What’s up with all those hilarious salads?
Personally, I don’t burst out laughing that easily when I’m eating a salad (especially not when the person next to me is eating a triple grilled cheese sandwich). But if I’m to believe advertisements and stock photos, I’m just like the vegetables that don’t make it through inspection: quite the odd one out. Because everywhere I look, I see people laughing next to salads. What’s up with that?
Hilarious salads? Let’s break it down:
hilarious (adj.)
1 ridiculous
2 funny
salad (the; m; salads)
1 a dish made from raw vegetables
2 a cold dish
(H)ilarious
The dictionary definitions don’t make us much wiser. If anything, they confirm it: you can’t make one and one equal two out of laughter and salads. Or so you’d think.
But still… Photos of (almost always) women laughing by themselves with a bowl of salad in hand: you see them in advertisements, food magazines and TV commercials.
And I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed this. The internet is full of memes and lists (yup, 17 women who find their salads incredibly funny). And what about this woman who writes about her biggest secret: she used to be one of the women who laughed with their salads.
So once again: what’s up with hilarious salads?
Laughing sells
The liberating answer! The marketing geniuses have discovered that it’s not just sex that sells. Images of smiling people also produce spikes. So ditch that #selfieduckface and show those beautiful teeth!
And it’s actually nothing new. Smiling faces have never been in short supply in the marketing world. Almost never is a photo of a product taken without a person in it. Let alone with someone who doesn’t appear to be genuinely enjoying the product. Producers therefore want their product to be associated with pleasure. ‘Yay, salad!’
So are you still looking for a job? A career as a salad laugher might bring in some money—and with a bit of luck, you could even land a hefty selery.
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