Are celebrity chef's selling out?
In the UK we have truly endorsed the celebrity chef and enjoy their regular TV offerings. They teach us about the importance of food, ethically produced and of good quality. They have impressive culinary skills and can whip up the most satisfying and tasty food. However, many of these chef's have also entered into advertising contracts to help promote foods, food brands and supermarkets. The press and media have in some cases commented on what they see as double standards when these much loved chefs 'sell out'. Is this really the case? Lets take a look at exactly who is affiliated with who.
Jamie Oliver - Sainsbury's
The most familiar celebrity chef/supermarket connection is Jamie Oliver becoming the face of Sainsbury's. It is easy to have mixed opinions over this issue. Sainsbury do sell considerable amounts of cheap, processed foods, like many supermarkets. Shortly after Jamie aired his programme 'Jamie saves our Bacon' where he highlighted the poor quality European bacon that makes it into the UK, nearly 5 million tonnes a year, he then ran an advertising campaign with Sainsbury's pushing their meals for £5 which included bacon. This bacon is sourced from UK farms which have higher standards than Europe, but will the consumer look for this when they shop, or are they happy to buy cheap bacon from any supermarket which may well sell sow stall reared European bacon?
On the other hand he is advertising in a supermarket that is making better efforts with their food produce on the whole. The latest Compassion in World Farming survey rated Sainsbury's as the most improved supermarket. Jamie Oliver may have had considerable influence here. Maybe we should we praise him for his efforts and being involved encouraging the public to get back to simple natural ingredients and home cooking?
Gordon Ramsay - Seriously good sauces
Much loved Gordon Ramsay has been advertising these ready made sauces, all in the name of charity. This is very noble of him and will likely play a part in raising funds for Comic Relief, but did this distract him from scouring all of the ingredients used to produce these factory made sauces? See: http://www.seriouslygood.com/#/jars/spicy-red-pepper-and-spianata-sausage/
Note: Natural flavourings and spices according to Jack Samuels, who has been campaigning against MSG for 15 years, are ingredients that may still contain MSG. As MSG is made from the amino acid glutamine and the mineral sodium which a naturally occuring compounds allows it to meet the FDA's definition of a natural flavour enhancer. Yet MSG has been shown to cause damage to the hypothalamus of the brain and to dysregulate appetite controls. It has been proven in a 2008 study to be positively associated with obesity even when total calories and activity are factored out. These also contain the 'natural' preservative called sodium nitrite that has raised many concerns in recent years for aiding in the formation of carcinogenic nitroamines and has been linked to other health problems like migraine, and ling disorders.
Gary Rhodes - Flora Butterly
Rhodes can be seen in one of the UK's worst adverts! Promoting a highly processed, butter imitation spread is hardly what you would expect from a highly experienced chef. The advert is full of health claims and tacky music. We can't figure out why a chef would want to be the face of such over hyped and relatively, unproven theories. In the world of science it takes many research studies and years of investigation to begin to satisfy necessary requirements to make an ethical health claim. Watch the advert here: http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=claims
Phil Vickery - Aldi
Resident Chef on This Morning, Vickery recently began appearing in Aldi adverts claiming they know all about simple, quality, tasty food. There is no doubt that Aldi offerslower priced goods compared to other supermarkets, but the quality of the food sold is unlikely to be as good and certainly is dominated by lesser known brands who rarely provide any guarantee of quality. Is this just a copycat campaign in an attempt to keep up with Sainsbury's?
Tell us what you think about our Chef's supporting supermarkets and other food products. Does it mislead the public? Is it educational? Are they really making a difference? Do people benefit from seeing these celebrities promoting such food?
