Blog: Ice Cream as Object Culture Part XIV – Marketing Strategies

Featured image: Hot Air Balloon

We need to always ask the question when we see advertising or when we hear the comment, "This is good, this is bad." But, good for whom? Bad for whom?

I read that there is a marketing strategy surrounding everything, and I believe it. Take, for example, the marketing strategy surrounding ice cream. I choose ice cream because I personally like a bowl of ice cream for dessert. I can remember when I was visiting my elderly mother in law in a residential home that they always served ice cream for desert in a variety of flavors. Many women chose ice cream for dessert.

Have you ever noticed that ice cream advertising often features women eating ice cream right out of the carton with a spoon? Have you ever asked yourself, "Why a women?" I read recently that the marketing strategy surrounding ice cream is focused on women for a reason. In this strategy, the women were taking a spoon and dipping it directly into to a carton of ice cream, then, sitting back with a look of bliss on their faces. The implication is that women, not men, can soothe their emotional trauma by eating ice cream.

I also read that the marketing strategy surrounding ice cream is based on statistics that show that women like ice cream more than men and often use it for a calming effect, a blissful effect that it has on them.

When thinking of object culture and what images have been created just to make us feel good, there have been many, especially for women. There's been high heels, tight jeans, red lipstick, long nails, long hair, to list a few of them. So, we always need to ask the question, "Good for whom? Bad for whom?" Always question and always evaluate. I suppose I should stop eating ice cream at night. But, really, it is so blissful. Just a little maybe?