SE2 Shiffrin

Advertisements are all around us in our daily lives. All of which are desperately clawing at costumers to consume their product over their competitors.  One of the most competitive markets has been, and always will be, food. Restaurants and companies viciously advertise themselves and ruthlessly target the specific audiences whom are most likely to purchase their goods. They take full advantage in leveraging stereotypes, categorizing social status and financial welfare. The contrast and spectrum between food advertisements can be seen no better than in Vail, Colorado. Having grown up in Vail I have witnessed this distinction between class and stature that largely revolves around food. For instance the restaurants someone eats at, where they buy lunch or if they buy lunch, so on and so forth. The reason there is such differentiation is due to the fact that Vail is a high-end resort that provides residences for two social classes. The first is the upper echelon consisting of the worlds wealthiest people who or more often than not, are Caucasian. The second is the working class, which could most readily be described as Hispanics many of whom are illegal immigrants. Do not mistake my intentions, I do not mean to judge or for this to be a racist comment. It is simply an observation that the divide between wealth, social structure, and ethnicity happens to fall this way. There are most certainly outliers and a blend of ethnic culture in each social class, however this is often an accurate generalization.

 I place such emphasis on this point of division between the social classes and the pattern that its holds with ethnic descent because there is a strong correlation between the price of food advertised in the Vail Valley, and the type of food being advertised. If you were to walk through the Vail Village you would find some of the most expensive dishes found anywhere in the world. Most of the restaurants simply advertise by placing their menu outside of their front door as many high-end restaurants do. Prices of these menus can fetch a price of thirty dollars for a simple hamburger. There is one restaurant in particular that is infamous for is prices and famous for its food. It goes by the name of The Game Creek Grille. The delicacies offered are far beyond delicious and the price of a meal there would break the bank for anyone who is not considered amongst the super rich. Having eaten there I know personally that the tab reaches prices of over $3,000 and average at around $2,000. When reading the menu you will notice two things. First of is that there are few items on the menu, all of which have extravagantly exotic names, and the second is that there are no prices on the menu just to point out that money is no object to the people dinning in the restaurant. This intuitions policy is that they do not offer a meal, they offer an experience and it is true. The restaurant is located at the top of the mountain on a run called Game Greek Bowl. The earliest time you are allowed to eat at The Game Creek Grille is at 8:00pm, well after the mountain has closed. Thus the only way to reach the Game Creek Grille is by way of snow cat or snowmobile depending upon how adventurous you are feeling. There are advertisements scattered throughout the village for The Game Creek Grille and they clearly outline and represent the full experience you will receive. They are elegant, large, have no prices or deals, and show only one sentence of text “You won’t consume dinner with us, You will EXPERIENCE dinner with us” with emphasis on the “experience.”

            The other end of the advertising spectrum consists of two definitive objectives trying to be achieved. The first is that their prices are cheap, and more often than not, that they are serving Mexican food. Do not be fooled by the advertisements for any food that is cheap in Vail. There is no such thing. There is only food that is less expensive. A burrito in Vail may cost you nearly fifteen dollars, which in contrast to the other options provided is not so bad. This is why you will most often see the working class carrying their homemade lunches. These “lower end” advertisements for sandwich shops and burrito stands have an interesting twist to them. They are clearly marked and targeting those who are less fortunate by claiming that they have the “lowest price in town” and yet these same places appeal to the wealthy as well simply because of the actual high price even though it is advertised as “cheap.”