Caricatures of consumer behaviour, should we just get real?

Lady Gaga eating a massive sandwich. Not that unusual you may think. But would you ever eat a sandwich like that? From the middle? Ignoring the corners, those tempting side crusts and go right for the centre? I am not convinced you would!

I have noticed recently that a lot of ads lately are demonstrating somewhat caricatured consumer behaviours. Ways in which you may behave in a given scenario in an ideal world, but that I don’t think reflect reality. All of my examples, oddly, relate to eating food!

Eating sandwiches from the centre. I see why they do it. it does seem to express maximum enjoyment and exaggerated fulfilment of the consumer within that experience and also makes the sandwich look pretty good on a TV screen. But I’m not convinced anyone really eats sandwiches like that.

Similarly, Old El Paso show its hungry diners grabbing a wrap full of chicken and salsa in the middle, as though that is the process of making a great wrap. Just make it in one hand, grab it and nothing will drop out. We know that in real life there’s some rolling on a flat surface, some filling will inevitably spill out. You certainly can’t make a great wrap with one hand. It’s not glamourous yes, but it’s real.

And lastly the Galaxy ad last night. The glamourous evening dress clad lady, lovingly clutching a HUGE bar of Galaxy goes to snap off a piece. Lo and behold she effortlessly snaps off one even square. Now we know in real life snapping chocolate leaves you with uneven pieces, it’s the way it is. Again, lacking glamour, but nevertheless, true to life.

So what’s the future? Should we hero the glamour of idealised eating scenarios or simply get real and show it as it really is? I get why Galaxy does what they do, they need to keep their brand in that glorious rich idealistic space, so it wouldn’t make sense for the woman to have uneven chocolate, or worse, chocolate crumbs!

But sandwiches? The wrap-making process? I think that’s different. We should be honest, there’s no harm in it for these brands. Rolling a wrap together THEN grabbing it and waving it about as the ad demonstrated won’t detract from the dynamism or really hurt the brand in any way. At least it will make the process of wrap-making real for people.

However pedantic this point might be, what do you guys think?