Anthropomorphized food

An anthropomorphized food is a food which had been attributed human traits, emotions, or intentions. Foods with human characteristics often appear in culture and in modern media and are often given the anecdotal properties.

Neuromarketing

Poster that uses the character Mr. Peanut to emotionally influence the audience.

In marketing, the aim of anthropomorphism is to establish or mimic human-like emotional connection between the consumer and the product. Research shows that it increases the attractiveness of the product for adults and decreases it for children. The exception to this is when meat products are given personality, which causes guilt in consumers, since they are less likely to eat meat when they rely on their emotions. It can also increase the desirability of foods that are considered "ugly" by default, consumers will not waste food, especially when these characters are sad, evoking empathy from the consumer. The type of food and the proportions of the face also play a big role in the effectiveness of the mascot.

Appearance in Modern Media

The 1918 Australian children's book The Magic Pudding a talking magical pudding with thin limbs and a bad-temper.

In the 1930s Swiss and German postcards from a fictional place called Rübliland ("Carrotland") were still popular.

The 1946 Andy Panda cartoon Apple Andy features living apples.

A potato like character Mr. Potato Head has been produced by Hasbro since 1952.

Since 1954 the mascot characters of M&M's are their candies possessing limbs and human qualities (with names and personality connected to the color of their coating).

In 1971 Mayor Mccheese has appeared as part of a McDonald's advertising campaign, who was an anthropomorphic hamburger. In the following years, the restaurant produced a cast of similar characters.

The 1984 Ghostbusters movie introduced the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, which became one of the iconic symbols of the franchise.

The 2000s Adult Swim adult animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force has an anthropomorphized a meatball, milkshake and french fries as its protagonists.

The 2006 anime series Magical Witch Punie-chan shows an anthropomorphic potato committing suicide.

Rita Domonyi's 2008 picture book Cakedom (Süteménység) features a city of living cakes.

The 2010 Cartoon Network animated series Adventure Time also features a cast of anthropomorphized foods, mainly candies.

The 2011 animated sitcom series The Amazing World of Gumball showcases lots of sentient foods such as peanuts, milk, potatos, bananas, a hot dog and an ice cream.

The 2013 animated science fiction comedy film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 the foods possess animal-like behavior, imitating the likeliness of a real animal.

The 2014 Cartoon Network animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall features a town of cucurbit-people.

Illustration from the Gingerbread Man story

The 2016 adult animated comedy film Sausage Party featured an anthropomorphic sausage as its main character next to other grocery items. In the 2017 American children's book by Jory John, The Bad Seed's protagonist is a sunflower seed. The 2018 animated short film Bao, produced by Pixar, is about a baozi that comes alive and becomes human. The 2021 film Kung Food has an anthropomorphic bun as a protagonist.

In Folklore

In the Hungarian folktale The Little Walnut the protagonist is helped by a talking loaf of bread.

The Hungarian folktale The sausage, the frog and the mouse (A Kolbász, a béka és az egér) portrayed the sausage as a friend of the two animals and a great cook. The German version of this tale is The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage.

There is also another Hungarian tale named A hólyag, a szalmaszál és a tüzes üszök (The bladder, the straw and the burning ember) in which the bladder was shown to be unobliging and "epicaricatic" (Hungarian: kárörvendő). The German version of this folk tale is called The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean, where the bean is described as sensible.

In the Ashanti tale Talk the story centers around a talking yam, with human attributes who is offended and does not want to be sold on the market.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster also has human like qualities, the deity of the Pastafarians.

The Gingerbread boy features a living gingerbread man who escapes from the house he was baked in (similarly Kolobok is a loaf of living bread).

The Egg: Humpty Dumpty is also a popular a popular character, known from nursery rhymes.

The Japanese Yokai Shio no Choji is a spirit of a horse connected to its meat which proceeded to torture the man eating it by forcing itself down his throat.

See also

• Anthropomorphism
• Animism