Doc Sherwood Chips In...

Here's an exercise I used to do with students on my Advanced Writing course. First, I'd give them the following copy, taken from the back of a packet of barbeque flavour Joe Chips by the Joe Tea Company, and attributed to their promotional character “Off Road Joe”:

Not that I have any business cards...but if I did, I would probably have the title CWO – Chief Wandering Officer. That’s because a good deal of my time is spent wandering around the countryside. One day, in the middle of nowhere, I came upon a restaurant with a sign that just said BBQ. Well, the ribs they served had the most bodacious BBQ sauce ever! I ended up winning the recipe in a poker game and it became the inspiration for Off-Road Joe’s BBQ chips.

The purpose of this task was to help the students see that the makers of Off-Road Joe’s BBQ chips have deployed a veritable range of myth, literature and popular conceptions, all of which the consumer is expected to know about already, in order to promote their food product. This seemed to me an apt illustration of the power of writing, when it’s done well, and that although this particular paragraph was crafted for commercial reasons, the same techniques can serve those who wish to convey more significant truths and impress them on their readers.

(What's more, I just love the name. I'm called Joe! And the chips were delicious, but I digress.)

How much is there, then, in my Off-Road namesake's little bit of advertising tract? How exactly does he make us want to buy his chips? Once my students had had a go at unpicking the copy for themselves, I'd tell them what I came up with...

Off-Road Joe is someone who greatly prefers the country to the city. He says: “a good deal of my time is spent wandering around the countryside,” and he likes to eat at restaurants he discovers “in the middle of nowhere.” Additionally, he makes jokes about the kind of fast-paced corporations you would find in a city, and seems proud that his company has no business cards or CEO. Even the name and logo (an off-road truck, designed for driving on rough terrain) are part of this rejection of urban values for rural ones.

Joe is also a typical man’s man – and by association, the food that he sells is presumably intended for men too. Perhaps the story is meant to provide a personal touch, presenting a male figure that male consumers can relate to? Or maybe Joe is a kind of fantasy, an ideal that doesn’t really exist but which men would like to be? At any rate, the image of a lone man driving his truck through open wilderness speaks of a particular kind of rugged masculinity, and Joe also enjoys stereotypically male pursuits such as eating barbeque ribs and playing poker.

Poker is traditionally a man’s game. It requires courage, strategy and risk-taking, all of which are considered male qualities. In addition it is a form of gambling, which is also regarded as male. There exists a kind of folklore about men who win not only money when playing poker, but also possessions or secrets that their opponents bet and lost – such as Off-Road Joe’s recipe for barbeque sauce. Winning at poker, therefore, is seen as a possible route to success preferred by those who reject the more conventional choices of study and hard work.

America has long celebrated figures like Off-Road Joe. On the one hand he is part of the cowboy culture, as it was portrayed in popular novels, film and song. This heritage finds its way into great world literature too. The American author Ernest Hemingway is remembered as a manly figure who was only at home outdoors and loved countryside sports such as hunting and fishing. Hemingway himself did much to deliberately establish his own reputation as this sort of man. Today, we regard the “Hemingway type” as strong, dependable and unchanging. He will probably also be unsophisticated, and maybe even a little stubborn or crude, but this is imagined to be part of his attractiveness. Jack London was another American writer whose books created and consolidated the image of a wandering hero having adventures out in the wild. London was also famously scornful of city-dwellers, and felt they were not as tough or virile as people of the great outdoors.

There is probably no such person as Off-Road Joe, but even if he really is based on the president of this food company, the character that we are led to imagine through this short printed story is far more important than who he actually might be. The packaging for Off-Road Joe’s barbeque chips does not display any pictures of the food that is inside. Nor is there any portrait of Off-Road Joe himself. It’s clear this company believes that the best way to sell their product is not through pictures, but through the power of writing. That’s a power I’ve seen demonstrated many times by the talented writers here on Vocal, so here’s hoping you’ll all continue to use it well!

Promotional text © Joe Tea Company, www.joechips.com. Seriously, try these, they’re great!