Cultural Artifact Research Paper

Cereal as an Artifact: Psychology and American Culture

Everyday, we experience at least a subtle portion of American culture, whether it be depicted from the food we eat, or from the traditions we celebrate, American culture is unique. Included with it’s uniqueness, psychology plays a large roll into everyday factors.

While America is vastly diverse, it’s uniqueness magnetizes me. Intriguingly, consumerism in American culture has changed throughout the years; what were once luxuries transformed into needs. For example, in 2013, 74.4 percent of households in America reported in-home computer use. Back in 2002, this number was only about 50 percent. (Bureau.) Take food, grocery shoppers spend 3 to 4 times the amount of time on shopping.

(Stiza). Despite how simplistic everyday foods are depicted to be, there is a bigger picture most of us do not see. Something as simple as a cereal box is a scientific artifact, and it displays our sophisticated knowledge of influence, a historical display of advancement in advancement of food packaging, it displays how science and technology plays an important role regarding food and consumers, and last but not least, is responsible for the creation of new jobs.

So what? If this is planted in your mind, we all care. The unemployment rate in America is obviously under construction, so this cereal box, whether you know it or not is helping that cause. Cereal is one of the most popular and well-known breakfast items around the world, and is America’s favorite breakfast food. Cereal, specifically cocoa puffs, is a contribution to it’s cultural artifact status, and continues to portray the potential it has fulfilled. Did you know that back in 1863, the first breakfast cereal

was originally named “Granula”? Let’s thank James Caleb Jackson for that! But what truly gets me intrigued by American consumers is what is the science/technology behind some of the foods we eat today, and what is it about certain food packaging that psychologically influences an everyday customer to choose brand A over brand B?  
When you hear the word influence, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

This topic is generally taboo, but we’ll bend that rule. I’m not saying it isn’t a potential discussion topic for you and a friend, but we’re all safe here. The art of persuasion is a much more complex process than we probably all imagine. You see, the art of persuasion is depicted into every grocery store, liquor store, and any shop for that matter. Take a cereal box, for my demonstration, I choose the one and only Cocoa Puffs. The first thing I noticed about the food packaging is that the whole design on the front cover appeared 3 dimensional. Many consumers are unaware, but food packaging and design plays a notable role in sales. Without a surprise, most cereal boxes contain child-friendly cartoon characters. Why might you ask? We can all agree that children are attracted to fun, and when a child sees “fun”, they more than likely nag on their parents; you know the rest. When I glanced over to the top-right of the box, I saw three sentences that stood out. “NO High fructose corn syrup, NO Colors form artificial sources, NO artificial flavors.” While most people don’t read all the lettering and words of the box before purchasing it, the word “NO” sticks out to our brain, and gives us a healthier image of the product. Genius. Of course the color combination of the letters is alerting and stand out. The middle of the box contains bubbly, 3-D letters with a swirl maze in between. The color

combination of the whole box stands out, with a combination of brown, yellow, blue, orange, and a few other secondary colors. This little cereal box is responsible for the creation of new psychologist jobs; whose primary job description is to scrutinize and fabricate new cereal box designs, leading to the development of the psychology culture. The price of this cereal is exactly $3.28, and that’s a