JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

Soylent Green is the touchstone for me whenever I see the name “General Foods”.  After all, can anything be so large and multi-directional than this, a firm whose name implies that they deal with so many different sorts of foods from so many different sources that it is impossible for them to choose any direction whatsoever?  Like General Electric, except that General Foods is much more diverse.

And who would be best for General Foods to address in the pamphlet of their general stockholders annual meeting than the General Mom?  They evidently found her, and imaged her inside the kitchen of a cushioned little home outside of Everywhereville, right there on the bottom-left of the cover of the report. 

She’s right there, right above us, right now.  If you turn over the pamphlet, you get a close-up:

She’s resting her thinking brain, taking a bit of a break while she thinks of other General Foods merchandise to buy from the grocer to add to her food collection–right now she is distracted.  Her attention is not directed to her daughter holding the frozen peas, but rather at the other stuff in the freezer–if you follow her line of sight, that’s where she winds up, I think. There’s a lot of wavey, Thomas Hart Benton-y stuff going on in the artwork on the front cover; homey, small town naive graciousness, with a large farm between it and the distant city.  It is dusk, the houses are glowing, and there’s nothing but wholesome American qualities of the imagined good life for the eyes of the stockholders of General Foods, the annual report of which lies within.  As a matter of fact just about the only bit on the cover to remind us of food is the kitchen seen at bottom, the “general market” just above, and the distant diner, reminding or demanding everyone to “EAT”.