Interpellation, Gender, and Indulgence

Fast food advertisers are not dumb: they are aware that the food they are marketing to you is unhealthy, and they are aware that there is an emphasis now more than ever before on healthy eating habits. If you know their food is bad, how do they trick you to purchase it?

They use the rhetoric of indulgence. The message they encode is as simple as this: "We know our food is bad for you, but don't you deserve to do something nice for yourself? We know you work hard. Why not kick back and enjoy some tasty junk food tonight?"

Observe the following ad:

(photo courtesy of blog.news-record.com)

This advertisement warns consumers to be "prepared." The marketers are encoding their food to come across as vicious, monstrous, and beastly because it can "sense fear." It is a larger-than-life burger loaded with meat and cheese. There is no way the advertisers can even pretend that this is healthy, so they must interpellate their audience in a different way.

This ad taps into stereotyped gender roles to a very high degree. It would not be ladylike for a female to consume this product because as a culture, we have certain expectations about women. We expect and want them to be submissive, dainty, fragile, and quiet. We don't expect them to eat something that is encoded in this manner.

However, we do expect men to consume something that is encoded in this manner. We expect men to be aggressive and strong. It is accepted in our society for a man to eat excessively or less healthily than a woman because of the gender expectations we have. It is a testament to one's manhood if he can walk up to the plate and ravage a burger. If a man eats this burger, it is expected that he will feel like more of a man. And he deserves to feel that way--at least, according to the marketing team behind this ad campaign.