There seems to be a common trend among advertisers emerging. That of the use of poetry that uses a simplistic form of rhyming to sell their wares. The most common example of this is the long-running Cathedral City cheese ads narrated by the late, great Pete Poselthwaite. However, more and more companies seem to be joining the trend. I noticed that great bastion of quality food Iceland getting in on the act.
The problem isn't that poetry is used, my beef with the process is that this is how our food is marketed at the working-class. It's as if this is how we, as the great unwashed masses, accept our food presented to us; we find beauty in our food yet also find something ordinary or functional about our use of food.
For example, the Cathedral City ad continually presents us with, as in my previous post, a functional society. The night workers, the early risers, the backbone of the nation - all able to continue thanks to their daily dose of Cathedral City. Phew! Even the direct address "From Runcorn to Ripon" is slightly more indicative than say "From Bury St. Edmunds to Didcot."
This whole presentation of the working-class and the rhythmic poetry of the commentary instantly reminds us of the classic Night Mail (1936: dir. Grierson, J). However, unike that cultural landmark in documentary history, 'the Nation's Favourite' and the current tripe (almost literally) shown to us by Iceland can surely not compare to W.H Auden. "The washing up shows cheesy bake was a winner." It may be, but it doesn't seem to ring as poetic as "none will hear the postman's knock/Without a quickening of the heart/For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?"
Cathedral City and Iceland are two examples of this kind of cultural significance within advertising. Although there have been ads aimed at a specific class many a time before, I would argue that we are likely to see an increase in adverts that, whilst maybe not using a rhythmic, staccato mode of speech in the tradition of Night Mail, do present goods to us more and more faux-poetically. This is known as a 'centrifugal' process - the associations generated around the product work to sustain the desirablity (or in this case the normality) of specific features of personal and social life. That's why mums, and indeed dads, buy the goods that companies convince them their class depends upon.
Walls sausages anyone?
