American food vs English food is the same comparison as American
Marketing vs English Marketing. This may seem odd to you, or it may
seem completely right. But the simple fact is, both leave me feeling
sick and I don’t fully know why. They leave me with that dirty feel,
the one where you feel a drop in aspiration and inspiration and it
is replaced with a grey dullness that reminds me of citizenship
class in the autumn when I was 14.
The first thing that hit me when I arrived in the land of the free
was that everything looked tackier and shouted louder in my face.
The advertisments for every local service were always fronted by a
smiling American with the whitest teeth possible enclosed
in a mouth that was in-humanely big. Bigger than any European
smile.. Most things are advertised in the sentiment “I’ll scream and
shout at you in the most garish way possible and you can’t refuse to
spend money on me”. You may think that this could be to “stand out
from the crowd” but if the whole crowd is wearing neon face paint
and screaming their heads off at you, then no one’s standing out are
they? I just feel a bit of the thought and brilliance of marketing
and advertising is being lost.
Then there’s the food. Same thing – it’s smashed onto the table in
front of you with plates of 2 foot tall burgers and a healthy
half-a-tonne side portion of vegetables (“fries”). It stuffs itself
into your mouth screaming “eat me or eat me, those are your
options!” and before you know it, you’ve gained two stone in weight.
The food’s taste is the same as the marketing too. It tastes loud
and sweet, there’s no subtlety to it. And once you’re done, you
should feel a sense of satisfaction (my family are big on the “eat
til you drop” mentality), but all that seems to be is this fuzzy
feeling at the back of your head, almost as if you can hear your
creativity and inspiration leaking out of your body.
But don’t let this put you off. I’m loving it over here.
