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I was in a grocery store checkout line last week. The woman in line ahead of me had two children with her: a small baby and a girl about three years old.
As I started unloading my cart, I heard the three-year-old informing the cashier, quietly but firmly, that she was not a princess. I was, of course, immediately impressed with the kid's firm grasp on reality. (On the other hand, three-year-olds can be very literal-minded.)
After the woman's order had been rung up, paid for, and placed in her cart, the cashier called out "Goodbye, Princess!", only to be informed again (just as firmly but not quite so quietly this time) that the child in question WAS NOT a princess.
The family walked away from the checkout line. The cashier turned to me (and, I think, the woman behind me) and said, almost plaintively, "My daddy told me all little girls are princesses!"
For better or worse, what popped into my mind was "Yeah, and Disney's been milking that cash cow for the past half-century. It's probably their single most valuable asset."
Now, I don't know whether my brain-blip was technically correct or not, but I'm convinced that at least the essence of it is true. And the cashier's behavior -- in some small way -- reminded me of just how much commercially-inspired attitudes affect people's world-views. (Sure, the "all little girls are princesses" trope predates Disney. That's not the point.)
Anyways, when I got home and unloaded my purchases, I noticed on the back of a Fritos bag (mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) the phrases "made with all natural oils" and "we grow the best snacks on earth".
I guess I'm glad Frito-Lay isn't making corn chips using synthetic oil -- I like it in my car engine, but I don't think I want it in my diet. And I notice that they don't say anything about "made with all natural corn." I could be wrong, but I suspect the company kicked in some funding for the lobbyists who quashed any requirement for labeling of genetically-manipulated crops/products in the USA.
But what really stuck in my mind was that (trademarked) tagline: we grow the best snacks on earth. Does that play, in some small way, into a current iteration of the same sort of emotional preconception as does the "Disney princesses" marketing approach? It's definitely a form of greenwashing, but might commercially-motivated greenwashing by folks who are already masters of opinion and attitude promulgation be a necessary step on the road to an economy and a culture that doesn't actively consume itself?
Is it possible that (perish the thought) a junk-food company might move America further towards sustainability than can its institutions of higher ed? (Shudder!)
