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Original poster

The words used to describe food are ridiculous and unhelpful

76 replies

StLevanBlackcaps · 31/01/2023 07:53

Just heard an ad where every other thing was described as ‘cheeky’ or ‘a treat’. The current Costa one does my head in with the idiot girl claiming you have to ‘be good’ on Mon/Tues, you can be ‘naughty’ on Wed/Thurs but you have to admit it and on Fri you can stuff your face 🙄

Anything about diets or nutrition is full of cliched crap about ‘grabbing some crunchy veggies’ as a healthy snack or uses stupid ott descriptions for perfectly ordinary things - ‘fresh, creamy milk’ etc.

Restaurant menus are full of similar stuff to make their (often) mass-produced microwaveable junk sound ‘healthy’ - hand picked this and garden fresh that.

I love words and I love food but this stuff drives me bonkers - it’s misleading, insulting and doesn’t help anyone trying to just eat normally.

OP posts:
AmadeustheAlpaca · 31/01/2023 13:32

FuckabethFuckor · 31/01/2023 12:52

There's a whole industry that's been built up on cynically manipulating women — and they do specifically target women — by telling them that their homes and bodies smell without the 'help' of the company's products.

And it's all done in this awful, chummy 'us girls know what's up' tone that is highly deceptive and fundamentally unkind. Not to mention full of shit, most of the time.

I find it really unethical. I'm only partially in the industry now, and I specialise in something else. But if pushed I'd have fewer ethical issues doing tobacco than femcare (and, to be clear, I really, really don't want to do ciggies.)

Show quote history

Thanks, I find the psychology of marketing fascinating. I used to detest the Boots adverts which used the Here Come the Girls song and all the cosy cupcake baking in certain charity adverts.
Agree with so many posters on this thread about the attempts by food manufacturers to make food sound edgy or naughty. Dirty fries is my particular bugbear.

Laiste · 31/01/2023 13:37

FuckabethFuckor · Today 12:52 - There's a whole industry that's been built up on cynically manipulating women — and they do specifically target women — by telling them that their homes and bodies smell without the 'help' of the company's products.

And it's not new.
These terrifying ads are from the 50s. Lysol (yes, floor cleaner) douches.

Why? Because your poor husband deserves a disinfected fanny and otherwise the stink of you will ruin the marriage 😵

Google it. It's both hilarious and awful. There's loads of them. Here's some:

clickamericana.com/topics/beauty-fashion/stay-sweet-ladies-with-lysol-1958

FuckabethFuckor · 31/01/2023 13:41

Laiste · 31/01/2023 13:37

FuckabethFuckor · Today 12:52 - There's a whole industry that's been built up on cynically manipulating women — and they do specifically target women — by telling them that their homes and bodies smell without the 'help' of the company's products.

And it's not new.
These terrifying ads are from the 50s. Lysol (yes, floor cleaner) douches.

Why? Because your poor husband deserves a disinfected fanny and otherwise the stink of you will ruin the marriage 😵

Google it. It's both hilarious and awful. There's loads of them. Here's some:

clickamericana.com/topics/beauty-fashion/stay-sweet-ladies-with-lysol-1958

"Stay sweet ladies! Until you die of toxic shock syndrome."

Yeah. It's appalling. Yet you can also trace a direct line (in messaging terms) from those to the way (for eg) scented tampons are marketed to this day.

Laiste · 31/01/2023 13:46

Yes! Bloody 'Always' scented pads make me itch like crazy!

Original poster
StLevanBlackcaps · 31/01/2023 13:47

People using flowery language to sell food applies to everything in the world that people are trying to sell. Of course they are going to say fresh milk, I dont think someone would be impressed with a truthful description of how it was mechanically extracted and how many tankers and factories it's been through.

Yes you’re right, I think I’m muddling the 2 issues because it all annoys me so much!

What I meant about the ‘fresh creamy milk’ was it’s usually used (by the likes of WeightWatchers etc) in the context of trying to make some horrid low fat chemical filled diet suggestion sound appealing and healthy.

OP posts:
Original poster
StLevanBlackcaps · 31/01/2023 13:49

The current Costa one does my head in with the idiot girl claiming you have to ‘be good’ on Mon/Tues, you can be ‘naughty’ on Wed/Thurs but you have to admit it and on Fri you can stuff your face

Isn't this normalising bulimia in a way?

I think it’s quite irresponsible actually - not to mention intensely irritating - and I’ve no idea how they get away with it.

OP posts:
ManchesterGirl2 · 31/01/2023 13:57

FuckabethFuckor · 31/01/2023 09:00

I used to write ads for a living. There are a few reasons why these food ads often come out sounding like this.

  1. Regulations around how you describe food and drink are relatively strict here in the UK. Especially things that are high-sugar or highly processed, are taste-alikes for something else (like oat ‘milk’ or vegan burgers), are restricted by age (ie alcohol), or are seen as potentially appealing to children.
  2. (Related to 1) A lot of times, such regulations or laws force you to signal in an ad that the product shouldn’t be consumed on a regular basis. Using words like ‘treat’ or ‘cheeky’ are ways of doing this without finger-wagging at people, which doesn’t work in advertising.
  3. FMCG companies don’t tend to pay good money for experienced copywriters. There are a lot of copywriters who will simply ram in another adjective if they can’t describe something sufficiently. Ditto clients; sometimes I’ve been forced to add in extra adjectives to an ad because the client lacks comprehension and thinks the copy would be ‘boring’ without it.
  4. For radio especially, salience beats pretty much any other technique. It’s better to be annoying than well-crafted because people remember annoying. Even if they don’t like it. (That’s also why the insurance comparison site ads are they way they are, incidentally.)
  5. There is a kind of cultural shorthand in the infantilisation of adults around food. Terms like dirty burger, cheeky Nando’s, nom-nom-nom etc caught on in a big way 10 to 15 years ago and have lodged in the collective consciousness. Like it or not, subconsciously a lot of people equate being treated like a child with comfort and safety. At some level it’s an easy win to use language like this in food advertising because it triggers people’s subconscious. Even people who in their conscious minds wouldn’t want to be infantilised. Actually, in their non-conscious minds, they do.

Fascinating post. Knowing that "treat" is the perverse result of health regulations makes it even more aggravating, I think.

stayathomer · 31/01/2023 13:58

Oh my God OP are you me? I've always felt this way-people describing things as pan fried instead of fried, using the words tasty, fresh, crunchy, rustic, homemade, instead of just saying what it is. And the word 'treat' sends me into a spin-you can have one treat, you can have one as a treat- to children just reminds me of dog treats. And everything being a 'sneaky' whatever. What if I don't want it to be sneaky? I think it comes from my (honestly lovely) in-laws being foodies-we get videos of everything they cook and are told things are moist and succulent etc etc. (Exhales)

Bubblebubblebah · 31/01/2023 14:03

pan fried instead of fried
That one is actually fully valid because if menu says "fried" people assume deep fried. Differe to pan fried. Nothing wanky about this one

AngelicInnocent · 31/01/2023 14:05

I'm currently in another country and the English translation of the menus is quite refreshing. Today I had cow meat with vegetables and pasta. In the UK it would have been high quality, low fat minced beef with locally sourced vegetables in a tasty ragout. Served over fresh, homemade pasta and topped with hand grated parmesan for an authentic Italian bolognese!

FuckabethFuckor · 31/01/2023 14:06

ManchesterGirl2 · 31/01/2023 13:57

Fascinating post. Knowing that "treat" is the perverse result of health regulations makes it even more aggravating, I think.

Show quote history

Well, it's one way of doing it. Another way is to incorporate groups of people into the messaging so that it doesn't look like the 2kg bag of Revels is meant for one person. So 'party bag', 'share with friends', that kind of thing. When I worked in confectionery they were pretty strict on that. The only times you could directly say that the product was for one person was the smallest pack sizes.

NowThatIThink · 31/01/2023 14:09

bellac11 · 31/01/2023 07:56

Personally I dont think language is flowery enough. I like watching Nigella Lawson for this reason, she is quite flowery about food

Conversely, we have over wordy descriptions for quite common sense basic things which dont fit right, certain jobs like shelf stacker have some convoluted description or bin man etc

Not to mention behaviours, particularly for children.

Well, generally she's being flowery about delicious food, though -- with the exception of her ham cooked in Coca-Cola which sounds grotesque, though as I'm vegetarian, I can't check). I mean, think there's a difference between Nigella's deliberately tongue-in-cheek paeans to lemon tart or some obscure pasta shape, and the kind of 'have a cheeky Nandos' or 'have a delicious country-fresh egg salad in a piping hot country loaf with crispy, dew-wet lettuce and tangy vinaigrette on the side' thing the OP is talking about.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe · 31/01/2023 14:16

TheProblemIsMe · 31/01/2023 08:15

For me it's "dirty" dirty fries, dirty rice etc

It's appalling.

'Dirty rice' is a Louisiana speciality and I've seen that reference for as many years as I can remember. I'm absolutely with you on the 'dirty' prefix and agree with PP about the 'cheeky' this and that. Very annoying.

I agree also with another poster that Nigella Lawson is excellent at describing food in an appealing way. The language that is used at the moment by supposed adults and/or professionals is just puerile and off-putting; they just sound like pretentious nobs.

FuckabethFuckor · 31/01/2023 14:16

Agree; Nigella Lawson is an outstanding writer, in technical terms.

Writing about food is actually pretty hard without descending into adjective hell. Jay Rayner does it well too, as does Fay Maschler.

Lakeyloo · 31/01/2023 14:19

I have a massive ick with how gravy is described now days.. especially on MasterChef. Roast chicken served with Chicken sauce. It's bloody gravy ! Lamb sauce. It's bloody gravy. "Jus" was bad enough but chicken sauce ?? I'm sure there's a difference but it just sounds weird.

stayathomer · 31/01/2023 14:23

That one is actually fully valid because if menu says "fried" people assume deep fried. Differe to pan fried. Nothing wanky about this one
Totally fair enough, just annoying when used at the dinner table where there's no deep fat fryer in the house;)

Catspyjamas17 · 31/01/2023 14:29

Unctuous is overused and used incorrectly. People seem to think it means rich and full of flavour. It actually means something is oily and greasy. In fact I think they pronounce it "unctious" on Masterchef, as if it's a separate word.

Totally fair enough, just annoying when used at the dinner table where there's no deep fat fryer in the house

You just need a saucepan and lots of oil to deep fry things.

dexterslockedintheshedagain · 31/01/2023 14:30

FuckabethFuckor · 31/01/2023 11:37

‘Hand-cooked’ is basically tipped out of the fryer by a person, in batches. As opposed to stuff like Pringles which is machine-formed (that’s why they’re so uniform in size and shape).

I think I love you 😍😍😂😂

Catspyjamas17 · 31/01/2023 14:32

Are they hand-chipped though?

stayathomer · 31/01/2023 14:36

You just need a saucepan and lots of oil to deep fry things.
This is when the people concerned (okay, all of my in laws!!!) cook in a pan, minimal oil. I honestly know I’m irrational but it’s just something that gets to me- everything is said to be pan fried, I’m thinking’fried’ because to me on a frying pan is fried and I don’t need the pan part before it!! (yes I’m going around in circles and I know I’m annoying!! 😅)

Catspyjamas17 · 31/01/2023 14:39

noun
noun: treat; plural noun: treats
an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure

I don't mind sugary/very highly processed foods being described as a treat. They certainly fulfil the above definition for me, unless I want to be three stone heavier wihin a short space of time.

SocksAndTheCity · 31/01/2023 14:52

The alternative to deep fried is 'shallow fried' not 'pan fried', which is indeed just trite, wanky crap.

SinnerBoy · 31/01/2023 14:58

Yes. What else would they say? Toaster fried? Kettle fried?

whizzpopping · 31/01/2023 15:15

Well these are food advertisements. Their sole aim is to promote the products in a way that induces you to buy them. They really are not concerned with purple prose or fostering unhealthy attitudes toward food (although I'm sure there are laws against misleading advertising). It's good that you are alert to their tactics and don't forget to lodge your objections by avoiding these kids of products and establishments where possible

IndigoHexagon · 31/01/2023 15:20

One of my favourite places to eat near me recently changed their menu and have added a new meal - it’s a steak dish but they describe it as being ‘ribeye of retired dairy cow’. I wouldn’t order it based on that description- I feel enough guilt at eating meat as it is within actively being reminded I’m eating an animal.

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