OUGD505 Product Range Distribution - Research Presentation (of 3rd March)

JUNK FOOD: WHAT IS IT?

WHY IS IT SO POPULAR?

BUT IF ALL THIS WAS MANIPULATION?

*x Sometimes we are fooled by what is written on the

packaging: it is said that is good for health when in reality it

is not.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?

SOLUTIONS?

I also saw the Food Unwrapped series on Channel 4. It's really interesting for my subject because it covers all industrial hides coposition on food and its harmful effects. For example in one of the episodes, the reporters study the sugar contained in the snack bar for children with the indication "no added sugar". Yet there is still a significant amount of sugar that attack the teeth and then the children have caries.

OUGD505 Product Range Distribution - Junk Food Research

Extract from Sociology of junk food (French article) by Canal Académie:

Eating poorly is still not a choice; it depends in part on your social situation. The "new poor" are becoming more numerous in France, they are as likely to be exposed to the risk of obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease ... Sociology of junk food with Guy Paillotin, permanent secretary of the Academy of Agriculture.

The term junk food appears in 1980. Symbolized by the fast foods at first, with their too fat diet, too sweet, the definition of junk food has expanded to a broader critique also denouncing the production model and the consumer society.

In France, since the 1950s, the price of fresh fruits and vegetables has increased much faster than the general price index, and the price of fat much more slowly.
Today we find ourselves in an environment where "fat" calories and "sweet" have never been cheaper, and thus also ubiquitous. The public health implications are disturbing, particularly in the field of weight gain, which becomes a new source of social inequality. (A French consumed 1 kg of ice per year in 1960 ... and 14 kg in 1995!).

The study by France Cavaillet shows that it is not easy to eat well at a low cost.

Poor households spend a larger share of their budget on food (22% for households below the poverty line against 18% on average) (4 € per person per day against € 6.3 for the total population ).
The minimum cost strictly necessary to comply with all the recommended dietary allowances for the French population was estimated by the optimization technique rations by linear programming, to 3.2 € per day per adult. However, people in precarious situations, including those involving food aid for food, spend an average of € 2.5 / day to their diet.

Consequences:
Precarious means having to be three times more likely to be obese, exposing themselves to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and cholesterol (1/5 French have more than 2, 5 g / liter cholesterol in the blood ).

Intervention tools are at two levels: nutritional (manufacturing standards, information and education, monitoring of advertising ...) and economic (price, income, labeling standards ...). Examples:
- Lower VAT on the price of fruits and vegetables for access to the most disadvantaged
- Enhance the quality (…)

Another French article by Planète Santé published on Slate.fr:

Intellectual laziness and junk food: there he is related and which is the cause of the other?

Eat with it is of poor quality food originally a form of intellectual laziness? Should we rather think it is laziness that drives the consumption of such foods? These are thorny issues that gladly refer us to the paradox of the egg and the chicken. But here's a recently published in the journal Physiology & Behavior study has provide the answer. The authors show that based on bad fat diet seriously decreases the energy that can be developed by an organization. For now this demonstration is made in rats. Nothing says he does not hold true in humans.

What is "junk food"? In essence, a diet that is full of bad fats, too sweet or too poor in nutrients to meet our physiological needs. It is often associated with convenience foods that can be found in the fast-food companies (fast food). The definition of "junk food" has also been expanded to food production can offer it as the production model of capitalist society based on consumption.

The link between "junk" and obesity has long been established. WHO summarizes the scientific consensus as follows:

"The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and expended." "Globally, there has been an increased consumption of energy-dense foods high in fat; and increased lack of physical activity due to the nature of increasingly sedentary many forms of work, changing transport and urbanization patterns, says WHO. The evolution of dietary habits and exercise is often the result of environmental and societal changes related to development and a lack of support policies in areas such as health, agriculture, transport , urban planning, environment, food processing, distribution, marketing and education."

Fats and sugars

In a word, we would have given in to the junk food out of laziness. This is a commonly accepted theory. However, it is now shaken by the study published in Physiology & Behavior. According to this work, the theory must be reversed. These are the basic plans too sugary and fatty foods, which undermine the general motivation, not the lack of energy that leads to the consumption of "junk food".

The researchers of the study are adamant in addition to causing obesity, compounds of saturated food diets too high in fat and sugar cause experimentally cognitive impairment in rodents. After having made dependent, that poor diet could deprive victims of a large part of their energy?

"Junk food" for rats

Aaron Blaisdell (Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles), who led the study, said he followed two different diets to two groups of six female rats for a period of six months. The first diet consisted of food standards rats usually minimally processed (ground corn, fish meal). Conversely, the components of the second system were highly processed, a lower quality, and contain more sugars, Synonyms characteristics of junk food. The two groups of rodents could eat at will.

Three months later, the researchers found a significant difference in weight between the two groups. Rats subjected to the regime "junk food" were significantly larger. "A diet led the animals to obesity, the other not" says Aaron Blaisdell.

The team tested the other motivation rodents by subjecting them to a test: if they could press a lever, they received a reward in the form of water or food. Rats sentenced to poor diet showed less initiative. They spaced their efforts longer breaks. During a session of thirty minutes, obese rats were resting two times longer than their counterparts in the other group.

No quick fix

After six months, the diets of the two groups were swapped for nine days. Overweight rodents have not made rapid progress; they have not lost weight and have not improved their performance in the game of leverage. Same observation in the other group: rats did not gain weight and have not balked at the task motivation during the test. All of which suggests that it is indeed the feeding behavior in the long term and not the one-time consumption of "junk food" that causes obesity and has an impact on the motivational balance. Aaron Blaisdell, the experience is more clear: "There is no quick fix," he says.

Besides the differences in weight and motivation, the team observed a number of cancerous tumors much more important in the spleens of the group followed a diet high in fat.

The chicken and egg

"A diet based on junk food makes you hungry, that one is a rat or a human, says Aaron Blaisdell. Often accused overweight people to be lazy, to lack discipline. In light of our results, we believe that people do not necessarily become obese because they are lazy, contrary to what the media often convey. Our data suggest that obesity caused by food is a cause, not an effect of laziness. Or heavily processed foods cause fatigue, or they lead to obesity, which in turn causes fatigue."

The researcher said to have upset her diet there five years to come to a closer nutrition that "our ancestors". He dismissed processed foods, bread and pasta, and eat seafood, eggs, vegetables, meat ... In the end, the work and findings in changing our view of "junk food "It is both the cause and the result. As in the case of the egg and the chicken.

OUGD505 Product Range Distribution - Appropriation and Subversion

For this task, we're asked to see how the designer can re-use someone else's work. Danny presented us a series of original work and the re-appropriation made by other artists. Here some examples:

Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol

Re-appropriated by: 

Richard Petitbone

Bansky

David Lachapelle

Elaine Strutevant

But Warhol took this photo to do his work:

I think that the appropriation of someone's design is a part of the evolution of this artwork. In many field, we can find many reproductions (in music, photography, paint…). So it seems natural to me that a graphic designer can do other things from different works like re-appropriation of typefaces, photos, designs… The most important thing is to put your personality on it, it depends of what you want to communicate to people. So it's really important to consider how to equilibrate our own work from what we take to conceive it, to interrogate ourselves about copyrights, what is the originality of our design.

Then we've had a little introduction to fanzine. They are famous especially during the underground/punk culture of the late 70s-80s. Their production was very hand-made as it was created by people who had no skills and no money to produce a real publication. But amazingly new codes were established: use pictures of newspapers, hand-writing titles, etc. One of the most known was 'Sniffin' Glue'.

Then we're proposed to make our own , using a few means such newspapers, glue, paper and scissors. I've decided to make a fanzine about skateboarding life in Leeds. I imagined what kind of articles could be presented on. I've found skateboarders and city photos and I use only hand-writng for titles.

I've made a black and white version:

It was a really enriching experience, I saw that sometimes a few can be efficient for designing rather than using computer means.

OUGD505 - Design Thinking Task

☞ For this task, Dany wanted us to think about how to think in design process. Here some slide extracted from the Powerpoint:

The most important thing to retain is : why we have design this thing rather than another one? What is necessary for accomplish my idea? What can I do/learn to reach the perfect concept? For who is destined? The creation process need be to considered and it's as essential as the final realization of my idea. This task refers to the first brief, My Design Process, and it was a good occasion to compare mine from this presented. Then we divided into groups to think about insects (yummy):

The purpose was to find aspects of these bugs that could convince the English to add them to their diet. With my group, we discussed how they can be a good source of proteins, it's healthy, eco-friendly. We asked some questions too: how to cook them? how to present them? their names? (and others I don't really remember). So he've got the idea to make with insects protein bars, energy drinks for athletic men and women essentially commerced in gyms and specialized stores.

The other groups had also good ideas. I liked the one which involved a concept of street food for festivals. This task allowed to me to taste for the first time bugs, a thing a wanted to test for a couple of years (I've already seen TV reports on that) and this could help me for my project for my food campaign.

OUGD505 Brief 01 Product Range Distribution - Specific research

I'm still doing research about how to communicate a society problem whatever it is but I've refined it towards food. It's a subject that affects us everyday. We actually don't know what we are really eating sometimes. In a recent research, I was confronted to a 'bad buzz' from McDonald's. They revealed their french fries recipe: they contains about 19 chemical elements which can be found in shampoos and detergents (but the principal ingredient is still potato…). Even on ready meal, the most thing we find is too much sugar, too much salt, etc. So consumers don't have all informations about the food they buy. For specific diets, it's important to know what's inside product. For example, vegetarians can unconsciously eat proteins from animals in yoghurts or ready meals even they are 'vegan friendly'.

There are some organisations who fight against food additives like Action on additives. They concentrate their effort towards kids because it can provoke consequences in their health and growth as they are young persons.

I think it's a good idea to have and informative campaign which involves also kids, programs in school and special 'no additive' meals in their canteen. I want also to inform the grown-up people and made them realize that food can be a danger. In fact, additives can bring diseases like obesity but also heart attack, kidney diseases, cancers, etc.

OUGD505 Brief 01 Product Range Distribution - Research pt.1

We are running out of time, act now before it's too late : this a strong visual, it uses a sandglass which represents time. In the top of the image, we can clearly seen a vision of the North Pole landscape which  which is literally melting. Below we have a scene which describes and in a way, criticize our occidental lifestyle : deforestation, gas depletion, overconsumption. It's a fact that ad sums the problem of global warming : the melting of the Arctic Pole raises the sea level. This is reinforced by the fact the world below is very small. After some research, here's a simulation map of ocean level in England for 2050 :

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Women shouldn't suffer from discrimination anymore : this campaign mimes a research motor which is hiding the mouth of the woman. The first words are 'women shouldn't' and the research motor makes some suggestions which are incredibly discriminant for women. We know that this suggestions are based on the most researched words, so we suppose that some people taps these ones very often. This campaign makes us realize that there are still people (mostly men I guess) who thinks that women are inferior and submitted.

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What have you done for human rights lately ? : this is a conceptual concept poster made by a student for marriage equality. Different politicians are represented and they're actually considered disrespectful of human rights. The question on their face incites us to ask them directly in their eyes. But it could be also seen as a tattoo, this question is engraved on their face, like a punishment. It calls into play the confidence that we have toward governments about marriage for all.

OUGD505 Brief 01 Product Range Distribution

There are 2 parts in this brief. In the first part, a lot a research and analysis based on 20th and 21st century political, social and other ethical ad campaigns. It is very important to see how designers, advertisers or even people like you and me convey a message based on a society problem. Are they (too) subversive ? How far can we go ? I will questioned myself and focused on a fight which is at the same time personal and raise audience awareness.