Perfectly imperfect food in advertising

Show my the ugly food! Not the rotten, inedible, or otherwise nasty food, but the perfectly imperfect, still good to eat food.

With almost 60% of food produced in Canada going into landfills, or never even making it to stores or markets, we need to change how we look at and select our fresh food. And very possibly it begins with those of us responsible for marketing that food.

Since the beginning, the most perfect fruits and vegetables have been chosen to showcase in ads to demonstrate their quality. And even those were not deemed perfect enough, being colour corrected and adjusted before the final ad was published.

Some campaigns have embraced a crazy idea – showing foods that are not 100% perfect, but still 100% perfectly good to eat! However we are so conditioned to look for that idyllic piece, that messaging is needed to show that the food is still good to eat.

A number of retailers and producers sell it at a discounted rate as well, as though these imperfect harvests were lesser than their more attractive versions. (Check out the Inglorious Fruits & Vegetables campaign, the Naturally Imperfect line introduced by NoName, and even the addition of googly eyes to ugly produce to help move it off the shelves.)

As marketers and designers, can we not lead an acceptance of the imperfect and include these in our ads and images? Can we do it without calling out the use of imperfect food to make it just seem normal!? It is how our food naturally grows….

If the change is subtle and progresses overtime, could we all move towards a taste of all shapes, sizes and colour variations for our food and reduce food waste?