LOVE AT FIRST LICK [For a Pop Culture of Ice Cream]: References

Books
Baudrillard, Jean, For the Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, Telos Press Ltd., 1981.

Bell, David & Valentine, Gill, Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat, London:        Routledge, 1997.

Bryant, C.D., & Peck, D.L., ‘Chapter 79: The Sociology of Food and Eating’ in 21st Century
       Sociology, SAGE Knowledge, (2007) 2008.

Corrigan, , ‘Chapter 05: Advertising’ in Sociology of Consumption, SAGE Publications Ltd., 1997.

Degher, Douglas & Hughes, Gerald, ‘The Adoption and Management of a Fat Identity’ in   
       Interpreting Weight: The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness, edited by J.

Sobal and D. Maurer, New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1999.

De Mooj, M., Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes. California:   
       Sage, 1998.

Downing, J.D.H., McQuail, D., Schlesinger, P., & Wartella, E., ‘Advertising: A Synthetic Approach’   
       in The SAGE Handbook of Media Studies, SAGE Knowledge, (2004) 2009.

Featherstone, Mike, ‘Chapter 06: Lifestyle and Consumer Culture’ in Consumer Culture and Post   
       -modernism, SAGE Knowledge, (2007) 2012.

Haug, W.F., Critique of Commodity Aesthetics: Appearance, Sexuality and Advertising in   
         Capitalist Society, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, (1971) 1986.

Lane, Richard J., Jean Baudrillard (Routledge Critical Thinkers), New York: Routledge, 2006.

Leiss, W., Risk Communication and Public Knowledge. In D. Crowley, ed. & D. Mitchell (Eds.),  
         Communication Theory Today (pp. 127-139), United Kingdom: Blackwell, 1994.

Lupton, Deborah, ‘Chapter 01: Theoretical Perspectives on Food and Eating’ in Food, the Body  
          and the Self, SAGE Knowledge, (1998) 2012.

______________ ‘Chapter 02: Food, the Family and Childhood’ in Food, the Body and the Self,   
          SAGE Knowledge, (1998) 2012.

_______________’Chapter 03: Taste and Distaste’ in Food, the Body and the Self, SAGE   
          Knowledge, (1998) 2012.

Smith, Robert Rowland, ‘Cooking and Eating Dinner’ in Breakfast with Socrates: An

Extraordinary (Philosophical) Journey Through Your Ordinary Day. New York: Free Press, 2009.

Williams, R., Advertising: The Magic System. In R. Williams (Ed.), Problems in Materialism and  Culture
          (pp. 170-195). London: Verso, (1993) 1961.Journals

Journals

Beauchamp, Gary K. & Mennella, Julie A. Early Flavor Learning & Its Impact on Later Eating  Behavior,
          Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (2009) 48:S25–S30
Mennella, Julie A., Trabulsi Jillian, Complementary Foods and Flavor Experiences: Setting the  
           Foundation, Ann Nutr Metab, 2012;60 (suppl 2) 40-50.

Webpages
Magnolia’s The Best of the Philippines Official Facebook Page
          http://m.facebook.com/BestofthePhilippinesByMagnolia?id=125254190958254&refsrc=
          http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBestofthePhilippinesByMagnolia%_rdr#!/Besto
          fthePhilippinesByMagnolia?v=info&expand=1&nearby&refid=17  
          Accessed 11 April 2013 at 1955 HRS.

NPR. Baby’s Palate & Food Memories Shaped Before Birth, 2011   
           http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=139033757
           Accessed 17 January 2013 at 0115 HRS.

Multimedia

Magnolia’s The Best of The Philippines TVC 45’s  
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DKuN8QoBWI&feature=youtube_gdata_player    
            Accessed 11 April 2013 at 2100 HRS.

LOVE AT FIRST LICK [For a Pop Culture of Ice Cream] PART IIII: Conclusion

           One is constantly called to recognize what he or she is eating not solely because of health-related considerations but it calls into question the position of the consumer in his or her culture.

          Both cases share the common theme of subjectivity based on what Fischler [1988] dubbed as ‘incorporation’. This suggests that subjectivity is not liked solely to the organic constituents of food, but also to its symbolic meaning: 'The classification of something as food means it is understood as something made to become part of who we are. Classifying an edible as food means we have foreknowledge that it will become us bodily, and that it will be expelled' [Curtin 1992a: 9 in Lupton 1998(2012): 15].

              As has been raised by Faulk [1994], the consumption of food has its value because of cultural values which are infused in it. There is the process of transferring these values into the self with every morsel ingested. Food is chosen to reflect oneself and others in accordance to how individuals perceive themselves, or would like to be perceived. Such uses… are central to the development and articulation of subjectivity [Lupton 1998(2012): 23].

References

LOVE AT FIRST LICK [For a Pop Culture of Ice Cream]: Introduction

OPEN THE FREEZER...

        A creamy and sweet reward with many names, ice cream is timeless as well as an ageless language able to transcend generation gaps. It is one food which can be flavored with memory and emotional dimensions. While it is typically sought for comfort, it is now becoming fortified with an abundance of meanings.
 

        When we think of today’s ice cream, it is first and foremost store-bought. In the local setting, the task of creating a batch at home requires an amount of effort and resources, that only the culinary zealous would undertake such a project. It is usually a processed good which is available in almost every store, in large to budget-friendly and single serve sizes.
 

        Smith [2009: 161] pondered on the ambivalence at the heart of eating: does it signal barbarism or civilization? If in accord to Lupton [1998(2012)], eating ice cream could be considerably neutral. She says, in verbatim: The mouth is… a potent symbol of both consumption and its control, combining in site the sensuality/nature (the tongue and the tastebuds) with rationality/culture (the organ of speech) [Lupton 1998(2012): 17]. On another end, as ice cream is included in the bulk of today’s processed edibles, it is a product of technology ---- which is a determinant of civilization as it is one of the key components that structure the postmodern world [Lane 2006: 27]. Ice Cream can be described in accordance to Fischler's 'omnivore's paradox' definable as …the continuing tension between the human biological need for variety, diversity, and innovation... [1980: 946; Lupton 1998(2012): 15].

         While Smith ruminates with a Levi-Straussean inclination emphasizing the role of preparation in labeling eating as a civilized act, this inked discussion will highlight how the practice of embedding meanings into food is a civilizing attribute to the action of eating. It follows suit on studies concerning the relationship between eating and subjectivity, having personally being influenced by thinkers such as Lupton [1998(2012)], Fischler [1988], Curtin [1992], Faulk [1994], and Williams [1961(1993)] just to name a few. Ice cream is enjoyed instinctively, as we do not necessarily need language and discourse to experience food [Lupton 1998(2012): 10]; it is merely the act of eating. But the moment it becomes introduced through advertising… these are integral to the meanings we construct around food and how we interpret and convey to others our sensual experiences in… touching and eating food which in turn shapes our sensual responses [ibid]. This turns the experience of eating into dining.

        Although the subject is not entirely new, this rumination on ice cream is addressed predominantly from a semiotic tradition [Downing 2004(2009): 09] which emphasizes …discourse consisting of social, cultural, or political meanings embedded in “sign-text”; and this is particularly applicable but not necessarily exclusive to the segment Creamy Captivation. Schematics in the framework of cultural ecology has been applied to determine the role of ice cream in the process of cultural socialization in the segment entitled Is it more tasty in the Philippines? Complementing theories and premises are directly lifted from texts so as to prevent committing brutal hermeneutic injustice.



LOVE AT FIRST LICK PART I: CREAMY CAPTIVATION 

LOVE AT FIRST LICK I [For a Pop Culture of Ice Cream]: Creamy Captivation -- Expectations from a Magnum Bar

After months of busyness, here is a post which plays on a rather old subject. I have decided to publish it after coming across this funny photo earlier today

 
Magnum in the Philippines
http://www.tumawa.com/funny-images/magnum-ice-cream

          Based on the advertisements shown on local television so far, Selecta’s Magnum is a type of ice cream bar which caters to those who are mature, refined, and not to mention those of the most discriminating taste. An interesting point of rumination is considering how these commercials attempt to create desires and habits [Corrigan: 1997] and in a subliminal fashion of persuasion [Packard: 1957].

Notes on the Seductive Properties of Ice Cream

           Magnum as an imagery combines the freezing and the hot in a 55 Peso package. Ice Cream, it may be said, has been …commonly marketed in such a way as to (be) link(ed) with established values such as youth, vigour, sexual attractiveness and fun times, rather than with the taste of the food… itself [Lupton 1998(2012): 24]. Similarly, Featherstone [2007(2012): 83] remarked that the …mundane and everyday consumer goods become associated with luxury, erotica, beauty and romance with their original or functional 'use' increasingly difficult to decipher.

           Sold under descriptives such as ‘Temptation’ and ‘For Pleasure Seekers’, Magnum is one example which is illustrative of Coward [1984: 118] as well as Lupton’s [1998(2012): 17] discussion of food as pleasure being linked with the erotic, invoking primarily a Freudian vista. The mouth and tongue developed an erotic function in the oral phase which involved the infant’s initial, sensual contact with and pleasure in the breast, and similarly with the incorporation of food. Having first been stimulated by the ingestion of food, the mouth was believed to be a source of erotic pleasure in its own right. In later sexual activity, the mouth is integral to erotic pleasure in the acts of kissing, licking and sucking. The sensation of food in the mouth is thus intimately linked to erotic desire [Lupton 1998(2012): 17].

         Though mouth orgasms were not explicit anywhere in the commercials, the advertisements were artistically crafted to convey the message of sublime pleasure through sticking with the formula of a known stereotype: gendered foods [Mintz: 1986; Barthel: 1989; Lupton 1998(2012)]. The gendering of food occurs in contemporary western societies; and the Magnum line is a western creation. Sweet foods are typically linked to women [Mintz: 1986]. Sweet things, both literal and figurative are of the domain of women and not of men. Chocolate and sugar are traditionally coded as feminine foods as in accord to the nursery rhyme which states that little girls are made of ‘sugar and spice and all things nice’… [Lupton 1998(2012): 105]

              The Magnum models tend to be captivating females ranging from thin to slim. It breaks the image of the conventional love affair between ‘things creamy and chocolaty’ and the overweight body. It questions the traditional outlook that: …food habits and preferences are central practices of the self, directed at self-care via the continuing nourishment of the body with foods that are culturally deemed appropriate, constituting a source of pleasure and acting symbolically as commodities to present a persona to oneself and others [Lupton 1998(2012): 14]. Since slim sirens made the face of the product, it added to the social acceptability of the product as well as including elements of poise. It was an attempt at putting a pleasant face on what would usually be gluttonous and self-indulging if presented by someone of overweight build. The consequence of the latter would be a sense of anxiety and shame which would be resulting from impressions of hedonism and ill discipline, or what Degher & Hughes [1999] referred to as “spoiled identity” expected also to result from consumption of the product.

         The boundaries of food and sex collide yet again with the case of the former. Chocolate originally had denoted meanings of indolence, leisure and erotic languor in 17th century France [Schivelbusch: 1993; Lupton 1998(2012): 17], and contemporary media still utilizes this descriptive scheme which has always been effective if executed by women, as history has always shown how this was consistently applicable to women. Chocolate is seduction, as women are portrayed to give in to the sweetness which symbolized the impending breakdown of sexual resistance [Barthel 1989: 433]. This was most portrayed in the Chocolate Brownie advertisement which featured a thin, long-haired blonde dressed in a lavender, satin, floor-length dress. Her gaze and pupils suggested captivation and taste-related arousal the moment she bit into the bar, with eyes closing, anticipating a mouthful of rich ecstacy. While one interpretation behind her acrobatic feat might have hinted feminism considering the breaking of rules regarding propriety and conduct, also in having left her date alone at the rooftop soiree ---signifying independence ---- it may also mean a sense of animalistic-ness brought about for the need of the temptation to be satisfied.

Ice Cream in the System of Signs

       The commercial for Classic on the other hand is a different story entirely. This particular bar is being advertised under the descriptive ‘Get the Royal Treatment’. To ruminate, perhaps this may have to do with a play of equivocation, if not a fallacy. The adjective ‘rich’ can either refer to an ambiguous quantity of wealth, or a quality of a substance. In its Magnum-related usage, it could have also hinted that consumption of the bar could equate to possessing rich wealth --- this explains the special treatment as well as the lavish attention the consumer received in the advertisement. 

        This advertisement having aired before the Chocolate Brownie version (at least locally) had implications on reception as well as impressions of the ice cream line as a whole. According to De Mooj [1998], there are two approaches towards communicating the product. Advertising styles could either directly inform people about the commodity along with its image or emphasize the role the product plays in personalization and lifestyle. Employing the proper scheme has a sense of trickiness to it, as failure to recognize cultural values will have demonstrable consequences for marketers and advertisers. Above all, communication models built for one context cannot be applied or imposed on another [Downing 2004(2009): 13]. In the local setting, this may have unintentionally led to the development of a sign value attributed to the bar, as the Magnum advertisements utilize the scheme of personalization and lifestyle. 

          The Magnum line had the potential to become overflowed with signs, beginning with its price which usually ranges from 55-65 Pesos. To the minds of many, it is considerably expensive as it is equivalent to a meal; and by Philippine standard, ice cream will always be a dessert and barely passes as a stomach-satisfying snack. The idea of expense classifies the product as a food which is for special occasions or on some instances as a (personal) reward; in the extreme case, a luxury. Originally, it may be debated that the target market for Magnum were the A & B classes. The bars were sold by box of three, and depending on the store which carries the line*, a box would usually cost 300 Pesos (at 100 per bar). It was also observable that the size of the bars were larger than the Magnum size today. This initial appearance and form of the ice cream bar, and being sold as such for a time, had enabled an elitist flavoring because it was something that was not common and considering price it was very much unlikely to be available in the typical family’s freezer. Its competition is sold at 5-35 Pesos per piece if referring to the ice cream stick, and tubs being available from 125 and able to last for as long as the family would permit. In contrast, the ice cream bar must be consumed the moment it is bitten into and is not designed to be shared.

          Aside from issues of price, how was it that Magnum initially did not catch on? There were a few considerations. Not everyone is really particular in expectations of how creamery products should taste. This has implications on ice cream as a dining experience. In the local setting, ice cream is treated as a special occasion treat; to paraphrase Selecta [2013], it is known more as a family affair to make weekends ‘delicious’. As Lupton [1998(2012): 23] would say, there is the symbolic consumption of ice cream, its taste is often of relatively little importance: it is the image around the food product that is the most important. Philippine culture is known for sharing, and there is a sentimental significance shared by families in the activity of digging into a common tub of ice cream together. It is a simulacrum of food in which pleasure is derived from its aesthetic form and consequent evocation of emotional states rather than its taste or texture [Lupton 1998(2012): 24].

          In terms of packaging, Magnum stood out. It was an ice cream bar which did not make grown-ups ashamed of purchasing one for themselves. It is unlike the usual ice cream stick which society would typically assume spoke to children through carnivalesque colors and shapes. Magnum is predominantly a monochromatic brown with occasionally a cream and or gold-toned detailing. The flavor combinations were not emulative of existing flavors, and was complemented with presentation --- referring to swirls and double coatings, the latter of which enables thick flavors (such as the caramel version) to strategically hit the tongue in what is literally a rich experience. This proves Lupton’s [1998(2012)] premise that taste is an aesthetic category.

          It is highly likely that Selecta implemented the strategy of reducing size for the purpose of affordability. Accessibility on the other hand, had increased as the bars are individually available in almost every convenience and grocery store.

          In 2011, Magnum though a food, had underwent the same fate most expensive, commonly uncommon, edibles have ---- metamorphosizing into fashion. Magnum was like the new Starbucks, becoming one new subject of food pornography [Coward 1984: 101] via Instagramification and Facebookification. To assume a Baudrillardan [1981] standpoint, the purpose of photographs permits the sign value of the ice cream to remain with the consumer long after the object has ‘worn out’ [Baudrillard 1981: 49] and enables the consumer to affiliate with the census which identifies themselves as patriots of such staple of refinement. To return to the subject of availability, this played a role in turning the food into fashion as the reduced price permitted access, making classes socially mobile in this instance [Baudrillard 1981: 49]. The uploading of photographs reinforces a state of commodity aesthetics [Haug: 1971/1986] with appearance becoming attached to the product and becoming even just if not more than important than the product itself. It is an alternative form of consumption --- food is consumed symbolically [Featherstone: 1990] through being put on display, spoken about and handled, with its prestige producing the major satisfaction for its owner [Lupton 1998(2012): 23]. Satisfaction depends upon possession or consumption of the socially sanctioned and legitimate (and therefore scarce or restricted) cultural goods [Featherstone 2007(2012): 87]. The immortalization of the ice cream bar through the digital to an extent challenges the subject of Baudrillardan 'ambivalence'.

*I myself couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to before the bar was sold individually. It was a guilty pleasure in that sense, not calorie-wise but budget-wise.

[References will be posted at the third part of this treatise]

LOVE AT FIRST LICK II: Is it More Tasty in the Philippines? 

LOVE AT FIRST LICK PART II [For a Pop Culture of Ice Cream]: Is it More 'Tasty' in the Philippines? Magnolia's Tastebud Citizenship Question

         In a time where OFW-ism is at its height (as a choice and as an ideology*), and paired with this is the program with the objective of increasing tourism statistics in the Philippine setting; there was the creation of DOT’s catching mantra ---- “It’s more fun in the Philippines”. Products from varied industries caught on the craze through the legal and not-so-legal adaption of the famous line. Two years later, an ice cream line under Magnolia was created appearing to complement this under their phrase ‘Ang sarap makilala ng Pilipinas!’
 

         Released under the label The Best of the Philippines, it is Magnolia’s innovative strategy of promoting tourism through food. In the case of flavors and tastes, regions are known for their specialties and their people become respectively defined by these [Lupton1998(2012): 25]. For tourists, the conversion of these tastes into ice cream was a conservative way to experience local specialties since it is without intimidation. It is local specialties presented in a familiar form. This ice cream line is one good defining example of what Bell & Valentine [1997] conveniently dubbed as ‘consuming geographies’ ---- we are indeed where we eat [ibid]. In a geographic synesthesia of sorts, Baguio is Ube Keso, tasting like purple yam with a twist of cheese. Batangas is either Tsokolate Tablea, a mix of chocolate and crunchy rice crispies, or Coffee Crumble which speaks to coffee lovers and those fond of the Batangas blend. Guimaras is a giant mango, a tantalizing fusion of their famous mangoes in rich vanilla ice cream. Laguna, her summer waterparks and breathtaking mountain views, translated into Macapuno Langka --- a yin and yang of coconut and jackfruit together in a creamy ambrosia; and Macapuno Banana with Crème Brulee bits; while Pampanga tastes of pandan and pinipig.

A Cultural Ecology of Ice Cream. 

       

           The question now is how to go about ruminating on the role ice cream can play in culture along the terms of group identity minus the cultural-economic shapings which tend to be attributed from the political economy of the sign. To adapt a cultural ecological standpoint, this ice cream can play a role in inculturation through unconscious food socialization. This is to say that children may be programmed to favor tastes within the Filipino flavor spectrum, as early as their pre-natal stage. In studies conducted by Beauchamp & Menella [2009] and Menella & Trabulsi [2012], they discovered that amniotic fluid as well as the breast milk is flavored by foods and beverages that a pregnant woman has eaten within the last few hours. These are influences to the shaping of flavor memories as well as preferences. The child will tend to look for these flavor tones and prefer them over some others upon having weaned to chewable foods, and as he or she matures into an adult. In accordance to evolutionary theory, since mothers tend to feed their children what they themselves eat, it is nature’s way of introducing them to the foods and flavors that they’re likely to encounter in their family and in their culture as they grow. It provides information to the baby about who they are as a family [Menella: 2011].

        To consume Magnolia’s best line for cultural, flavor programming is an innovative approach at the literal internalization of culture as it operates on the basic instinct humans have. And to lift directly from Lupton [1998(2012): 95]: Taste may be said to unite as well as separate individuals. It distinguishes in an essential way, since taste is the basis of all that one has…

       We can also say that the incorporation of local flavors into an international dessert/sweet is an alternative way of telling a narrative of the nation [Bennett & Frow 2008(2010): 30] through edible stories. Food is a vehicle, symbolic and material, for negotiating and constructing a sense of who we are. Practices around food unfold in a multiplicity of social spaces, each having implications for identity [Bryant and peck 2007(2008): 21]. The ice creams are not just frozen water buffalo milk with flavor, but infused with ideas of landscapes and scenarios. These are contained in tubs which are decorated with images, shareable with anyone who shows even the slightest interest. The Best of the Philippines, while an ice cream line, is a type of national history-telling which begins in the present, using a universal medium which only makes (symbolic) sense in the present. Foods can reveal dramatic social change… the rebirth of nationalism [Bryant & Peck 2007(2008): 20].

Sweet, Edible, Patriotism

          The commercial ends with the line ‘Wag maging dayuhan sa sariling ice cream’. This proves Williams’ [1961/1993] premise that advertising is the official art of the modern capitalist society. Downing [2004(2009)] explains that …advertising is a capitalist realist art which possesses a special cultural power for it picks up some of the things that people hold dear and represents them to people as all of what they value. It appears to play on the idea of patriotism, which is defined by Bennett & Frow [2008(2010): 05] as a feeling for the nation. This works tremendously well for Filipinos locally and abroad as a psychocultural marker. It is able to stir the emotions of the latter most specifically; while it is a “storehouse of meaning” based on personal nostalgia [Stern 1992: 19] as well as geographic belongingness, it plays on the sensations of ‘longing for home’. And with ice cream being a milky comfort food, the product also attempts to be a form of re-creation; a closest emulation to a craved experience. Magnolia has been known to export to Australia, Taiwan, Macau, Japan, Brunei, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for the longest time [Magnolia: 2013]. In the case of the local, it hints being properly Filipino by consuming this good which is deemed appropriate.

*The usage of the term 'Ideology' in this treatise has more to do with consciousness. I have been acquainted with people who still think going abroad is best even though they already have a really high salary and a high position in a company they work in. These are people who absolutely have it made but still prefer to leave because it is the popular choice (it is "sosyal" and "big time"), and not because they need to. 

[References will be posted in the third segment of LOVE AT FIRST LICK]


LOVE AT FIRST LICK PART III [For a Pop Culture of Ice Cream: Conclusion 

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