Culinary Culture, Gastrobrands and Identity Myths: ‘Nigella’, An Iconic Brand in the Baking

In his perceptive and persuasive rendering of the nature of consumer society and its obsession with fame and celebrity, McCracken (2005) states that “the celebrity world is one of the most potent sources of cultural meaning at the disposal of the marketing system and the individual consumer”(ibid, 113). Indeed, as Pringle (2004) so bluntly puts it, ‘celebrity sells’. While both authors transport us back to the 1960s and McLuhan’s powerful analysis of the “transforming power of media” (1964, 20), Pringle offers a managerial take on the growing complexity of the media environment, where media fragmentation, global reach and the explosion of celebrity culture go hand in hand. Olsen (1999) trenchantly observes that by virtue of the global distribution of its manufactured media product, the US Film and TV media industry is effectively assembling a “Hollywood Planet”. Pringle takes the view that “the celebrity phenomenon has largely been created by [US] movies and television [although] there is no doubt that other media have play[ed] a significant part” (ibid, 10). To consumer researchers it will come as no surprise that, while generating enormous growth in the demand for media content, rapidly circulating flows of mass media product have bombarded us with stories and images of many manufactured celebrity figures. But, by adding to the growing media clutter, this has made it increasingly difficult for brands to gain and hold consumer attention. In what he terms the ‘era of consent’, where brands increasingly need consumers’ permission to communicate with them, Pringle (2004) concludes that commodity celebrities “who themselves have a high standing in the public eye, [provide] one of the more powerful tools for brand [building]” (ibid, 50). Hence, equally unsurprisingly, building brand visibility through harnessing the ‘cut through’ of celebrity iconography continues to make sound commercial sense.