Googly Eyes Help Sell Ugly Produce

It is estimated that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, with the total cost of that food waste being as high as $400 billion a year.

 

I don't know how true this is – but for sure, we know there is wastage. 

 

While some of this is caused by storage issues or over-purchasing, it is also said that up to 20% of produce waste is perfectly good food considered too ugly (read, misshapen and/or discolored) for us to purchase.

 

That may be but it doesn't mean it should be wasted. It can go into making things like sauces, soups, and jams. Or you can donate it to foodbanks. It's important to have a “waste not, want not” mindset.

 

Anyway, Kacy Kim (left), an associate professor at Bryant University, and colleagues published a study "From ugly to attractive: Leveraging anthropomorphism to increase demand for irregular-appearing produce" on May 26, 2024 in the journal Psychology & Marketing with an adorable solution to the food waste problem: anthropomorphizing the said produce to make them more appealing and increase purchase intentions.

 

Kim and her team argue that the problem is that supermarkets, and even "ugly" food specialty companies, are going about it all wrong. It's not about discounting irregular produce to try and get people to buy it – it's about making that produce appealing enough that it doesn't need to be discounted in the first place. 

 

That's where the googly eyes come in.

 

"By testing and adding some human characteristics, we examine whether that effort will increase the attractiveness of the produce, and [whether] that attractiveness is going to be increasing the purchasing of the produce and consuming of the produce" said Kim.

 

And they also found that giving ugly produce human names like Taylor or Jordan made it more appealing. 

 

It’s all about how the human psyche is programmed to see the world, explained study co-author and Bryant University professor Sukki Yoon (right). 

 

“We process things unconsciously as we are told to. ‘Apples are supposed to look like this’, that is a human bias. By extension, it is a type of stereotyping”, explained Yoon.

 

Anthropomorphizing imperfect fruits and vegetables has been shown to move the needle on shifting consumers’ intentions to purchase such produce in the past. In 2014, “The Grotesque Apple” and “Ridiculous Potato” were promoted in an advertising campaign helmed by a French supermarket chain that sold the produce at discounted rates. The following year, “Beautiful on the Inside” launched as a UK campaign that promoted the idea that flavor and nutrition trump aesthetics when sold at cheaper price points. And in 2016, a major US supermarket launched a “Produce with Personality” campaign aimed at discount shoppers in Pittsburgh.

 

Kim and Yoon’s new research emphasizes how much simpler marketing tactics, such as googly-eyed eggplants, can be used by retailers to increase consumer demand for irregular-looking produce, and reduce emissions associated with food waste – without needing to slash prices.