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Adam Clark Note on the Essay: THERE IS NO CONCLUSION. I know the citations are not currently formatted correctly, and I will be adding an additional source Eating has always been about more than just food. Meals traditionally have been times when a family or group of people can communally come around a common meal. These meals had a lot of structure, happening at the same time everyday. It allowed people to come together and form relationships with others. It was also a time to escape from day to day tasks and relax for a while. It showed that food was more of a means of forming and building relationships and not solely eating. These more traditional meals are beginning to disappear though, and are often replaced by fast meals. With this shift in meals, food though has kept a meaning beyond just eating. People now gather to do group work, but this gathering typically has a food component to it. Fast meals are advertised to populaces by appealing to emotions, people like the conveniences and emotions brought on by these advertisements. Food is always changing, but it will always represent more than just what it is. Traditionally, meals were very scheduled events. Morning breakfast before school or work with family members and a family dinner at the same time every night. Dinner often revolved when parents got off work, being the same time every day. The importance on family meals was high, so families made their schedules around them. A family breakfast allowed communication of each other’s daily plans and family interaction before the work and school day begin. Dinner, a more structured meal, would consist of everyone sitting around the same table for the meal. The daily events of the family members lives could be discussed so everyone knew what happened in each other’s day and it allowed for strong family relationships. It was a time everyone was guaranteed to get to talk with his or her family. Society now though has become much faster paced causing a disconnection with the importance of traditional meals. These traditional meals can be seen as to time consuming to do everyday so families are beginning to go without them. This has made foods connection to family and relationships weaker, but it has brought other connections to food. The connection with food and personal relationships can still be seen with foods new connection to working. Food is now a common place in bring colleagues together in work places, more individual meetings and student work groups. Food has migrated to these working groups as people see it as effective multitasking along with a relationship builder. Society has become faster paced, so combining two required daily things together appeals to people as it saves time. Instead of “wasting” time by just talking to someone over a meal, work can now be accomplished. The growth of this trend can be seen by the large growth of restaurants that cater to this atmosphere. Caribou, Starbucks, Panera, and Brueggar’s are all places that offer smaller meals with large places to dine in. In additional to the ideal workspaces provided, most of them offer free Wi-Fi to customers. Everything needed to be productive for school or business work is provided in addition to food. The convenience of both of these greatly appeals to people and the fast paced society of today. Prison spread is food that provides inmates with a way to break away from the scheduled meals, establish prison status, and a way to form relationships like traditional meals. Due to circumstances, this food for them has become much more than a relationship builder similar to traditional meals. In Sandra Cate’s piece in “Breaking Bread with a Spread” she describes spreads as foods created by inmates often around a base of ramen noodles (17). These spreads are often a social activity and Kermit Saunders, an inmate, says, “it’s like we bonding in here when we break bread with spread” (qtd, 19). The spreads can become elaborate, requiring a variety of ingredients, so inmates can come together and share with each other forming friendships. These friendships are often radically defined though, another inmate Devon Gray notes (19). This defining of friendships often brings a status meaning to spreads. Spreads are a delicacy so the being able to have the food often brings an element of social and jail status to the food. An inmate Watkins strengthens this idea through stating “ if you and your contemporaries can spread together on a nightly basis, it shows that you have money enough on your books, as well as the strength in numbers” (qtd 19). This equivalent of a traditional meal for inmates is about much more than just building relationships, it saves them and establishes their status in prison. The break from strict timetables and scheduled meals can be seen in prisons through the expansion of spread. Outside prision people are fading away from scheduled meals, getting food on the go and multi tasking when eating. Spread is the inmates’ way of breaking the scheduled meals of prison. Meals are served at the same time everyday in prison, starting at 5:30 AM. Cate articulates that “spread is eaten on the inmates’ own timetable” (20). This is often sometime after dinner at night, but the inmate can make it when he or she pleases. This desire to break from the strict meals is reflected by both inmates and those outside prison. This shows a clear change in society attempting to be more individual and fast paced. An emotional connection to food is also growing. With a traditional meal, an emotional connection may have been made, but it was an emotion connected to being happy with family. All emotions are being connected to food now, without a family connection. Also products used to be advertised as “the number one…” or “Healthiest….”, but now an emotional connection to a product is often a better means of advertisement. This can be seen through how food products are now advertised to society. Advertising now often looks to appeal to emotions of a consumer rather than providing a product better than its competitors. Coca-Cola is a prime example of appealing to customers’ emotions. A major Coca-Cola campaign used the slogan “Open Happiness”. Its ads often displayed a bottle of coke with these words. The company does not say its product is a good product, its advertising happiness that comes with Coca-Cola. The idea of happiness is enough to attract buyers to a product. Two other advertisements for Goldfish and Cheez-Its were also analyzed with similar results. The goldfish ad featured animated goldfish crackers in a campout telling scary stories. Its audience, younger kids, relate this to having fun with friends in a similar situation. The name of the product in not stated until the end of the advertisement, but the goal is to get the consumers to believe buying the product will bring back more similar emotions that will please the buyer. Cheez-it similarly has a commercial designed to appeal to emotions of a buyer. The Cheese is being immature, cracking pointless jokes. Cheez-its appeal to a slightly old audience than goldfish can relate back to times where they cracked equally pointless jokes, thinking they were funny. Cheez-its then form a connection to enjoyable emotions in the buyers past, causing the buyer to want to purchase Cheez-its to relive those past emotions. This shows a strong growth in connection with food and emotion. Products are not always purchased because they are the best available, sometimes an emotional connection can cause a consumer to get a product that brings them a happier feeling.