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Article
Publication date: 23 October 2018

Nicklas Neuman, Lucas Gottzén and Christina Fjellström

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a group of men relate to food celebrities in the contemporary Swedish food-media landscape, especially celebrity chefs on TV.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a group of men relate to food celebrities in the contemporary Swedish food-media landscape, especially celebrity chefs on TV.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 men in Sweden (22–88 years of age), with different backgrounds and with a variety of interest in food.

Findings

The paper demonstrates different ways in which the men relate to food celebrities. The men produce cultural distinctions of taste and symbolic boundaries, primarily related to gender and age, but also class. Through this, a specific position of “just right” emerged. This position is about aversion to excess, such as exaggerated gendered performances or pretentious forms of cooking. One individual plays a particularly central role in the stories: Actor and Celebrity Chef Per Morberg. He comes across as a complex cultural figure: a symbol of slobbish and tasteless cooking and a symbol of excess. At the same time, he is mentioned as the sole example of the exact opposite – as a celebrity chef who represents authenticity.

Practical implications

Scholars and policy makers must be careful of assuming culinary or social influence on consumers from food celebrities simply based on their media representations. As shown here and in similar studies, people relate to them and interpret their performances in a variety of ways.

Originality/value

This is one of the few studies that target the role of food celebrities in contemporary Western consumer culture from the point of view of the consumers rather than analyses of media representations.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 121 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2006

Anette Pettersson and Christina Fjellstrom

Discusses the role of food marketing to children and how responsible marketing may facilitate healthy foodways.

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Abstract

Purpose

Discusses the role of food marketing to children and how responsible marketing may facilitate healthy foodways.

Design/methodology/approach

Reports research on children as consumers and the consumer socialization process, where the role of media and brands are stronger influencing agents than before. Describes the criticism against child advertisements and the use of entertainment in marketing to children, especially in positioning unhealthy food products. Continues with describing the industry’s response in terms of conducting responsible marketing through self‐regulation.

Findings

Suggests that healthy food habits can be facilitated by making healthy food available, by promoting well‐being and through making healthy food entertaining. Several aspects in children’s experiences of fun ought to be considered in the marketing process. Responsible acting among producers and marketers is a way of forming emotional relationships and thus of creating consumer loyalty.

Practical implications

Several parallel actions are suggested to establish healthy food habits; consumer education among children along with legal restrictions and responsible marketing. The cultural meaning of food makes a subject for future research on promoting healthy food habits. It is further suggested that marketers, teachers and nutritionists should learn from each other to establish healthy eating among children and their families.

Originality/value

Responsible marketing in making healthy food attractive to children and their families makes an advantageous alternative satisfying both industry and consumer needs in the long run.

Details

Young Consumers, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-3616

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2015

Christina Fjellstrom, Ylva Mattsson Sydner, Birgitta Sidenvall, Monique M Raats and Margaret Lumbers

In the home help service, food provision is one common welfare service that involves different professionals at different levels within a social organisation. The purpose of this…

Abstract

Purpose

In the home help service, food provision is one common welfare service that involves different professionals at different levels within a social organisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine how different professionals involved in this sector view and describe their work and responsibilities.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative study was designed based on interviews with 17 professionals representing different positions in the organisation, and an inductive thematic analysis was carried out.

Findings

The various professionals’ views of food provision mainly focus on the meal box and other meals seem to receive much less attention. The professionals also illuminated their respective roles within the food provision organisation by means of boundaries and split responsibilities, and expressed a view of food provision as an issue for outsourcing. The restricted manner in which food provision was viewed and described illuminates a risk of food insecurity for dependent people in home help service situations.

Originality/value

The restriction of how food provision was viewed and described illuminates a risk of food insecurity for dependent people in home help service.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 117 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

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