FICTITIOUS PEOPLE AS FOOD BRAND ICONS: THEIR ROLE AND VISUAL REPRESENTATION IN CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL FOOD PACKAGING KIRSTEN HARDIE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2014 The University of Brighton ABSTRACT KIRSTEN HARDIE 2014 FICTITIOUS PEOPLE AS FOOD BRAND ICONS: THEIR ROLE AND VISUAL REPRESENTATION IN CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL FOOD PACKAGING. This thesis focuses upon fictitious people as food brand icons and their role and visual representation in contemporary international food packaging. It presents a new lens that focuses upon the visual reading of examples. Through comparative analysis of historical and contemporary British, Canadian and American examples primarily, ones that share comparable roles and visual characteristics, the study considers its hypothesis: a common visual formula operates across time and cultures in the creation and enduring omnipresence of icons that appear as real. It considers how shared visual codes provide identification of types and through such it presents a taxonomy of fictitious brand icons based upon their visual identity. The thesis considers, in relation to notions of storytelling, how examples read and are understood as real upon packaging and within wider commercial, social and cultural contexts. It considers how they relate to real people and roles through specific consideration of female home economist/ consumer advisor examples. The thesis focuses upon the American food brand icon Betty Crocker to consider how she may be understood as symbolic of a host of enigmatic examples. The thesis advances the study of packaging, branding, culinary history and design history through its original focus and methodological approach which evidently have been neglected previously in academic study. It braids interdisciplinary perspectives to present an original understanding of brand icons and packaging. It determines brand icon as key term; to address the need for a clear definition and understanding. The study‟s visual reading and taxonomy present an original framework that assert that visual codes create complex commercial and cultural fictitious personalities that can be deliberately elusive yet often appear as real. In particular, its interrogation of specific fictitious brand icons as enigmatic commercial home economists/consumer advisors confirms the existence of a commercial sisterhood; clone-types that appear to replicate their roles and appearance via visual codes that endure and appeal. ii Table of Contents Page No. Fictitious people as food brand icons: their role and visual representation in contemporary international food packaging. Volume One Abstract ii Contents iii List of Illustrations vii List of Tables xiv Preface xv Acknowledgements xx Author‟s Declaration xxvii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. Terminology 7 1.2.1. Brand Icon 7 1.3. Fictitious People Brand Icons 8 1.4. Thesis structure 9 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 14 2.1. Introduction 14 2.2. Brand icons 15 2.3. Scope and focus of established literature 17 2.4. Seminal studies 22 2.4.1. Cartoon spokes-people 28 2.4.2. Anthropomorphic examples 30 2.4.3. Children and television 32 2.4.4. Books 33 2.4.5. Advertising Icon Museum, Kansa City, USA 34 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 38 3.1. Introduction 38 3.2. Research Approach 38 3.3. Data Collection 39 3.3.1. Secondary Data 39 3.3.2. Primary Data 45 3.3.2.1. Food Packaging 45 iii 3.3.2.2. Packaging Collections 47 3.3.2.3. Museums, Collections and Archives 48 3.3.2.4. Company Archives 50 3.3.2.5. Women‟s Magazines 52 3.3.2.6. Correspondence and Interviews 54 3.3.2.7. Conferences 56 3.3.2.8. Cookery Publications 56 3.4. Case studies 57 3.5. Qualitative Data Presentation 57 3.5.1. Taxonomy 57 3.6. Validity and Reliability of Research 58 3.7. Variables and Limitations of Research 62 CHAPTER 4: BRAND ICON 61 4.1. Introduction 61 4.2. Brands 62 4.2.1. People Brand Symbols 63 4.3. Function 64 4.4 Terminology 65 - Brand Character 67 - Brand Spokes-person 68 - Brand Icon 69 4.5 Brand-Icon Consumer Relationship 71 4.6 Context of Use: Channels of Communication 75 4.7 Fictitious Brand Icons 79 4.8. Creating and perpetuating the fiction: telling tales 80 4.9 Folklore, “folklure” and “fakelure” 85 4.10 Cartoon Characters Brand Icons 87 4.11 Anthropomorphic Brand Icons 90 CHAPTER 5: FOOD PACKAGING AND PEOPLE ON PACKAGING 94 5.1. Introduction 94 5.2. Packaging design roles and contexts 96 5.3. Packaging in advertising 102 5.4. Images of People on Food Packaging 112 5.4.1 The Use of Images of People 113 5.4.2 The Face 116 5.4.3 The Female Face 119 5.4.4 Faces: Cross Culture 122 5.4.5. The Design and Positioning of People on Packaging 125 5.4.6 Attire 132 5.4.7 Signature 135 iv 5.4.8 Images of People as Indicators of Food Provenance 136 CHAPTER 6: TAXONOMY OF BRAND ICONS 139 6.1. Introduction to Taxonomy of People-Types 139 6.2. Taxonomy: People Types 140 6.2.1. Established taxonomies 141 6.3. People-types on Food Packaging: Visual Characteristics 148 as Codes 6.4. People -types as Brand Icons 150 6.4.1. Family 153 6.4.1.1. Grandmother 155 6.4.1.2. Mother (See also Appendix B: Children) 160 6.4.1.3. Aunt 163 6.4.1.3.1. Fictitious Brand Icon: Aunt Bessie 165 6.4.2. Founders (See also Appendix C: Founders) 168 6.4.3. Maids (See also Appendix F: Sun-Maid case study) 169 6.4.4. Workers (See also Appendix D: Workers and Chef) 178 6.4.5. Expert/Professional (See also Appendix E: Celebrity) 178 CHAPTER 7: CROSS CULTURAL BRAND ICONS: CASE STUDIES 180 7.1. Introduction 180 7.2. Fisherman, Sailor and Sea Captain: Captain Birds Eye 180 7.3. Enigmatic Fictitious Brand Icon: Elsa‟s Story 193 CHAPTER 8: THE FICTITIOUS FEMALE COMMERCIAL HOME 200 ECONOMIST BRAND ICON 8.1. Introduction 200 8.2. Home Economics 202 8.3. Frames of Reference 203 8.4. The Home Economist 207 8.4.1. The Housewife as Domestic Home Economist 207 8.4.2. Commercial Expert Advisors 209 8.4.2.1. Woman to Woman: The Female Advisor 211 8.4.3. Fictitious Commercial Expert Advisors 214 8.4.4. Commercial Home Economists 215 8 4.5. Fictitious Commercial Home Economists/Advisors 218 8.4.6. Enigmatic Home Economists: Variations on a Theme 220 8.5. Betty Crocker 226 8.5.1. Betty Crocker 2012 236 v 8.6. Contemporary Female Fictitious Customer Service Advisors 242 CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION 248 9.1. Summary conclusion 248 9.2. Reflections on main results 253 9.3. Main implications 257 9.4. Pertinence to disciplines 261 9.5. Research Limitations 262 9.6. Recommendations for Future Research 264 9.7. Research Contributions and Final Conclusion. 265 GLOSSARY BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES (N.B. All packaging examples and supporting reference materials were archived digitally and hyperlinked to enable effective comparative analysis and the cross referencing of information. This digital database comprises the collection of over 2,500 food packaging examples and individual records for each item (Appendix A provides indicative examples of this documentation). Appendix: A Indicative examples of research records Appendix: B Children on Food Packaging. Appendix: C Founders and Product Originators. Appendix: D Workers and Brand Icon: the Chef. Appendix: E Celebrities as Professional food brand endorsers. Appendix: F Fictitious Brand Icon Case Study Sun-Maid. Appendix: G Food-Related Commercial Fictitious Home Economists and Customer Advisors Appendix: H Indicative examples of General Mills Inc., archival materials. vi LIST OF ILLLUSTRATIONS The thesis includes a large range of images that are used to help illustrate key points and examples of the thesis which the reader may otherwise be unfamiliar with owing to the ephemeral nature and limited availability of historical and culture specific packaging examples and materials. In many instances the packaging examples illustrated are resized and cropped to highlight specific details of their design as relevant to the focus discussion. The majority of the images relate to the packaging collection of the author. Where images are from other sources they are referenced accordingly and the author thanks and acknowledges the owners. All of the photographs unless identified otherwise have been created by the author: collection K.Hardie. The author acknowledges all brands and manufacturers, as identified, in the inclusion of the images. Chapter 4 Fig. 4.1 Little Debbie® portrait, McKee Foods, 2013. Permission to 75 reproduce this image has been granted by McKee Foods. Fig. 4.2 Great Uncle Cornelious “Finest Spiced Ginger” swing ticket, 78 James White company, 2005. Fig. 4.3 Angus Ogilvie Fine Comestibles His Ploughman‟s Pickle, 78 Australia, 2007. Fig. 4.4 Mrs. Adler, Matzo Ball soup label, F.D.R. Company, USA, 2008. 79 Fig. 4.5 Mrs. Adler, Matzo Ball soup label, F.D.R. Company, USA, 2008. 79 Fig. 4.6 Mrs. Elswood Sweet Cucumber Spears with Dill, Empire 80 Food Brokers, 2010. Fig. 4.7 Mrs. Elswood Sweet Cucumber Spears with Dill, Empire 80 Food Brokers, 2010. Fig. 4.8. Struwwelpeter orange wrapper, Germany 2007 82 Fig. 4.9 Pieminster pies box, 2009 82 Fig. 4.10 Thomas Chipman Potato Chips packaging, Yarra Valley Snack 83 Foods, Australia. 2007 Fig. 4.11 Phileas Fogg, KP Snacks, UK, 1982 83 Fig. 4.12 Kellogg‟s Caramel Frosties, Kellogg Company, Germany, 2003. 89 Fig. 4.13 Kellogg‟s Frosties, Kellogg Company, UK , 2011. 89 Fig. 4.14 Collection of brand icon promotional items: Quaker (flour sifter); 89 Little Sprout; California Raisin; James Coney Island (Hot Dog); Bibbendum and Mr.