Dallas Farmers Market Advertisement

Table of Contents

Introduction
What and how is conveyed
Social and cultural values that the advertisement represents
The success of the image
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

The advertisement of Dallas Farmers market conveys a message that people should purchase healthy food provided by this market rather than fast food. The advertisement uses a recognizable object (French fries pack from McDonalds) and fills it with a new sense.

To reach out to a diverse audience, the advertisement represents the following universally shared values: health, preserving the environment, trust and loyalty to the brand, and the affordability of products. The image is created in a minimalist style, which is good for catching attention and being preserved in memory. The colour scheme emphasizes the key elements of the advertisement.

What and how is conveyed

The chosen advertisement was created by Firehouse Agency for Dallas Farmers Market. Dallas Farmers Market is a big farming market in Dallas, Texas, which is known for its high sales of fresh vegetables and fruit. The agency has created a whole series of an advertisement featuring vegetables with references to fast food products (Dallas farmers market. Fresh & tasty poster campaign 2013).

The selected advertisement depicts a bunch of fresh, good-looking vegetables in a box of French fries with a recognizable red and yellow colour scheme. Below the label of the market, a caption says Healthy food. Affordable prices.

The message that this advertisement conveys is quite clear and, obviously, any viewer can easily understand it. The advertisement is intended to make a viewer think that they should choose fresh vegetables (sold at Dallas Farmers Market) instead of fast food since they are healthier and, moreover, are offered at affordable prices.

The message is conveyed to its viewer through a commonly understood sign, i.e. a bag of French fries. The form of the bag and the colour scheme immediately reminds a viewer about McDonalds, one of the most famous fast-food brands. Additionally, other fast-food brands may use similar designs of French fries boxes. The text on the box says Fresh and tasty since 1941.

Thus, the advertisers are offering the consumers an alternative: instead of unhealthy French fries, you can have fresh vegetables, which are no less tasty but a lot healthier. The message is not only clear but also very convincing. It effectively uses common opinions, such as vegetables are healthy and fast food is unhealthy (Bruso n.d., para. 1), to catch the attention and convince the viewer.

In addition, the advertisement successfully hides the primary advantage of fast food: it is ready to be consumed and does not require cooking. The vegetables on the picture look ready for consumption as well.

Thus, the advertisement transmits a message that people should buy fresh vegetables instead of fast food, and the message is conveyed through the use of a recognizable symbol and popular opinions.

Since Dallas Farmers Market has a wide target audience (basically everyone living in that geographic area), and the representatives of their audience may be of various ages, cultural backgrounds, income, interests, occupations, education, genders, and so on, the advertisement addresses universal values in order to be able to reach out to everyone.

Among the universally shared values of the contemporary world is health. Nowadays, a strive to lead a healthy lifestyle is common, and a great number of people are related to it. Making ones lifestyle healthier is one of the primary aims of a contemporary individual, and it is promoted by government agencies, scientists, educational system, family upbringing, media, and, finally, advertising.

Food habits are considered an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. People believe that eating organic food (vegetables) will make them stronger and healthier. The chosen advertisement, like many contemporary advertisements, represents this value, making stress on the fact that the offered product is healthy.

The next value that the advertisement addresses is preserving the environment. The advertisement emphasizes that the vegetables are from the local farming market. It is considered that local farming is beneficial for the environment, and by supporting local farming, a buyer supports the preservation of the green zone and farmland.

Aside from that, it is believed that purchasing food from local farmers is safer than from big corporations since farmers do not use dangerous ingredients to make food last longer. Local food is also believed to be more nutritious (Klavinski para. 5, 7-8).

Another value that this advertisement represents is trust. The caption Fresh and tasty since 1941 highlights the fact that the brand has been in the market for a long time. Old brands are considered more reliable, and people tend to trust them.

Finally, the advertisement emphasizes affordable prices. For many people, no matter the income, it is important that food be affordable.

The success of the image

The other remarkable aspect of the selected advertisement is the way in which the image is organized. The advertisers employed a minimalist style to create the image. It is a reasonable idea; nowadays, seeing lots and lots of advertisement in the street, on TV, in the press and on the Internet, a person simply cannot be impressed by a large, complicated image with a big number of elements depicted. A minimalist poster is a good solution to the problem: it easily attracts attention and makes a positive impression.

Moreover, while a complicated advertisement will be quickly forgotten by its viewer, a minimalist poster will most likely remain in ones memory. When minimalist style is in use, the eyes of a viewer will focus on the key element of the picture (in our case it is the French fries bag with vegetables and the caption Fresh and tasty since 1941) instead of wandering around the poster in an attempt to perceive all the multiple details (Dontigney n.d., para. 3-4).

The colour scheme used in the advertisement is minimalist as well. Basically, the only colours used in the image are red, orange, some green, and yellow. The brand name is written in white to make it visible. The tones are bright and saturated. The yellow tone of the background gets brighter as it comes closer to the French fries pack to make an emphasis. The pack throws a shadow, and it makes a slight feeling that the picture is three-dimensional, which also serves the task to make an emphasis on the pack.

Creative Bloq, a website devoted to creativity in web design and graphic design, included this advertisement in its 2014 list of 100 brilliant print adverts, recognizing the creativeness of the authors of the image and the whole series (100 brilliant print adverts 2014, para. 26).

Conclusion

The selected advertisement is made for Dallas Farmers Market. It conveys a message that people should buy healthy vegetables instead of fast food. To convey it, the advertisement uses a recognizable symbol and widespread opinions. The advertisement represents such values as health, preserving the environment, trust, and affordability. The image is created in a minimalist style with an appropriate colour scheme.