Chasing the Food Bunny

One of the many beasts in my home that I have to buy food for and ensure care of is an Australian Shepherd named Luca.  Luca is one of those exceptionally smart, yet extremely sensitive and eccentric beings.  Luca likes to be around me – all the time.  In fact, his feelings are crushed if I separate us in any way, even if it’s because he needs to go outside.   However, Luca, despite being on the smarter end of the dog spectrum, is easily mislead and fooled.  I purposely trick him on a regular basis so that I can achieve my desired result, which is getting him outside and away from me for a few moments.  

You see, Luca has never caught a bunny in his life.  He has no idea what a bunny tastes like.  Yet, if I sense that Luca doesn’t want to go outside, I can simply say, in an excited tone, “Luca, go get the bunnies!” and suddenly he is jumping at the door.  He doesn’t want to go outside, and I’m sure he knows the bunnies aren’t out there.  But, the excitement of possibility overwhelms him and he gives in to the impulse.  Sound familiar? Any idea where I’m going with this?

Food product marketing is our bunny.  And let me remind you, this is not only the final push in our challenge, but it is SUPERBOWL Week, the annual competition to determine the best football team (Go Ravens) and the saltiest, most fattening, bad-for-you-yet-delicious party food.  The morning news shows, ESPN, and the afternoon talk shows are filled this week with ideas to make your superbowl viewing optimal, by way of having the best food and drink to share with others.   We are smarter than the average consumer, because we spend a gluttonous amount of time each day thinking about food preparation and meals.  Because of this challenge, we know exactly what and when we should be eating, and our primary food concern is ensuring that we have enough food prepared and that we don’t get distracted away from a meal time.  As much as we know that we will only be eating food that is measured and healthy for another week, thoughts of nachos and subs, AKA Food Bunnies, may creep in. 

Next time you go into the grocery store, look around from a marketing professional’s perspective.  The largest conglomerate food companies pay top dollar to have their products on the middle, eye-level shelves.  I know I said earlier to stay out of the center aisles of the grocery store, but this is a homework assignment, so get in there.  The most obvious example of costly, strategic marketing is the cereal aisle.  All of the garbage cereals -- ok, they are all full of sugar and inflammatory agents -- but the MORE garbagey cereals are located at eye-level, on the center shelves.  The cereals that are a little bit healthier are on the very top shelf or the lowest bottom shelf, out of your immediate field of vision.  This is true also in the drink aisle, the canned goods aisle, and the frozen food aisle.  The huge industry that decides what America eats pays a fortune to make sure that their packaging is attractive, says something interesting on it, and is placed exactly where we exert no energy whatsoever to get it from the shelf to our cart.  Now, take a look at who is buying these products. Yes, at one point it was me, and sometimes still is (teenage boys.  Enough said.)  However, I would also be willing to bet that a big percentage of those people know that the Crunch Berries and Kool Aid aren’t a good choice for their families, yet they impulsively chase the food bunny, for whatever happens to be motivating them – convenience, pleasing, enabling, hypoglycemia, hunger, or marketing. 

On the Today show this morning, they demonstrated a touchdown recipe for nachos.  There were tons of toppings and lots of colors, all on a beautifully decorated, superbowl-themed table.  The other adult who lives in my house immediately chased the food bunny.  He said, “I’m having that.  It doesn’t matter, it’s the last day.”  After a little redirection and further discussion, he became aware that he was chasing an immediate impulse, despite being a smarter human being than that, and became just another marketing victim.  With a little self-awareness and control, he then said, “How do you think we could make Paleo Nachos for the superbowl?” Atta boy!

We only have a week left of the challenge.  But this is where you decide – continue or not? I plan to continue.  But we will always be (mostly) intelligent.  The food bunnies will always be around, and we will even continue to chase them.  Separate yourself and your intelligence from Luca, because Luca will always chase the bunnies as long as I ask him to. He's a dog.  Just because Argo or Kraft or whoever asks, you do not have to chase the bunny. 

Luca smiles because he knows he chased the bunny again