Codes for Home and Dinner - The Essential Circle

Americans are unique in how they view the concepts of home and dinner.  The American culture places great importance on the ability to take a house and create a home with it. Author Clotaire Rapaille writes in his book, The Culture Code, that a home is created through traditions which often are completed through the eating of a meal with other individuals. In particular, the eating of dinner together as a family is often the most valued meal.

In many American advertisements, fast food restaurants utilize this idea of meal sharing to market the idea that their food can bring people together. In a literal sense, people are brought together in a circle around food, however, while in this circle, people are able to communicate with each other and feel connected to one another.  Families may value meal time traditions in different ways, whether more formal and serious or more casually. Either way advertisers take advantage of this warm feeling people associate with sharing meals.

In the first ad, the commercial for Coke not only highlights the physical actions associated with a dinning room table but also the emotions connected to it. Coke tries to have viewers transfer their  personal emotions to their products. Additionally, further utilizing the idea of an essential circle, the camera pans in a circular motion emphasizing the idea of intimacy that a closed circle creates when sharing a meal.

Often the image or portrayal of a busy mom taking care of her family and then picking up fast food to serve to her family at the dinner table is used by advertisers. This is similar to the idea that Rapaille writes about in that home is often viewed as a retreat from the world. Each day a person wakes up, does battle at work or school, and then comes home to recharge and prepare to take on the world again the next day. A parent often has the obstacle each day of taking care of their family and their career.

The comedic movie, Talladega Nights, with Will Ferrell, plays on the idea of a busy family coming together for dinner with the help of some pretty blatant product placement. It's a situation that many Americans can probably relate to in some way.

The essential circle of meal sharing doesn't necessarily require a physical table or a family having a meal together but may also reflect a social gathering of friends that wouldn't occur without the help of food. In the KFC commercial below, the idea of sharing is displayed not only in the seating arrangement of friends in circles but also in that the physical bucket of chicken is round and encourages the idea of family style dinning where food is passed around a room.

For Americans, the idea of home relies heavily on the idea of sharing and congregating together and that most often involves food. For fast food chains, the goal of using the essential circle to sell their food is to eliminate the idea of a home cooked meal and all the hassle associated with the preparation and clean up. They want a consumer to be able to have the fun part of eating with friends and family without all the work required of a traditional homemade meal.