Affective Economics in Bon Appetit’s Gourmet Makes

Bon Appetit was created in 1956 as a bimonthly food and entertainment magazine, but currently, it is best known for its YouTube channel, which currently boasts over five million subscribers and over one trillion total views. Bon Appetit’s most popular series is Gourmet Makes hosted by chef Claire Saffitz, in which she attempts to make gourmet versions of popular snacks and convenience foods. Each 20-45 minute episode follows Claire as she attempts to create a gourmet version of popular snack and convenience foods, including Cheetos, Starbursts, and instant ramen packets. As of this writing, the series comprises 37 videos, with an average of 6.3 million likes per video.

As audiences are less and less convinced by television and other traditional advertisements, brands must transform marketing strategies by adopting affective economics. Affective economics “blur the line between entertainment content and brand messaging” and allow audiences to “become protectors of brand identity and thus critics of the companies that seek to court their allegiance” (Jenkins, 20). The goal of affective economics is to create a more emotionally powerful connection between the consumers and the product or company being advertised, which in turn alleviates the need for developing new commercials and ads.

Affective economics are clearly at work in Bon Appetit’s YouTube series Gourmet Makes. The episodes are divided into three parts: what is (the product), how do you make (the product), and how to make {gourmet} (the product). During the ‘What is (the product) segment, several chefs from other Bon appetit series eat the snack and offer their advice on what can be improved upon in the original and how the original product falls short of “gourmet”. Despite some criticisms, the beginning of each episode features a large pile of the snack, often in several varieties, and shows Claire or another chef eating the food and commenting on nostalgic memories, how much they enjoy the original product, and other positive attributes.

Gourmet Makes is almost entirely entertainment. Although Claire is ‘teaching’ the audience how to make gourmet versions of popular foods, the recipes are often much too complicated for home cooks to replicate. In Gourmet Makes: Twizzlers, Claire uses a glue gun and tape to install a bamboo stick into a pasta maker in an attempt to create a homemade Twizzler that retains the hollow center in the original. Not even Claire is very successful in this attempt.

The show is entertaining because of Claire’s struggle to make gourmet versions of highly processed foods, often leading to failed attempts and kooky interventions from other chefs.

The entertainment value of Gourmet Makes is the perfect cover for advertising already well-known snacks and convenience foods. While Claire isn’t telling her audience to buy, eat, or even remake the foods, the entire episode is focused on the phenomenon that is the showcased product. For example, in the Pringles episode, Claire comments on the differences between Pringles and other potato chips, noting namely the shape, texture, and diversity of flavors. From an advertising perspective, Claire is telling her audience how this product separates itself from the market of potato chips and offers consumers a different experience. Similar conclusions can be made about the episodes on Pop Rocks, Warheads, and Oreos.

Bon Appetit’s description of their YouTube page reads, “Bon Appétit is a highly opinionated food brand that wants everyone to love cooking and eating as much as we do. We believe in seasonal produce, properly salted pasta water, and developing recipes that anyone can make at home.” Even in their description, Bon Appetit blurs the line between entertainment and informative content to promote their brand, pre-made foods, and constant content consumption.