Appetites and Anxieties: Food, Film, and the Politics of Representation

2. Food and Film Industries: A Filter for the Food We See in Films

2 Food and Film Industries A Filter for the Food We See in Films Representations of food seen by large audiences reflect the influence of commercial media’s century-long support of “mass consumption , especially of convenience foods” (Belasco, Appetite 156). Today, the vision of food as a consumer product and vehicle for selfexpression is continually reactivated by “advertising’s big four,” Omnicom , WPP Group, Interpublic Group, and Publicis Groupe (Elliott 1). These “megacompanies” coordinate the co-promotions food and other companies use as they turn away from television and print advertising and toward product placement and brand integration in response to audiences’ increasing use of instant streaming, digital download, and digital video recorders (DVRs) (Elliott 1). Synergistic commercial partnerships fuel the $500 billion a year advertising and marketing industry . Films with global appeal are ideal brand integration partners (Sauer). As a consequence, co-promotion of products sold by film and other consumer product companies are orchestrated by companies like Norm Marshall Associates, which has been described as “the leading entertainment industry marketing agency representing the world’s top brands to the entertainment media through product placement, promotions , entertainment media outreach and celebrity seeding” (“Corbis Acquires Norm Marshall Group”). chapter 2 54 With co-promotions bringing disparate companies together in synergistic production and marketing ventures, films more obviously exist as a node in a larger network of corporate media and communications conglomerates (Wasko 13). Perhaps even more significant, they also exist in marketing networks that include companies like Ford, Apple, Red Bull, Coke, and BMW (“Leading Brand Appearances This Year”). Representations of food are thus one of many filmic elements impacted by co-promotion arrangements. For example, co-promotions involving Avatar (Cameron, 2009) included partnerships with companies ranging from McDonald’s to Panasonic. The Amazing Spider-Man (Webb, 2012) was produced and marketed in partnership with Activision, Carl’s Jr., Gameloft, Hardee’s, Kellogg’s cereals, Keebler cookies, Cheez-It crackers , Schick, Twizzlers, Visa, D-Box, Vuforia, and Standup2cancer.org (“The Amazing Spider-Man—Partners”). These partnerships not only provide film studios and food companies with nearly unlimited opportunities for advertising and crosspromotion , but are also ideologically charged and provide a platform for Western corporate supremacy. An example of this type of food/ film partnership is apparent in the blockbuster film Iron Man (Favreau, 2008), which reflects the film’s financial connections to Burger King, Dr. Pepper, and a dozen other brand partners, including the U.S. Armed Forces. In the film, the first thing arms developer-cum-nascent superhero Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) wants after escaping captivity in Afghanistan—an escape he engineers by constructing a suit of armor from weapon scraps—is to stop by Burger King for an American cheeseburger. Later in the film, after the Afghan terrorists unsuccessfully attempt to reconstruct Stark’s Iron Man suit and technology, the film makes the point that when it comes to weapons technology, nobody beats the United States military, a message well suited to a film sponsored by the U.S. Air Force. In addition to the geo-political imaginary the film creates, it also emphasizes that the United States makes the best cheeseburgers—Stark wolfs down Burger King burgers while holding a press conference upon his return. Thus, the film promotes U.S. weapons and Whoppers and underscores American superiority in both arenas. Iron Man provides only one example of how representations of food play a central role in films’ co-promotion operations. As Morgan food and film industries 55 Spurlock notes in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, “All the big blockbusters have tie-ins with fast-food restaurants, cups, toys, you name it.” Brand integration with fast food and other consumer products has been central to the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises since the 1970s. E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (Spielberg, 1982) partnered with Reese’s Pieces. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (Levy, 2009) partnered with Hershey . Coca-Cola works with the Tron franchise; Burger King and Twilight films co-promote. The Green Hornet (Gondry, 2011) partnered with Carl’s Jr. The synergy between the food and film industries is seamless when brand integration involves soda, sweets, and snacks paired with films featuring familiar, formulaic narratives filled with vampires, space travelers, and costumed superheroes. The food industry’s size and capital advantage over the film industry colors the dynamic between food companies and Hollywood. The differing power...