Blog Reviews 2

SPECTORBRAIN.COM - Should food be in food advertising?

Spectorbrain is yet another example of how a blog can effectively contribute to the world of design, through criticism. Set up and maintained by Jason Spector, the site uses a variety of techniques the least of which is not humour in its criticism of elements in the design world.

In Should food be in food advertising? Posted May 17th, 2006, Spector questions, advertisers’ and designers’ incorporation of food into food advertising. More specifically addressed, is the issue of food in food advertising on billboards and other forms of print media. In four short and succinct points, Spector is able to convince the reader that advertising food does not necessarily indicate that depictions of food need to be present. Not only this, he goes onto offer a possible solution for the dilemma he has highlighted.

Spector displays elements of King and Kitcheners Quasi Reflective stage in that he acknowledges that his point of view will have varying impacts on people depending on their context. Indeed he provides insurance for this in “Issue 1” by prefacing his comment with “Unless you know what you’re doing...”. This indicates that Spector acknowledges there are designers out there may have the expertise or skill to perform this task but as he continues to elaborate, it indicates that he believes there is still a vast number of designers who should should heed his advice.

One of, if not THE defining element of blogging is its ability to engage and encourage interaction. It breaks down barriers, be they geographic or demographic, even socio-political barriers such as racism and cultural divides are no match for the power of blogging and more specifically the power of the internet. One of the keys to this interaction is blogging’s allowance for public comments on posts. Through this medium, readers from all over the world can sing the praises of an article or themselves criticise the critic’s stand point. More exciting is the ability for users to suggest further reading or articles which the even critic themselves can use in future criticisms. Even if commenting is not enabled on a particular blogs, readers and fellow bloggers are able to comment and interact with the original blog via their own blogs. Indeed as Rebecca Blood says in her text Weblogs: a history and perspective, what she finds most intriguing about blogs is the way “Full-blown conversations were carried on between three or five blogs, each referencing the other in their agreement or rebuttal of the other's positions.”

Spector’s Should food be in food advertising? Made allowance for “comments” from the public and as a result clearly demonstrates how blogging can have a positive effect on design criticism. The post denotes that food should be omitted from food advertising as it offers far more detrimental effects than beneficial. After reading Spector’s posting phd posted the following comment:

“I tend to agree with you … but there’s just something about that McDonald’s Big Mac on a billboard that has always appealed to me!”

This comment stipulated that though Spector's post was correct, there are exceptions to his rule. Spector’s response was swift for roughly 90 minutes later the following comment was posted in reply.

“phd,

You make a great point. I think the one exception to my argument is the established brands. Regardless how the Big Mac looks in an ad, it brings back fond memories of gorging on a double-stacked burger and singing the old Big Mac theme song.

Thank you for the comment.”

This exchange between two people who seemingly bare no link other than Spectorbrain.com were able to interact in a manner which was able to alter Spector’s point of view. This demonstrates the amazing power of blogging in spreading influence and criticism to a seemingly endless audience.

The manner in which Spector writes, is highly personal and emotive especially in painting the background story of what influenced his tackling of this issue/s. The statement

“I discovered the true majesty of the American countryside, billboards.”

Depicts a grand scene before ending in a humorous link to the task at hand. This bides strongly with William Attoe’s opinion that “criticism is first and foremost about the critic, not about the object criticized”. The use of humour clearly suggests that Spector tries not to take himself or his criticisms too seriously. He sees value in entertaining the reader while at the same time conveying his position -a method which would impress Rick Poynor.

In his text The Time for Being Against, he attempts to present to the world the idea that design criticism needs to be nurtured as a viable and important form of criticism. To do so he suggests that design writing in general should not limit its audience but should try and be relevant to all. Incorporating a personal tone into his writing, allows Spector to communicate or converse with the reader on a more intimate level. This allows any reader regardless of their design background of lack thereof to relate or rebut what Spector is posing. As mentioned earlier, rebuttal is made possible and at times encouraged with the ability to comment on posts.

Not only does Spector’s article, Should food be in food advertising? pose a convincing argument in favour of the omission of food from advertising, but it also fulfils Poynor’s idea of effective design writing and provides an insight into who Spector is, as Attoe suggests criticism should do. Perhaps the Quasi Reflective nature of the text is a drawback when it comes to assessing the articles validity as a strong piece of criticism but I counter this ideal by asking whether the article achieved its point of convincing you to refrain from using food in advertising. If so, does this not constitute the article’s success? Regardless of your response to this, it is for these reasons that I found this blog post an enjoyable and thought provoking piece of design criticism.