Healthy Food Marketing: Thanksgiving isn’t Just About the Food

A reminder for all of us marketers at the beginning of this time of gratitude.

 This week I decided to look back and see if there were any blogs that I had written that spoke to this important time of year and I found that the very first one was the essence of why I think Thanksgiving matters. When we market food to families, we’re selling more than just the biological benefits of eating well. We are selling something so much more important, something we tend to forget in this time of facts and transparency of ingredients. 

It’s important to remember that we are selling a connection with cultural traditions, and stronger family ties.

 If that wasn’t true, most of us would probably be ordering take out on Thursday. So why don’t we? Because planning and cooking a meal from scratch is making a conscious decision to put the phones down, turn the TV off and share an experience, Suddenly the processes of chopping, steaming, and sautéing mean so much more. Breaking bread at the dinner table is where, as the food writer Michael Pollan puts it, “we teach our children the manners they need to get along in society. We teach them how to share. To take turns. To argue without fighting and insulting other people. They learn the art of adult conversation.” 

Out of the simple family meal, he says, is born democracy.

 So the Thanksgiving meal could be thought of as the reset to what really matters when it comes to the way we cook and eat. It’s really about the power of cooking, eating, and sharing the experience of food with those around you. Its about making connections to our families-the ones we were born into and the ones we choose. Easy to forget when we are consumed with making sure consumers know every single thing about what goes into the food we bring them, which of course is very important. But meals are about more than just the great food. This real benefit is the conscious act of eating together. The food is just the thing that gets us there.