Kraft Cheddar Cheese: Food for Thought (c1941)

Title:
Kraft Cheddar Cheese: Food for Thought (c1941)
NFSA ID
242057
Year
1941
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This black-and-white and colour Kraft Cheddar Cheese advertisement looks at food preparation, food value and how Kraft cheese can make the difference to nutrition. Kraft cleverly positions its processed cheese as a product which can contribute to a household’s ability to increase its food value.

The advertisement begins with a black-and-white sequence of the Australian landscape inside a map of the country. The male voice-over announces that while in the past we were a ‘land of plenty’, a Federal Parliamentary Committee has warned that the country now faces a food shortage. The purpose of the advertisement, according to the noble narrator, is to advise viewers how to get the best foods and the best food value.

In a colour sequence, ‘correct’ and ‘completely wrong’ methods of cooking are demonstrated by a woman in a staged kitchen. The narrator continues in his authoritative tone to provide tips on improving the nutritional value of foods when cooking. Combining leftovers with ‘nourishing cheese’ is just one way of doing this. Kraft Cheddar cheese is used as an ingredient in a range of meals shown to the camera. Rich in calcium, Kraft Cheddar cheese is shown to contain the equivalent of four pints (roughly 2.2 litres) of milk in every eight ounce (roughly 225 gram) block of cheese.

Summary by Poppy De Souza