part0015

First of all, I really hope that you are mad! Not the type of mad that doctors want to prescribe a pill for, but rather the hopping up and down with rage sort of mad. You should be and you have every right to be. We are being lied to. We are given false information touted as ‘fact’ and we are being manipulated into buying food and other products that are often making us sick – physically and mentally. And this has been going on for decades.

You may not have heard of a man called Edward Bernays but he is widely considered the father of public relations. Bernays was the American nephew of famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and, although relatively unknown, his influence on the twentieth century is every bit as profound as his famous uncle.

By any standard, Freud’s theories range from the valid, to the interesting, to the downright bizarre. Much of his work was focused on hidden forces in the human psyche that needed to be controlled otherwise it could lead individuals and societies to chaos and destruction. Remember this was a time when the average person didn’t really have much say in their life, but that was changing. Those in power didn’t like the implications so they attempted to use Freud’s theories to control the crowd and therefore hang on to the power.

Bernays was the first person to take Freud’s ideas about human beings and use them to manipulate the masses. For the first time, he was able to show US companies how they could make people want things they didn’t need by linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

Bernays had appreciated the potential of Freud’s ideas but – perhaps more importantly – had seen their impact first-hand. As the US announced they were entering the First World War it set up a committee on public information and Bernays was employed to promote the US war aims in the press. US president at the time Woodrow Wilson declared that US involvement was not about restoring the old empires but to bring democracy to all of Europe. Bernays proved very skilful at promoting this idea in the US and abroad. So much so that he was invited to join President Wilson at the Paris peace talks after the war. It was in Paris that he realised just how effective his art for propaganda really was. President Wilson was welcomed as a hero and liberator of the masses, and as Bernays watched the crowds surge around the president he wondered if it would be possible to achieve the same type of mass persuasion to get people to buy products. Bernays is even on record as saying, ‘When I came back to the United States I decided that if you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace.’ And use it he did – although he changed the name of what he did from ‘propaganda’ to ‘public relations’ to avoid the negative implications ‘propaganda’ still has today.

Bernays was sure he could influence human behaviour, especially buying behaviour, if he could tap into people’s unconscious, irrational desires and emotions. He realised that there was a lot more going on in human decision-making than logical information. We know this – right? We know that having that third can of fizzy juice and another takeaway dinner isn’t going to help how we feel but we do it anyway. We know we should get off the couch and go for a walk but the pull of the TV and a comforting snack after a long day at the office is much more emotionally appealing. So, we don’t do it – even though we know we should.

One of Bernays’s best-known peacetime propaganda campaigns was called ‘Torches of Freedom’, to promote smoking to women. By the 1920s, tobacco companies were doing a roaring trade selling cigarettes to men but it was still considered taboo for women to smoke, especially in public. Imagine the possibilities though – just by somehow breaking that taboo, the cigarette companies could immediately double their market. So American Tobacco Company hired Bernays to do just that. Using psychoanalysis made famous by his uncle, Bernays discovered that, to women, cigarettes were seen as a symbol of male domination. He believed that if he could reposition smoking as a challenge to that perceived male power, tapping into women’s desire for more freedom, then they would take to smoking like ducks to water. To test the theory he persuaded a group of rich, beautiful debutantes to hide cigarettes under their clothes and join the Easter Day parade in New York. Bernays would give the women a signal and they were to light up the cigarettes in public. At the same time Bernays informed the press that a group of suffragettes were planning to use the Easter Day parade to protest by lighting up their ‘Torches of Freedom’.

So when the ladies fired up their cigarettes at the parade the press were already there in huge numbers to capture the moment for their respective newspapers. On 1 April 1929 The New York Times printed: ‘Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of “Freedom” ’. Almost overnight, smoking became a symbol of emancipation for women and the image helped to break the taboo that prevented women from smoking in public.

Effectively millions of women were manipulated into smoking. Smoking is extremely bad for your health. Granted, we’ve only proven that categorically since the 1950s, so perhaps Bernays did see his campaign as a way towards equal rights for women, but it’s highly doubtful. Regardless of his true motives, his masterful propaganda repositioned smoking for women as an act of liberation and freedom of expression, and he did it in order to sell more cigarettes. Slogans such as ‘An ancient prejudice has been removed’ (Lucky Strike) or ‘You’ve come a long way, baby’ (Virginia Slims) appealed to women’s hopes and dreams for greater freedom and equality. Bernays himself said breaking down the barriers to women smoking was ‘like opening a new gold mine right in American Tobacco’s front yard’.

We are being manipulated by smart people who understand what buttons they need to press to get us to buy certain products – and keep buying them. Only sometimes, like with cigarettes, those products are actively killing us! But it’s not just cigarettes – this problem is rife in modern food production where we are constantly being hoodwinked into believing certain products are healthy when they’re not.

There are thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of people like Edward Bernays plying their trade in big food or retail marketing departments all over the world. There are whole fields of research, including behavioural economics and social science, that explores why we do what we do so companies can exploit that information and make us buy more.

This means that the chips (excuse the pun) are seriously stacked against us.

When we go out to the supermarket, to a restaurant, to the cinema – or anywhere else where we’ll be faced with food choices – we need to think more like Lara Croft and less like Pac-Man. Are we mindless yellow blobs programmed to consume everything that crosses our path – or are we sentient, empowered women, who don’t let other people tell us what to do? (Of course, you’ve probably just realised I’ve also just used Bernays’s technique to push your emotional buttons. No one wants to be a ‘mindless yellow blob’ but most of us would be quite happy to associate ourselves with the kick-ass character played by Angelina Jolie!)

The point you need to appreciate is that it’s a war out there and we must be prepared for battle. There are three levels of manipulation you need to be aware of. First are the sounds, smells and bright signage enticing you to buy and eat something which your body doesn’t need and isn’t feeding your brain. The next level is the awkward upsell from the cute guy at the checkout – ‘Would you like fries with that?’ or ‘Can I tempt you with one of our chocolate bar offers today?’ We experience these upsells whether we are buying stamps in the post office, the weekly shop in the supermarket, or even the chemist! Even if we’ve stayed strong we then usually need to watch other people scoffing the very thing we fought so hard to avoid!

If we want to win the game we need to be like Lara Croft. No messing. No negotiating. We simply must focus on the end goal – improved health and mental well-being. Of course, everyone trying to sell you their products wants you to behave like Pac-Man – gobbling up everything they offer and still looking for more.

Next time you are in a shop look at the difference in product marketing in different categories. How many smiley faces, bright-coloured packaging, alluring language and money-off specials do you see in the fresh produce aisle compared to, say, cereals, soft drinks and confectionery? It is usually boxes of high-fat snacks, sugar-laden drinks or sugar-coated cereals that are piled up on shelf-end gondolas or at the front of the store under big colourful banners. We are reminded of just how much money we can save if we buy enough to feed a small army. Retailers know we are suckers for a bargain and will use every trick in the book to get us to buy more than we actually need. The buy one, get one free offers, or BOGOF offers as they are called in the industry, are very popular in supermarkets. As are 50 per cent extra free, half price, extra points on your loyalty card, win a prize, get a cuddly toy, etc. If you look closely most of these discounts and offers are on processed foods, fake food or sugar-laden food with high profit margins. Certainly, I’ve yet to see a crate of apples or box of broccoli marketed in bulk at such discounted prices. There is a reason for that – money. Getting you to part with yours for food that makes you fat and miserable! Seriously – it’s a terrible trade. Get smart. Don’t be fooled. Learn to beat the retailers and big food processors at their own game.

Make it into a game. I do this with my son when we are shopping or even when we are watching the news. Instead of telling him about the countless ways we are being manipulated to feel a certain way about a news story, or feel a certain way about a product so we buy it, I ask him questions about what he actually sees. Sometimes it’s hilarious because once you start to notice this blatant manipulation it’s almost comical. And once we see it for what it is, it starts to lose its subconscious power to direct our behaviour and alter our mood.

Colour is one of the weapons of choice in food marketing and it’s used in a variety of ways to influence what we buy and how much we consume. Colour psychology studies show that certain colours are more likely to make us feel agitated, while other colours have a calming, soothing effect.

The primary red and yellow colours frequently used at fast-food outlets are carefully chosen to get us in and out of the establishment as quickly as possible. Companies like McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King are volume-driven businesses and want you to ‘grab and go’ so they can serve more customers and make more money. Most of us can eat a Big Mac meal with a chocolate milkshake in just over five minutes, consuming our daily allowance of calories in the blink of an eye. These fast-food giants don’t want us to hang around; they don’t want us to question the nutritional value or source of the food they serve. Instead, they rely on the instant gratification approach to eating, where we have no time to consider the fat we’ve just lathered on our hips or the sugar poisoning our brains.

The colour of their outdoor signage is no accident either – red has the longest wavelength, it triggers stimulation, appetite and feelings of hunger. Yellow triggers feelings of happiness and friendliness due to its association with the sun. It also attracts attention – yellow is the most visible colour in daylight and, as any parent will tell you, McDonald’s golden arches seem to be visible to children from miles away! Interestingly, McDonald’s are now changing the colours of many of their outlets in affluent areas where they are struggling to compete with the premium burger chains and coffee shops. Their new green livery elicits feelings of nature, as they battle to capture more affluent consumers that are interested in animal welfare, sustainability and prefer more natural products.

At the other end of the market, ‘white tablecloth’ restaurants want you to stick around – to splash out on their extensive dessert menu, maybe enjoy a cheeky wee Irish coffee, a liqueur, or another bottle of their ridiculously overpriced wine. Upscale eateries use soft tones, natural browns and green colours, along with mood lighting and soft music to encourage customers to relax, take their time and enjoy the experience as well as the food and drink.

Colours on food packaging have been carefully chosen too. Black, metallic colours, burgundy reds, royal blues and deep dark colours signify premium and are often used in aspirational brands to signify quality (whether or not the product is quality or not). Blues are most often used for so-called ‘health’ foods or diet products – whether they are or not. And browns and greens signify natural, wholesome or organic products – whether they are or not! And we fall for it – hook, line and sinker.

Big food companies have been controlling our behaviour and manipulating our buying behaviour for decades and they often know what we are going to buy before we do. The language of colour is communicated quicker to the brain than words or shapes and work directly on our feelings and emotions. Basically food producers and retailers are hijacking our brain to trigger emotions that make us reach for their products and put them in our basket.

It is perfectly legal but it’s morally questionable at best and downright irresponsible at worst – especially when many of these foods have zero nutritional value and are not helping us battle the bulge or improve our mental well-being. It never ceases to amaze me that we get upset at the state of the nation’s health – escalating consumption of alcohol, escalating diabetes and obesity and even a recognition of the escalating problem of mental health – but nothing changes. The government – whatever political persuasion – comes out with some new initiative or other but no one is actually tackling the cause: the products that are causing the problem. These outcomes are hardly a surprise when you can buy alcohol and fizzy drinks cheaper than milk or water in the local supermarket, when processed food is quick, convenient and often reasonably cheap, and when just about everything we buy is laden with sugar, preservatives and unpronounceable additives! It’s time we wise up and we need to train our brains to override the subliminal ‘buy me’ programming. Just by being aware that this is happening to us can massively reduce the emotional pull food marketers have over our behaviour. It’s easy to get conned when you don’t know it’s happening – it’s much harder when you can see it for what it is.

Easy Step: Next time you are in the supermarket take a look at the signage and positioning of products. What foods stand out? What signage draws your attention? What foods are on special offer? Where are the BOGOF deals? Take a moment to pick up some of those products and take a close look at the ingredients – how many are there? How many can you pronounce? We are being manipulated to pick those products up and put them in our basket without thinking. The question is are you happy to be the ‘mindless yellow blob’ or are you going to be ‘Lara Croft’?

Studies show that children and adults eat more food when larger portions are served regardless of how hungry they are. A BBC One documentary called Tomorrow’s Food hosted by Dara Ó Briain explored technology where the person would eat while wearing virtual reality goggles – they would see their own hand which would reach out and pick up the food and then eat it. In the first experiment Dr Shini Somara was asked to eat as many Oreo cookies as she could. Despite being a very slim TV presenter she managed an impressive eight. The next day she repeated the experiment but could only manage five and looked quite ill after the fifth. So what was the difference? Unknown to her the researchers had increased the virtual size of the cookie. Although Dr Shini asked several times if the cookies were bigger in the second experiment, they were the exact same Oreo brand she had eaten the day before. They just looked bigger on her virtual reality screen so her brain was tricked into believing they were bigger and so told her she was full much earlier.

I’ve tried this trick myself – albeit without the virtual reality goggles. If I have an early morning start following a big night in with the girls and don’t have the time or inclination to nurse a hangover, I just use smaller glasses. Most of the time we don’t even realise and still have an enjoyable night while drinking much less wine!

Easy Step: If you go to the cinema with your mad fat friends, ask for a couple of empty drinks’ cups when you buy the popcorn and split the bucket of popcorn between your friends. Munching through a whole bucket each is mainly habit – this way you save money and still get the popcorn experience. Little tricks and tips like this, and reducing the size of wine glasses, can help trick our brains into eating and drinking less.

People also eat the foods that are most easily available to them. A research team at Cornell University conducted a consumption experiment in the workplace. They placed bowls of M&M’s at different parts of the office – some on the desks, some next to printers. When researchers counted up the number of M&M’s eaten every night it was the bowl on the desks, in easy reach, that were usually empty. The point being, if you have food at your fingertips and don’t have to make much effort to go and get it, you are far more likely to consume more.

Another thing to watch out for is something called ‘sensory-specific satiety’. This is when a variety of food leads to increased consumption. In another Cornell-conducted M&M’s study, researchers distributed bowls of M&M’s – some with a variety of colours and some with just one colour. Of course, the M&M’s aficionados among us already know that all M&M’s taste the same, regardless of the colour of the outer shell. Unfortunately our brain doesn’t really know that and reacts in strange yet predictable ways when presented with choice and variety. The Cornell study showed that bowls of different-coloured M&M’s were consumed faster than the ones with just one colour. Our brain gets bored when eating the same flavour and neural connections signal to stop eating. However, when a new flavour is introduced the brain gets fired up again and signals to keep on eating. The interesting thing with the M&M’s study is that the colour was the only difference and yet this was enough to trick the brain into thinking ‘yummy – this is something new – let’s eat more’.

This explains why we always eat more in ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet restaurants or the ‘Sunday carvery’ where we get to choose a little roast beef, roast lamb, turkey, meat loaf, pork and just a wee sliver of chicken or ham, not to mention the potatoes cooked three ways, umpteen vegetables and condiments. This also explains why most boxes of chocolates contain different-flavoured sweets in different shapes with different-coloured wrappers. Food marketing gurus are well aware of this colour trickery too – that’s why certain cereal brands – like Cheerios – have different-coloured hoops or children’s confectionery brands like Haribo have different-shaped and coloured sweets which look different but taste the same. It has all been carefully studied and calculated to trick us into eating more and therefore buying more.

We absolutely must learn to look beyond the label and appreciate that we are being manipulated by clever advertisers who deliberately use psychological ‘hot buttons’. All these companies care about is how to sell more products – they certainly don’t care whether these products are contributing to the mad fat epidemic.