Whole Foods Satire Essay

Whole Foods’ Use of Satire

If one has kept an eye on the business world lately, they are sure to have witnessed the recent merger between Amazon and Whole Foods. Under the tagline of “Whatever Makes You Whole,” the two have launched a new marketing campaign that is designed to breathe new life into the brand. There are a variety of things that can be learned from understanding the intricacies of the concepts that are utilized in the new campaign. To begin, one should first look at the most basic information about how they have executed this new campaign.

Wholefoods’ has noticeably chosen not include women in this campaign. The campaign is a short, 15-second clip that shows two men standing in line at a butcher’s counter. The men are decidedly

Single-handedly, they have been able to target a vast array of consumers as well as destigmatize their brand as being upscale or inaccessible to the everyman. For reference, the company is often referred to as "Whole Paycheck," as a way of highlighting one of the most negative side effects of eating organic ("Whole Foods Tries to Shake 'Whole Paycheck' Rep with Cheaper Spinoff"). Whole Foods holds a negative stereotype as being something that only wealthy people can afford, something that is both unfortunate and realistic at the same time. Whole Foods, is showing that two “average joes,” can not only purchase high quality, stereotypically masculine food items; but also, a brand that appeals to vegans. Which has followers of a paleo diet and has achieved a great deal of brand exposure. This campaign ignores the obvious logic that the rules of a paleo vs vegan lifestyle are completely different from one another, and that one cannot simply change their mind on a whim. Whole Foods has negated the idea that the brand is inaccessible, despite the fact that the price of the meats in question may be astronomically high when compared to a lower end

Could Whole Foods be engaging in risky marketing by choosing to poke fun at the dietary restrictions of Americans? It is entirely possible that they are. They could be attempting to appeal to a more mainstream audience who wishes to have a consumer experience that resides slightly outside of what they may find at typical, big-box retailers. Multiple studies show that such an experience is now craved by the everyman, with demand for organic, fair trade products skyrocketing in recent years ("Demand for Organic Food Growing Faster Than Domestic Supply"). There is a ton of reasons for this to have taken place, including new social consciousness about what makes up the food items of Americans. As well as a general societal shift that values brands like Whole Foods that appear to be participating in the social causes that are near and dear to the hearts of Americans. While Whole Foods may have begun as somewhat of a niche brand, few will deny their prevalence in the modern sphere in terms of just how popular they have become. Despite the fact that Whole Foods presents products that many find to be out of their budget, data shows that consumers are willing to put the quality of the foods they ingest as a first priority before that of a price. Even in places like Tesco,