Perceived Realities

Imagine this...

I'm sitting at my desk in front of my widescreen computer eating lunch. The walls, doors, and environment is colored in that clean sterilized office look... Very modern and in a fashion suitable to work in. At 12 noon I clock out for lunch... Where to go? there's so many choices, so many places.. Should I walk? Drive? Carpool? I end up going to Quiznos and ordering up a beef dip sub with some of Miss Vickie's Jalapeño chips. At Quiznos they are very concerned about my health so everything you order just happens to be under 500 calories. The restaurant is very modern and clean looking like my office is. Very comforting indeed. Not once on the way over did I have to worry about "making lunch" or tramping through mud to get it. It was all concrete and sidewalks and accessible.. I could get lost in this world and not wonder where my food comes from. Luckily Frito-Lay has stamped on Miss Vickie's chips, "From Our Farm to You." A farm huh.. while in my mind I don't want to think about the intensive process it took, or whether the farmer got paid sufficiently, or whether Miss Vickie is nothing more than a corporate slogan created to confort me.. I shrug and walk out as Muscheeh from Bangalore in his Quizno's Polo and Khaki slacks charges $6.58 for my "SM Prime Chzstk."

Walking back I realize the irony of all of this. The farm scene on the bag of chips, the dim lighting and modern look of the restaurant, and me sitting at my desk accepting it all as being "right."

I don't believe to be saying anything really shocking here, only that the images and environments being created around us is only made for us to glance at which leaves an impression. Nothing is being designed for us to truly connect with. There's no down the street joint/deli where we go every week day and ask "Joe" what's happening. We don't know our barbers, hardware store guys, mechanics, or even our doctors really. Joe is Americana, we're condition to order a joe and Burger king knows that.. Here's a quote from my future book: "In 2007 we say the same words as they said in 1937, but everything has lost a bit of its original meaning." The question is why?.. Why keep Americana? and why educate our youth to the meaning of what a "cup of joe" is or what a farm is... It's likely they won't *have to know* to get by.

What if companies would strip their products of the lies (like Miss Vickies chips come from a farm to you) and just labeled them for what they really are... (Processed potato with imitation seasoning)... *Cough.. I really know the reason "why" (of course its due to.. marketing, sales, consumer theory, etc. because I work in the same industry) , but I thought I would share this complex over-my-lunch thought with y'all so that you might too have another thing to wonder about.

~J out

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Examples of Perceived Realities:

"For three generations, the Bigelow family has specialized in creating...teas. We use only the finest mountain-grown tea and natural bergamot in Earl Grey..." Bigelow Ear Grey tea

(Picture) A giant slice of cheese from a wheel of cheeze and underneith the right side of the cheese slice is a cheez-it. The caption reads, "Actual Taste (Cheese slice) Actual Size (Cheez-it)
-Sunshire Cheez-it "The Big Cheese"