#muller corner

Having recently moved back home I've had a lot more time to plonk myself in front of the television and watch endless amounts of awful daytime programmes. As a result of this I've noticed a trend in the ad breaks that particularly niggles at my nerve endings and it is all to do with yoghurts. From Muller's corners and greek style to Canada's Liberte yoghurt (for the life of me I can't get the accent to work) and biffidus digestivum containing Activia it appears that all yoghurts are marketed at women. 

Now I understand that brands and products need to have a target audience in order for them to be successful but the inner feminist in me (she comes out every now and then) asks why food needs to be gendered. Yoghurts seem to be a product that are promoted as an aid to weight loss with most boasting that they contain little or no fat, it is their aid to weight loss that must be the reason why the product is so consistently targeted at women who stereotypically care more about their appearance than men. This is plainly seen in Activia's adverts which feature Gok Wan, a man who has made his living on making women look good and restoring body confidence, the association being that eating this yoghurt will get rid of any body woes that you may have. Whilst targeting yoghurts at women in reality doesn't exclude men from eating them (my dad has a muller corner every night after dinner without fail) it does suggest that the product isn't made for them. Yoghurt isn't a tampon, it's okay for men to have them too.

Gok Wan convincing women that Activia can solve all your self-confidence problems

Asides from weight loss, rather bizarrely there seems to be a tendency to associate yoghurt with sex. I'm not sure how food can ever be categorised as sexy, this baffles me hugely. Nobody looks at a baked bean and thinks that those are the qualities they'd like in a partner. Except of course if you're Nicole Scherzinger who seems to be two timing and getting her jollies with both Herbal Essence and Muller Corners on various modes of transport, maybe that is why things haven't worked out with Lewis Hamilton. Liberte's advert for it's fruity yoghurt sees Denise van Houten firstly referring to the yoghurt she is eating as a 'he' which takes the notion of gendered food to it's extremes and secondly stating that 'he's so fulfilling' and 'really satisying', oh how cheeky of you Denise! I'm going to just go ahead and say the cold hard truth that unless you have a weird fetish, yoghurt can't induce orgasms, I'm sorry but there it is.

Scherzinger on her third date

Muller corners have the capactiy to have a really creative ad campaign that utilises it's differences from all the other yoghurts. A few years ago I remember their string of TV ads that played on the way people combine the yoghurt and the corner which is something that all people who have ever eaten a muller corner can relate to (I pour all the corner in and just mix it up, rather unimaginative I know). Muller corners are quite a visual product and that is something that could be used in an ad campaign, take a situation that is boring until you mix in a certain element that transforms the aforementioned situation into something fun and amazing.