Ryan Sjoberg

Composition 101/12

4 December 2014

Lora Strey

Food We Eat

Food ads on social media are everywhere.  You'll see them on the top, bottom, and sides of the webpage you are visiting.  “What We Eat” by Eric Schlosser is basically about how fast food is growing at, well, a fast pace.  For example, in 1970, Americans spent more than $6 billion dollars annually on fast food.  However, in 2001, they spent more than $110 billion dollars (Schlosser).  Many questions have risen about how fast food markets itself on social media, do what people say on social networks affect what we eat, and how recipes found on social sites affect what we eat. 

Fast food markets most effectively market themselves on Facebook by having a company “page” where people can “like” them on their own personal pages.  Anytime somebody likes their page, it shows up on all their friends’ timelines (Yale Rudd Center).  This is a perfect, free marketing scheme for these companies.  All they essentially have to do is create a page, which costs nothing, and millions of people could potentially see it.

What people say on social networks can potentially affect what we eat in real life.  When people take pictures of their food such as Starbucks, it might make people actually think about it and want to go out and get one.  Twitter accounts such as @Foodporn might make people want to eat what they post.  Also, recipes on Facebook can lead to people making foods from certain eating places making it free marketing for that establishment.  Marketing is easy for social media.