I seem to keep seeing rather a lot of ads focusing on the humble British sausage.
But what surprises me about them all is that the food stylist / art director / director / client chose to illustrate the all-round awesomeness of the sausage with a plate of grilled sausages, mash and peas (or sausage, chips, peas and carrots in the case of Walls).
I don’t know about you, but sausage & boiled vegetables say ‘school dinners’ to me, not ‘reliable and tasty meal option’. Where’s the gravy? The Full English Breakfast? The Toad-in-the-Hole (explanation for overseas readers here)? The sausage casserole?
I’ve never actually seen a real, live person tucking into sausage, mash and peas on their own (minus gravy) with gusto. It doesn’t feel like the benchmark for perfect sausages, so I’m wondering why they keep using it?
Because the focus groups have said that a massive, fat yorkshire pudding isn’t what they can cook up at home. That their gravy isn’t as brown as on TV. Or as nice and thick. That their mash is lumpy, not creamy like the stuff they show in adverts. Adverts were too perfect, unrealistic and it’s demoralising. If the dish on TV doesn’t look remotely like something they can crop up, then they will reject the sausages.
Styling is now more austere.
I wonder why they don’t apply the same logic as with clothes. If it’s on a size 4 model, people never seem to go ‘That won’t look good on me’. They insist that it *WILL* look fabulous on them. And they squeeze size 14, 16 or 18 bodies into clothes made for sizes 4-10 or 12.
Yum….sausages, gravy and yorkshire puds…and mash…. I’m hungry now!