Off Topic: An Aimless Rant on Social Media and Advertising

Sometimes I like to “read,” semiotically, the sub-text of the commercial messages we’re inundated with all the time. I’m particularly struck by all the casual “facts” that one hears in commercial messages that slide right by us but if you stop to consider them for a moment you realize immediately that they’re either outright falsities or banally meaningless. Most of the time we simply let them slide by but sometimes I get really agitated at this assault on my mind (my poor family have to put up with my frequent tirades directed at the television — if you hate it so much why do you watch it? — Someone has to! Aux armes! To the ramparts!).

This morning I open the kitchen cupboard for some breakfast cereal and am greeted by this message on the side panel of the Cheerios box:

Share what Cheerios® means to you

Beneath it, in smaller, brown letters, “See what others are saying at Facebook.com/cheerios.”

What Cheerios means to me? I have a Wittgenstein moment here. I recognize all the words and comprehend the syntactic propriety of their stringing together (leaving aside the improbable use of a singular verb on the apparently plural Cheerios) but what on earth is their denotation? What could Cheerios possibly mean to me? They’re food (sort of). I like them – or I don’t. Can they bear the freight of any more meaning than that? Does this have something to do with the fad for “the politics of meaning,” back in the Clinton era?

So I imagine the marketing meeting back at General Mills, with the social media consultants, insisting that they’ll sell more Cheerios if they only connect with people in an emotional way and understand what Cheerios means to them. Create a community of people who share the meaning that Cheerios impart to their lives. Talk about a granfalloon (see Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle to learn what a granfalloon is or just look it up on Wikipedia)!

“Join in the conversation.” After all,” the social media people advise their clients, “the conversation is going on with or without you – better to join in.”

Can any of this be real? So I give in to temptation. I’ve got to know. What are others saying Cheerios means to them?

Most of the posts are from the very personal General Mills company. They’re sickened by the mass shooting of school children by some young madman in Connecticut. Well that’s reassuring. I’d hate to think I was eating cereal manufactured by a company without the basic humanity to abhor senseless massacres. Unlike those creeps over at Kellogg’s I guess.

Did I know that the cartoon bee who is a mascot of some of their advertising will flaunt a mustache throughout a period called MOvember to show his support for men’s health issues? Apparently it’s MOvember because it’s a MOvement and in Australia they’ve already raised $46K. 122 people have “liked” this and close to 600 have commented, but only the last 2 comments are showing:

  • Dana Plum Hern What?! I had no idea about this and I just bought 4 stupid boxes today!
  • Steve Peace Return what you bought to the store, you get money back, the store then sends it back to them and they pay the store. BOYCOTT these General Mills products (list from their website)
    • Betty Crocker
    • Big G cereals
    • Bisquick…See More
On the right side of their timeline are the posts that other people have made in the community. Showing are three anti-GMO, anti-General Mills posts. Below that another post from the Cheerios team asks us to chime in if we have happy memories of seeing one of their old holiday-themed TV commercials. “Remember this commercial? Does it stir memories of getting together over the holidays? Let us know – we love hearing stories of holidays passed.” As if a Cheerios commercial could have the same effect on us as Proust’s petite madeleine and thé. Evidently 246 people “like” being asked this question and a whopping 1,724 have been moved to comment. However, only 2 comments are exposed. Roofie J McDonald apprises us, “i ate cheerios this afternoon.” [sic] and Francisca Davis informs us, ” Need to make money i been doing this for 2 years we pay taxes we are legit come join me and ask about your $20 sign on bonus as well : ) visit www.2beblessed.ws,” a URL my browser informs me is questionable. I open up the hidden comments and everyone of those I can see on the first screen’s worth is an anti-GMO or anti-General Mills comment.
So, the good news is that Americans have not been suckered into a granfalloon community of Cheerios-loving morons. The bad news is a) companies’social marketing people don’t seem to understand it and will continue to attempt connecting meaningfully with us on facebook and b) an awful lot of Americans nevertheless are still spending their time visiting the fb pages of these companies even if only to spray them with social grafitti.
As for me, I still like plain Cheerios with raisins for breakfast every now and then. That’s what they mean to me.

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Adam Isler

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3 thoughts on “Off Topic: An Aimless Rant on Social Media and Advertising”

  1. I’ve often wondered who in the world goes on a food company’s facebook page. It strikes me as idiotic – why would I bother? If I hated the stuff I’d let the company know by writing to the Pres. of the company (always go to the top) and if I didn’t care one way or another why would I bother? So now I know. I “liked” your rant.

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