{"id":820,"date":"2024-04-15T23:13:20","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T03:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/?p=820"},"modified":"2024-04-15T23:13:20","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T03:13:20","slug":"post-grape-nuts-keeping-families-happy-or-the-husbands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/uncategorized\/post-grape-nuts-keeping-families-happy-or-the-husbands\/","title":{"rendered":"Post Grape-Nuts: Keeping Families Happy or the Husbands?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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In LIFE Magazine<\/em> volume 53, July-August of 1962, Grape-Nuts had advertisements on at least four separate pages, often being the same one as the one above. Post Consumer Brands has been around since 1897 as a breakfast cereal. Made of wheat and barley, it is marketed as a great source of fiber. It was created by Charles William Post by using a coffee grinder to create the kernels that we see as the cereal. The name was inspired by the glucose that was created in the baking process, which Post coined as \u201cgrape sugar.\u201d The cereal’s initial intention was to help with health and vitality after being inspired by Kellogg’s creation of granola to aid bowel issues. Grape-Nuts bursted in popularity in the 1970s through its advertisements and vision of being natural. The reason the advertisements were so rampant and successful throughout this addition of LIFE<\/em> is due to the way households were run at this point in time and how women were viewed in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advertisement displays a cereal box, which to the perspective of Lorraine Daston and Peter Galiston, the advertisement is somewhat objective. To Daston and Galison objectivity is a defined scientific, photographic truth. Objectivity of something is how you would exactly see it with your own eyes. While there are some flaws within how someone can trust something to be objective if it is only seen through a second-hand photo or drawing, there is some sort of human intuition from one\u2019s environment and developed biases in which we conform to influences that individual people define as objective. The truly objective parts of the advertisement are the bowl of Grape-Nuts ready to eat in front of the box and the spoon right next to it. The box is objectively what a Grape-Nuts box looks like, except where it alters the objective truth of its nature is the tape measure around the \u2018waist\u2019 of the box, essentially cinching its waist (if a cereal box were to have a waist). The way we are able to understand the new perspective of a cereal box even potentially having a waist falls under Walter Benjamin\u2019s definition of optical unconsciousness. It is the ability to dissociate our preconceived biases about certain things and take on new perspectives. This allows the viewer to believe that there could be a tape measure around the cereal box.\u00a0 Around the focus of the photo is text promoting healthy living styles, but in a problematic way: \u201cA Post Grape-Nuts breakfast helps keep you slim and trim\u201d (Post Consumer Brands). This advertisement promotes health, which was a priority for Post in its creation, but it is also an advertisement directed towards women of the time creating unhealthy patterns of pushing women to make sure they watch their weight in order to keep their husbands happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This volume of LIFE<\/em> was published during second-wave feminism, which was heavily focused on equality and intersectional feminism. While women had already secured the right to vote about 40 years before this point, they were still not viewed as equal citizens and mostly remained as homemakers. In the early 60s, specifically 1963, a year prior to the publication of this volume of LIFE<\/em>, Betty Friedan, a writer and activist, researched the role of women in society and found that most were dissatisfied with their roles as housewives. This was the inspiration for her first book The Feminine Mystique<\/em> which sought to bust the allegations that women were satisfied in not working and not having political opinions. <\/em>Magazines such as LIFE<\/em> were at the forefront of every household and mostly targeted to housewives. This was a very conflicting time as there were feminist books coming out that encouraged women to break out of the normal structure of their life, and on the other hand there were magazines being mass produced with advertisements set to keep women in their predetermined roles. This advertisement sends the message that women must stay in shape and look pretty whilst being within the home. The tone feels lighthearted, but the message is misogynistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Upon further research of the type of advertisements that Post was publishing for Grape-Nuts, in 1957 they put more imagery on the cereal box that displayed the gender norms of the time. The cover shows a woman walking with a bowl of Grape-Nuts with a man running after her. Even before then, in 1949 they had an advertisement containing a stereotypical 50s family. In the first part it shows a woman over a barrel complaining about how betrayed she felt that her family went to a diner for breakfast rather than having a homemade meal, turning to how she feels so lucky to be saved by the Post-Tens cereal assortment. Below the initial part of the ad, the parents are back at their dining room table eating Grape-Nuts while the kids respectively play in the background. Once again they reinforce gender roles with the boy playing with guns in a Western get up, while the girl plays with a ball in a bright yellow sundress. This solidifies their want for their product to play into typical societal roles. This sells an extremely heteronormative, patriarchal vision, which until the 60s was a priority to sell. Even though the advertisement above does again enforce a problematic narrative, it does show improvement from what was published from the same company in the late 40s. The change in what they published stemmed from the effects of second wave feminism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evolution of Post Grape-Nuts advertisements with the way popular culture developed is most likely why they are still alive as a brand today; even though they almost went bankrupt during the COVID-19 pandemic. Luckily now Post brands themselves in a motivational way, with a new motto of \u201cClimb your personal mountain with a bowl of Grape-Nuts cereal\u201d (\u201cGrape-Nuts\u201d). This new inspirational motto promotes healthy eating by not only eating the cereal but by using it as an ingredient in more elaborate recipes. They no longer brand themselves towards making families happy and collective in a premodern feminism way, but now promote themselves to being a health brand for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin, Walter. \u201cA short history of photography.\u201d Oxford Journals<\/em>, vol. 65, no. 1, 2024, pp. 5-26. BlackBoard<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daston, Lorraine, and Peter Galison. Objectivity<\/em>. Zone Books, 2007. BlackBoard<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFeminism: The Second Wave.\u201d National Women’s History Museum<\/em>, 18 June 2020, https:\/\/www.womenshistory.org\/exhibits\/feminism-second-wave. Accessed 15 April 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrape-Nuts.\u201d Grape Nuts: Home<\/em>, https:\/\/www.grapenuts.com\/. Accessed 15 April 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Breakfast. Grape-Nuts: 1957 Post Grape Nuts Box<\/em>. Pinterest<\/em>, https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/4996249557905213\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post Consumer Brands. \u201cPost Grape-Nuts Advertisement.\u201d LIFE Magazine<\/em>, 1964.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPost Grape-Nuts Cereal: 125+ Years of Fueling Adventure.\u201d Post Consumer Brands<\/em>, https:\/\/www.postconsumerbrands.com\/grape-nuts\/. Accessed 15 April 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ross, Joseph. 1949 Post Grape-Nuts Cereal Vintage Advertisement Kitchen Wall Art Dining Room Decor Magazine Print Ad Breakfast Nook Decor Food Unique Art<\/em>. Etsy<\/em>, https:\/\/www.etsy.com\/listing\/1598155219\/1949-post-grape-nuts-cereal-vintage?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details.Urban, Peter. \u201cGrape-Nuts to Offer Refunds to Those Who Overpaid.\u201d AARP<\/em>, 24 March 2021, https:\/\/www.aarp.org\/health\/healthy-living\/info-2021\/grape-nuts-cereal-shortage.html. Accessed 15 April 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In LIFE Magazine volume 53, July-August of 1962, Grape-Nuts had advertisements on at least four separate pages, often being the same one as the one above. Post Consumer Brands has been around since 1897 as a breakfast cereal. Made of wheat and barley, it is marketed as a great source of fiber. It was created […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867,"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arth.hamiltonlits.org\/fa-23-110\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}