O'Hagan, L.A. orcid.org/0000-0001-5554-4492 (2021) Flesh-formers or fads? Historicising the contemporary protein-enhanced food trend. Food, Culture & Society, 25 (5). pp. 875-898. ISSN 1552-8014
Abstract
This paper explores the historical development of protein-enhanced foods in Great Britain and how they were marketed by food manufacturers to convince consumers that protein was essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It focuses particularly on Plasmon and Emprote – the two biggest brands of the early twentieth century – and uses multimodal critical discourse analysis to identify how semiotic resources are used to embed products in scientific rationality, promote health discourses and develop concepts of masculinity in accordance with the two strands of the physical culture movement. It argues that, just as today, food manufacturers capitalized upon the growing middle-class interest in functional foods and presented protein as an “elixir” that consumers should take to safeguard their health, the health of their families and the state of the nation. Overall, this study demonstrates that, even with today’s strict legislation on food packaging and advertising, protein food manufacturers still use similar techniques to sell their products. In gaining a better understanding of the historical use of semiotic resources in food advertising, we can assess the legitimacy of current food regulations and ensure that people make informed choices when shopping.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
Keywords: | Protein; advertisements; functional foods; health; body; physical culture movement; masculinity; vegetarianism; multimodal critical discourse analysis |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Jun 2021 06:32 |
Last Modified: | 24 Jun 2024 13:24 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/15528014.2021.1932118 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:174211 |
Download
Filename: O'Hagan 2021 Flesh-formers or fads Historicising the contemporary protein-enhanced food trend.pdf
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0