Fifth Bit of Media—Pork Roast, or An Open Letter to the National Pork Board

To the National Pork Board:

While I was  dissecting magazine ads in my critical thinking class I became enraptured by this one:

Because pork will make me entertaining. What?! And "Be inspired"? Really?! That is probably the most hilarious euphemism ever. Because learning recipes is so inspiring.

This ad uses a pretty interesting combination of strategies to get the consumer to buy the product. It uses gestalt to get the reader's attention and then glittering generalities to appeal to the reader's needs for guidance and affiliation.

The ad uses gestalt by implying pork will make the reader entertaining. Not many people I know of equate pork with entertainment. And certainly none think recipes including it to be particularly inspiring. And yet the words appear in big, bold letters with a nice, large picture of the product. This incongruous image stuck with me, and was probably employed to stick with other readers.

The ad also uses glittering generalities, with the words "entertaining," "inspired," and "simply" to imply that if the reader buys the product, they can create an easy but artfully-prepared dish, which will make everyone love them. It backs this up with pictures of smiling people supposedly having fun cooking and socializing. By using these images and words, the ad hopes to appeal to people's needs for guidance and affiliation. "You don't need to worry about cooking anymore, because if you just go to our website, we can tell you how to easily prepare any pork dish imaginable," the ad seems to say. "Then everybody will have so much fun and love you forever!"

But despite these carefully-designed and -executed ploys, this ad left a bad taste in my mouth. That may be because I've been a vegetarian all my life and the thought of bacon-wrapped pork is one of the least appealing I could think about. But the ad also seems not to come together well. The beautifully-done gestalt is eye-catching and sticks in the brain, but the designers of your ad seemed not to be able to make up their minds whether or not they were serious about the pork being entertaining. This ambiguity leaves the ad as something to be ridiculed rather than thought witty.

Pork is not particularly entertaining. Pork is carcass lying on the table. This image is easily remembered, but as you try to sell it seriously as well as in jest, we, the readers, end up laughing at your board and not with it. If you want us to actually think pork is entertaining, make the pictures of the people having fun more prominent. Then that will be the first thing we see, and we will agree that pork can bring people together and entertain them. Maybe we'll buy your product and visit your website and spend lots of money so you can teach us to use food to make everyone love us.

Or scrap the pictures of happy people and make it all gestalt. We'll laugh at the thought of pork as entertainment, chuckle at its inspiring us, and go on our way with your product in our minds. Maybe next time we're planning a meal we'll remember your ad and think, "They're funny. Maybe I should try their product."

But you must know that you can't do both. Not how you are right now. You guys better get your act together with your ads, or people will treat you as more of a laughingstock than a product. When you're making ads and can't decide between gestalt and glittering generalities, PICK ONE. Many of us will to buy your product, but if your ads are so wimpy and laughable as this, will we really respect you? Make your ads funny or make your ads serious, either way works fine. But make them coherent. Maybe then I'll stop being so embarrassed for you.

Sincerely,
MLDS