How Does This Happen to Smart People? (Part 3: Learnings from a Garlic Party)
This is part of a continuing series on Food Marketing that explores why we need a different kind of smarts to stay healthy in an unhealthy food environment, i.e., “marketing-smarts.” (Find Part 2 in the series here)
A few days ago I headed to a local farm for its annual garlic party. No we weren’t treated to tasty garlic dishes. At this “party” we spent the morning in the farm’s huge (and cold!) barn crushing garlic heads to release the cloves. The farmer will then plant the cloves over the next week so each one grows into a full head next year! Sort of a loaves and fishes miracle!
The party was more fun than it might sound because there was a lot of lively chatting as we crushed. In particular, there was quite an animated conversation around Buc-ees which stayed with me.
If you aren’t in the know, like me, Buc-ees are a gas station extraordinaire, a/k/a/ the amusement park version of a convenience store. One was recently opened in our area, which sparked the buzz at our garlic-crushing table.
Apparently, people go out of the way to visit Buc-ees, not just for gas but also for their huge gift shops and their food–especially their famous barbeque and “beaver nuggets” (a brown sugar coated corn puff.) The food scene is the part of the conversation that stuck with me.
The woman next to me had already mentioned that she was hanging on to her “skinny clothes” because she was hoping to shed the extra 20 to 30 pounds she was carrying. Yet a stop at Buc–ess for barbeque was on her agenda after the garlic party.
How much was this much-hyped phenomenon going to help with her weight hopes and goals–and most importantly her health?
If healthy eating means eating vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts, seeds, proteins and beans, a Buc-ees barbeque sandwich offers nothing of help other than some protein–and that in an overly large portion, bathed in a sugar-rich sauce
Yet stopping at Buc-ees has been reported on, advertised and social media-ed so much that it has become a must-do experience. When you are in the vicinity of one of these modern temples, we’ve been lead to believe that we must pay homage.
This is why being a healthy eater in today’s world ain’t easy.
Sure an occasional Buc-ees stop is not going to kill us. But we are constantly tempted to make similar detours: Ads beckon throughout the grocery store, on the drive home from work or shopping, at every event we attend, and from vending machines even at the fitness gym! It is the accumulation of all these detours that sickens us.
Yet we can’t be too hard on ourselves. We’re being manipulated.
The last newsletter shared examples of the ocean of marketing messages we’re drowning in. Far from inspiring us to be the healthy eaters we long to be, those messages push and cajole us to do just the opposite!
But we’re not doomed to lives of hopeless ill health. Why? Because we’re smart people!
We can learn about and come to understand the damage that comes from allowing marketing messages access to our minds. We can begin thinking for ourselves and determining what is best for us, free of the influence of outside marketing masters.
There are always hundreds of money-generating product ideas, and by pulling the right marketing levers, companies can get us to buy just about anything! Our smarts and self-respect will keep us from being duped.
I hope this series provides inspiration and courage! We can do this! Hope you’ll keep journeying with me!