Part A:
“Tyson: From Farm to Market”, Marvin Schwartz, January 1, 1991.

“The meat racket: the secret takeover of America's food business”, Christopher Leonard, February 18, 2014.

Part B:

This is a commercial from 1987 advertising Tyson’s Chicken Oriental product as a part of their World Class Chicken Entrée campaign. I believe that Tyson’s was trying to portray this image of having many dishes that were from a variety of cultures. I found this advertisement interesting because of the concept of Tyson’s entrees being a passport. It may have been that during this time, consumers were interested in popular dishes from different cultures and the easy accessibility to these dishes that Tyson provided was appealing. Overall, I think Tyson’s was trying to portray their versatility and upkeep with the concerns/interests of the current public.


This is a commercial from 1994 advertising Tyson’s Ready to Eat Roasted Chicken. I found this advertisement interesting because it included the concept of a man cooking for his wife. It could be that during this time, the role of women as cooks was lessening and men were starting to take an interest in cooking as a way to take care of his family versus just working. I also found it interesting that the couple featured was young, which implies that gender roles were changing among the youth during this time. Despite this seemingly forward idea presented, it also seems slightly traditional in the sense that it portrays the man as not being proficient at cooking and needing help, such as having a product that is easy to prepare. Also, I find it interesting that the advertisement has the man tricking the woman into thinking the chicken he has been preparing was solely his doing. It shows the man as being slightly cleverer than the woman. This is perhaps to lessen the femininity behind him cooking for his family.

Tyson Chicken Nuggets TV Commercial
This advertisement 2013 from shows children disgusted by the words: Trans fats, preservatives and artificial ingredients. This is done to introduce Tyson’s 100% natural chicken nuggets. I found this advertisement interesting because I think it portrays the needs of the company to provide a healthier product as this is largely of concern today. I also thought it was interesting of them to show children as a way to target parents, probably mothers especially. This implies that parents are looking for healthier products that still have the convenience of being easy to prepare. I think this shows that in modern times, most parents, or the public in general, do not have time to cook a meal due to the increasing importance of having a career. This may cause them to comprise the healthiness of what they are eating, so it would be smart of a company to find a way to create a product that provides short cooking times while still portraying an image of being healthy or beneficial in some way.

Part C:
The person I am choosing to write about is Julie Mennella because of her work with child taste testing. I do not think she would have much of a reaction to the first two ads I selected as they aren’t particularly in her field of expertise, but I think she would have most to say about the last ad I selected as it features children. I think she would appreciate that the ad is targeted at mothers as she felt that was an area that wasn’t well developed when she first started working for Monell. I think she would question the validity of the children’s disgust in that ad because when the author was with her for a taste test with a little girl, Julie spoke of the notion of children saying what they feel would please adults. Thus, it is possible that the children in the ad are only acting disgusted because of the expectations of the adults in charge of the ad. I think Julie would want to do more research concerning the chicken nuggets and how much the children enjoy it. She may even want to arrange a taste test.

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