The Honest Supermarket

Describe your idea and concept of your work in relation to the festival outlines:

The idea behind my work was to target a number of problems with the Australian food industry. The issues I decided to focus on were:
• Short lifespan of meat chickens.
• Dairy farmers struggle to make profit.
• Misconception of “free range eggs”.
• Pesticides in apples.
• Prevalence of Type 2 diabetes.
I realised that all these issues relate to the products sold in supermarkets, so I decided to use signage within supermarkets to communicate my messages to the public. My aim was to make the public aware of the problems associated with some products by giving them shocking facts that would hopefully prevent them from purchasing the products.

What kind of communication approach do you use?

To achieve my aim I created a series of wobblers (little paper signs that dangle off supermarket shelves) each displaying the shocking facts about the products I targeted. I decided to use wobblers as they are usually used by companies and supermarkets to display the good facts about their products and therefore many people read them. I made my wobblers look like regular ones, using bright colours and big bold fonts with words such as “Bonus” and “Knockdown” to draw the public’s attention. The difference with my wobblers however is that once you’re drawn in by the headings, you then read the facts about the products that the supermarkets don’t want you to know. These facts were: • Meat chickens lifespan from chick to slaughterhouse can be as short as 35 days. • Hundreds of dairy farmers are being forced to stop farming due to the supermarkets selling their milk at just $1 a litre. • One third of eggs labelled a free range are from intensive farms with up to 40,000 hens per hectare. • There are a number of pesticides sprayed on apples during their growth including; Chlorpyrifos, Bifenthrin, Carbaryl, Endosulfan, Thiacloprid and Spinosad. • The number of registered type 2 diabetics in Australia in January 2012 was 714,207. This will hopefully result in preventing the public from purchasing the product as the off-putting information is fresh in their mind.

What are in your opinion concrete benefits to the society because of your communication?

I believe that my communication will benefit society in that it will give them the facts about products in supermarkets that they are not aware of, which allows them to make an informed decision about purchasing the product. Furthermore the information may also cause the public to prevent purchasing the products including; chicken, non-organic apples, cheap milk, intensive-farmed free range eggs and any other unhealthy items which would cause different modes of food production to arise that could be beneficial for society

What did you personally learn from creating your submitted work?

In conducting my research and creating my work I learnt a lot about the problems with food production in Australia. I learnt that:

• Meat chickens lifespan from chick to slaughterhouse can be as short as 35 days.

• Hundreds of dairy farmers are being forced to stop farming due to the supermarkets selling their milk at just $1 a litre.

• One third of eggs labelled a free range are from intensive farms with up to 40,000 hens per hectare.

• There are a number of pesticides sprayed on apples during their growth including; Chlorpyrifos, Bifenthrin, Carbaryl, Endosulfan, Thiacloprid and Spinosad.

• The number of registered type 2 diabetics in Australia in January 2012 was 714,207.

Why is your work, GOOD communication WORK?

I believe my work is good communication work because it first draws your attention, then shocks you with information you didn’t want to know about your food. This combined with the fact that it’s in the form of signage that’s placed right next to the product it addresses means that the information is going to have it’s greatest effect because it is fresh in your mind.

Where and how do you intent do implement your work?

My work was mocked up in the form of a series of wobblers which were then placed on supermarket shelves next to the products they address.

Did your intervention had an effect on other Media. If yes, describe the effect? (Has other media reported on it- how? Were you able to change other media with your work- how?)

My work had an effect on supermarket shoppers. As they went to purchase the products I targeted, they read the wobblers I created and were shocked by the information they revealed. This caused some to not purchase the product, which was the goal in creating the work.