The Media Has An Insatiable Appetite for Food Stories

Sugar, salt, obesity, junk food, diets.  Food has a major impact on the nation’s health, so it’s not surprising these stories are high on the media agenda.  But journalists  counterbalance ‘hard’ news with the light, and their hunger for creative and fun food stories is irrepressible.  Here are some of the latest and old favourite themes making the news recently…

INSTANTLY TO HAND

Innovative ways to get products to consumers are making the news, and tapping into the growing consumer desire for involvement, customisation, personalisation and instant gratification.  From the launch of the UK’s first automated village shop to the New York bakery that dispenses cupcakes, these innovative vending machines have captured the media’s eye.

STATE OF EDUCATION

Consumer knowledge – or lack of it! – when it comes to food is an ever popular subject.  Recently a survey by Meat Trades Journal highlighted a lack of consumer knowledge  around ordering meat and created a quiz to make the story more ‘meaty’.  Clarion’s recent study for Potato council revealed that 20% of us think root vegetables grow on trees, a story which captured media attention.

SMARTFOOD

Consumers have become accustomed to services that preempt and fulfill their needs. Innovations that enhance our food experience appeal to our geeky nature. Clarion commissioned the design of the world’s first Heated Knife to solve the age-old problem of spreading butter from the fridge. And recently, the fork that adds flavour to your food was grabbing column inches.

SUPERSIZE ME

Biggest, tallest, most expensive, cheapest, rarest… Add a great photo to a headline-grabbing superlative and.. 

by Philippa Wynn-Green, Board Director