Tv Dinner Essay

344 Words2 Pages
TV Dinners – An American Icon A frozen dinner might not be everyone's idea of a decent meal, but the concept's popularity tells us a lot about American culture. With Americans spending more time in the work place, frozen dinners are an inexpensive and convenient way to prepare food. TV dinners paved its way into becoming an American icon and cemented itself into American culture. The history of modern frozen food begins in the 1920s, when a man named Clarence Birdseye developed the process of "quick freezing.” Quick freezing is a technique where food is frozen rapidly so it is able to preserve the natural juices and flavors it holds. Birdseye was able to better preserve foods and maximize flavor, but the idea didn't become a success until Swanson Foods came up with the concept of the "TV dinner" in 1953. Two important factors made the TV dinner instantly popular. First, television was at the height of its golden age. In the 1950s, Swanson timed the development of the TV dinner perfectly. Families were gathering in front of their sets to watch shows such as "I Love Lucy" on a regular basis. Swanson at the time created a large-scale marketing campaign to associate their product as much as possible with the television. Commercials showed families enjoying TV dinners in front of a television, and advertisers even designed the packaging to look like a television. The second factor was the unique set up of the plate. The turkey never touched the peas, the peas never touched the potatoes, and so on. Believe it or not, this attracted consumers. People do not like their foods to be mixed. As a result, the TV dinner quickly became a phenomenon. In an effort to expand the choices available to customers, Swanson introduced frozen breakfast and lunch meals. By the 1960s they had dropped the name "TV dinner" from the packaging. The name no longer
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