In the article “Food is Love,” Parkin describes our society as a gender-specific American society. Advertising has portrayed women as putting food and love together. People believe that food preparation is a gender-specific activity. To show their love for others, women will make a wonderful meal that takes time, to express how much they care. Food advertisements show the sexuality and beauty to appeal to women. The producer uses this so people want to buy their product or want to watch their ads. Advertisements shaped American society because it has consumed our minds on what to buy and sell.
Over time, people have put women, food, and love together. In an advertisement, people would rather see women eating sweets instead of men. Some commercials have men and women portray their love. “By commodifying these attitudes and beliefs, women’s magazines and food advertisers have promoted the belief that food preparation is a gender-specific activity and that women should shop and cook for others in order to express their love.” (pg 1) Women are always thought to be the caretakers of the family which puts them as the cooks and cleaners of the household. It is very unlikely for someone to put food and love together and think of a man. Parkin argues that advertisements control the affect of gender roles in commercial ads.
Food advertisements can be deceiving. Looking at an ice cream ad, people want to see women eating it. If one is in a commercial that shows a grill, people would prefer to see a masculine man working the grill. “Food ads offer a unique opportunity to explore the cultural discourse about American gender roles because of the centrality of food to the human experience.”(pg 2) Depending on your personal preference, one may like the grill or the ice cream, the men, or the women. Humans prefer certain genders with specific foods because people put women with sweets and men with the meats. The human experience while watching an advertisement can persuade them to go out and buy the product right away. While watching a commercial for McDonalds, you see a Big Mac being eaten. The majority of the time, one will go to McDonalds and will buy themselves a sandwich.
Advertisements do persuade the consumer to go out and buy that product. Unfortunately people do put men and women in a different category when it comes to commercial advertisements. One would not want to buy a women’s product if a man is in the commercial. While watching woman on television one would want to look like them because producers use beautiful woman so the advertisements look better.