Here is another great read -- this time by Anna Lappé, author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It and the co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and Real Food Media Project -- on how industry specifically turns to mommy bloggers to help shape public perception. As Lappé explains in her piece on AlJazeera: This past weekend, biotech giant Monsanto paid bloggers $150 each to attend “an intimate and interactive panel” with “two female farmers and a team from Monsanto.” The strictly invitation-only three-hour brunch, which took place on the heels of the BlogHer Conference, promised bloggers a chance to learn about “where your food comes from” and to hear about the “impact growing food has on the environment, and how farmers are using fewer resources to feed a growing population.” Though the invitation from BlogHer explicitly stated, “No blog posts or social media posts expected,” the event was clearly designed to influence the opinions — and the writing — of a key “influencer”: the mommy blogger. Stealth marketing techniques, such as these by Monsanto, reveal how the food industry — from biotech behemoths to fast-food peddlers — is working surreptitiously to shape public opinion about biotechnology, industrialized farming and junk food. We’ve come a long way from Don Draper’s whiskey-infused ad concepts meant for old-style print publications. As our media landscape has changed, Big Ag has changed along with it, devising marketing to take advantage of this new terrain and influence the people and platforms — not just journalists and newspapers — that shape our understanding of farming and the health impacts of biotechnology and junk food. The food industry has honed in on this powerful subset within the blogging world. Consider the case of McDonalds: Mommy bloggers are the food industry’s newest nontraditional ally. McDonald’s has been wooing them aggressively, too, offering sweepstakes in partnership with BlogHer for the company’s “Listening Tour Luncheon,” an exclusive event with the head of McDonald’s USA — framed as a two-way conversation about nutrition, but more likely a gambit to garner the support of a powerful group of influencers. And in Canada, McDonald’s offers “All-Access Mom,” behind-the-scenes tours of the company’s inner workings. The uptick in these stealth-marketing strategies coincides with growing popular outcry about agricultural chemicals, soda and junk food, and genetically modified ingredients. Consider that despite millions spent on marketing over the two decades since genetically engineered seeds were first commercialized, 93 percent of Americans still think GMOs should be labeled and 65 percent are either unsure about the technology or believe it to be unsafe. Last year, when Monsanto retained the PR firm FleishmanHillard, known for its work with social media and agribusiness, to develop its new marketing initiatives, it did so “amid fierce opposition to the seed giant’s genetically modified products,” noted The Holmes Report, a PR industry publication. This really is no different from the PR tactics employed by these same companies at health conferences. As we have pointed out in the past, McDonalds has sent out invites to a select group of dietitians (Example 1: https://facebook/DietitiansForProfessionalIntegrity/photos/a.451873514882529.93665.451155681620979/464633140273233/?type=1&permPage=1 Example 2: https://facebook/DietitiansForProfessionalIntegrity/photos/a.451873514882529.93665.451155681620979/529561630447050/?type=1&permPage=1) that present a very selective and sanitized image of the fast food giant. Read the full article here: america.aljazeera/opinions/2014/8/food-agriculturemonsantogmoadvertising.html
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 17:00:02 +0000
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