Sexist Snack Food Marketing [Edit]

Zotes is marketing their sunflower seeds to men, and they’ve taken quite a sexist approach. Let’s start with the Zotes catch phrase, you will see.

“Our hats are off to you and your big’uns, brah”.

I guess if I were writing about flavoured peanuts, I wouldn’t be interested, but I have never seen flavoured sunflower seeds. What is really interesting, perhaps even more so than the random flavouring, is that these seeds are clearly aimed at the male market, no mistaking. Are they planning to replace peanuts as the more ‘macho’ choice? Zotes sunflower seeds are ones you would most certainly not feed to the hamster: these are sunflower seeds for the connoisseur.

Their online website also has a ‘Zotes Man’ section where the token soldiers (token from a PR point of view) are posing in Iraq in the standard ‘gun in hand’ shot. Zotes state they do want their product to stand out from the ‘other guys’ and they certainly do that. While I am totally sure they only have good intentions, I find the wording in this section to be more than a bit crass.

“Zotes 04532, Hero in Iraq, Thanks for everything you do brother. ZOTES needs more man like you”

It kind of annoys me. We are only taking about flavoured sunflower seeds here. Reality check anyone? Let’s hope they are sending out an endless free supply.

Zotes redeem themselves marginally, in my eye, with the ridiculously and totally sexist labels (bar energy, which is just an ugly man). The link between a woman in her underwear and some flavoured nuts is not precisely clear, same thing for the naked woman appearing out of a beer glass, and again, the same thing for the woman who looks like she is about to ‘swallow’ a gherkin.

They come in a myriad of flavors namely; Salt & Pepper, Roasted & Salted, Dill Pickle, Beer Baked, Hot Wings, Spicy Nacho, Tequila Lime, Jalapeno, Garlic Roast, and Energy. You can also get four packs grouped under the names of The Tough Guy, The Happy Couple, The Family Picnic and The Hot Box.

They also come in a bottle instead of bag, so if you can’t face eating them, you can always use them to as decoration. They could function like always having fresh fruit in the house when parents visit in fear of an impromptu fridge “are you eating properly?” inspection.