welch’s, Can’t Compete With Cute Kids”- My Comments:

I would like to thank you so much for this post as well as your blog. Your blog is one of my favorite daily sites to visit. It is interesting to see how Food Network personalities are becoming spokespeople for so many food companies. It is great to see how advertising is taking to the popularity of food television. Already we have seen Paula Deen as the face of Smithfield Foods. You stated, “With the cute kids gone and Alton in, will you buy more grape juice?” This is an interesting question especially when looking at advertising recently. Alton Brown is respected and expected to know all things scientific. When thinking about Welch’s, I always tend to think of the cute little kids.

Do you think by making this change, it might take away the nostalgia of the grape juice? Will this be a positive choice in advertising for this company? I feel like it is a huge possibly that by choosing Alton, such an exciting Food Network personality, the grape juice may be put on the back burner. The association to watch Alton’s shows may take precedent over buying the grape juice. I feel that this is a huge step forward for food entertainment and am very excited about it. I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter, of course in your very fun and light way. You seem to understand what the personalities are doing and the direction in which they are headed.

The Blogosphere: The New Food Entertainment?

After writing on many different subjects ranging from video games to smart choices when eating, I felt it necessary to discuss food entertainment in a different light. There are numerous television stations that air shows having to do with cooking as well as many reality shows deciding who the next best chef will be. It is true that food television is becoming more popular by the minute and ratings will continue to soar as long as the programming stays entertaining. Food entertainment programming is starting to become a topic of concern in many food blogs. People are expressing their feelings about dumbed down programming and just plain repetitive shows. However, due to the growing success of food television and use of the web, a new form of food entertainment has been born. Welcome to what could possibly be the next best food entertainment, the blogosphere.

Food Network started off with shows on cooking and has continued to air programming with a wider range of topics. Shows such as Unwrapped and Good Eats delve into the creating, packaging, history and science aspects of food. Although these shows are highly informative and entertaining, viewers wanted more. With shows such as Iron Chef and Top Chef becoming such a phenomenon in the food world, Food Network decided to create The Next Food Network Star. This show is great for two reasons; one it is a reality show about food, and two it is designed so that the winner gets a test season. What a great idea! A show that creates new shows, or is it?

Popular food blog, Serious Eats, posted a question about how The Next Food Network Star has not produced a “star” besides Guy Fieri. Food blog, From Scratch (see above left) has commented on the same thing, as well as how the shows are dumbed down. On the other hand, the show Ace of Cakes tends to have a bit of dark humor and is much more entertaining than watching Sandra Lee and her Semi-Homemade recipes. People absolutely love Ace of Cakes . How would this become a huge problem for food networks? Finding appropriate programming. The viewers are starting to lean more towards entertainment and traditional reality shows than just instructional food shows. Are these issues leaving an opportunity for something new in the food entertainment world that is not necessarily television? I believe so.

From the moment that this blog was started there has been extensive research on a range of topics. Even when searching for information on serious topics there will always be a blog that makes for a “wow, did they really just write that?” comment. This is probably the most entertaining part of researching on the web. Up to this point, the best blog I have come across is Cake Wrecks. This blog is a constant stream of humor about when professional and amateur cakes go wrong. The writer and creator of Cake Wrecks, Jen uses witty comments along with stories from readers to create one of the most entertaining sites in the food world. Already voted Best Humor Blog by the Blogger’s Choice Awards, this site keeps getting better by the minute. Another site that I have mentioned before is Food Network Addict. For Food Network Nerds like myself, this is the place to find out the new Food Network gossip as well as additions to the network. The site is filled with plenty of humor specifically aimed towards the Food Network chefs and hosts, occasionally with drawings and captions of inappropriate nature. One other element to mention is that this writer gets great interviews from the hosts as well as decent advertising spots. He is definitely doing a great job with this blog.

What this comes down to is the fact that many people are becoming either inspired or frustrated with the programming and are turning it into amazing blog sites. Already, Food Network has picked up food blog, The Amateur Gourmet, and turned it into a web series. The probability they will try and turn more blogs into shows is pretty high. If they are smart they will try to get these blogs to sign on as either web shows or actual shows. There is a catch, if the blog creators are smart, they will just try and generate traffic and make money off of ad sales. Bottom line is that as programming becomes more and more generic, the off the wall blogs are going to generate more traffic. They are easier to access as well as easier to produce and maintain. They really are becoming a new and exciting venue for food entertainment.

Battle For Nutrition: Are "Smart Choices" Really The Right Ones?

Last week I brought about the topic of how food television plays a role in weight gain to light. I find it interesting that people are suggesting that television is part of the reason they are becoming obese or unhealthy in general. After reading many articles, I felt it was necessary to search and find out about what choices should be made in the supermarket. This week I chose to comb the blogosphere in hopes of finding discussions on making healthy choices for both adults and children. Luckily this subject matter could not have come at a better time. Over the past week tons of articles are being written about a new program that is being adopted by many companies that hold a lot of shelf space in our supermarkets. Another subject that is taking over many blogs is regarding the consumption of sodium in the diets of children.

The first blog I came across, The Fooducate Blog, is published in order to enlighten people on practical advice for buying healthy food. The post that I find, entitled, “Smart Choices Food Labeling-A Step In The Right Direction” was written in response to the “Smart Choices Program (see photo above left).” The program being adopted by companies such as PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kellogg Company, Kraft Foods, Unilever, and Wal-Mart (possibly Nestle as well), is intended to help consumers make the right choices when grocery shopping by creating a recognizable label that represents the product meets the Smart Choices standards. In this post he offers background on the nutrition acts that have been adopted as well as the FDA and USDA’s part in regulating food items. The second blog I found is entitled, “Shaping Youth,” published by Amy Jussel, is a forum discussing media and marketing’s influence on children. In the post “Kidney Stones In Kindergarten? Put Down The Sports Drink Kiddo!” she discusses how the marketing machines have created campaigns to promote drinking sports drinks yet there is less exercise happening on the playgrounds. I chose to comment on these posts in hopes I might get a response on how food marketing plays a part in the new regulations and if they will help people making the right decisions for themselves as well as their children. I offered up my comments on each blog. They can be found by clicking on the links as well as below.


“Smart Choices Food Labeling-A Step In The Right Direction”- My Response

I would like to thank you for taking time to write on this subject matter as well as your blog. I find this subject matter very educational and highly interesting. It makes me feel great to know that there are people that take the advancement of nutrition seriously. One great element to your posts is the brief history behind past regulations. Many other posts did not have this information which can make it difficult to see how new regulations are a step in the right direction. I agree with your comment, “Consumers embraced the nutrition information that became available, and began making more educated purchase decisions. However, many became confused with the information overflow. Cryptic ingredient names and Daily Value calculations presented new challenges to shoppers. If the FDA hoped through nutrition labels to encourage a healthier consumer, quite the opposite transpired in the past two decades, as obesity rates and diet related illnesses have shot up.” It is true that at that time the regulation was a good idea but I believe there were factors missing. The consumers were not educated in just that, the daily intake. I believe this same situation is about to present itself again regarding the Smart Choices Program. The comment, “So recently, manufacturers stepped up individually to the challenge, and began offering their consumers healthy choices within their product families. Several manufacturers launched marketing campaigns promoting their “better for you” brands,” makes an interesting observation.

Do you feel that due to the fact it is not a project regulated by the FDA that it is in fact a well thought out marketing campaign? I agree with your comment on how people might be ignoring other elements to what is considered healthy. It is possible people are being educated on portion control, which insinuates fat and calorie content but are forgetting the other elements to what is being considered healthy? Will these questions become an argument against the intentions of the Smart Choices program?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post as it brought these specific questions to mind, specifically aimed towards the real intentions behind this program. It would be great to see a following post, possibly regarding this matter.


“Kidney Stones In Kindergarten? Put Down The Sports Drink Kiddo!”- My Response

Thank you for taking the time to create and maintain this blog. It makes me glad to know that people like you take the time to educate others. This subject matter is one of the most controversial to hit the blogosphere, as it should be. It is interesting that your main focus is dealing with kidney stones. After reading many articles about kidney stones in children it is obvious to see that the issue of sodium content in foods needs to be addressed. Your comment, “To be fair, moderate amounts of sodium are NEEDED to balance water and minerals and help muscles and nerves work properly, but when fast foods, snack foods, and highly processed foods (canned, frozen, boxed, or bagged) become kids’ major intake instead of fresh, whole foods, sodium is bound to bump up to high levels WITHOUT adding a hydration fluid packed with same into the marketing mix,” does seem like it would be rocket science. If that is the case, why do you feel that parents are continuing to serve many of these foods as a major source? Recently, the Smart Choices Program was introduced to the public. For those not familiar, it is a program that is being adopted by many leading food companies, however, not regulated by the FDA (see photo on right for standard FDA label). The statistics on the smartchoices.com website state the sodium intake requirement is less than 480mg per serving.

For example if a child’s lunch were to include a smart choices portion controlled bag of chips that contains 380mg, plus a turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple and a juice box, do you feel this would be a decent lunch in terms of sodium content? Given there are at least three meals a day? Given the facts you presented about incorporating balance into a diet as well as what the daily sodium a child requires is, do you feel this non-FDA approved program is a real well developed food regulation or a well positioned marketing campaign?

I enjoyed reading this post and believe that due to your vast knowledge, you might have some great insight into these major food regulating and/or marketing questions.