Forget The Selfie, The Latest Photo Trend Is All About What’s On Your Plate

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Why pictures of food are taking over our lives – and how it could boost your business profile

Food and Drink PR's New SelfieAUGUST in Edinburgh might be all about the Fringe, but my favourite part of the month is the Foodies Festival – a day of delicious street style food, an array of drinks, live music and plenty of selfies.

However, between the many courses I couldn’t help but notice the out of control love that has grown for taking pictures of the cuisine rather than ourselves and posting them on every social media channel available to us – the famous selfie trend has been outshined and has officially been swapped for food.

Being a social media fan myself I am fully aware this isn’t brand new information but it seems the obsession has grown massively.  I couldn’t take a single bite of my food before my sister had gone round the whole table snapping what we were having, adding detailed descriptions and posting it for her followers to enjoy with us.


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Do people really care? Strangely, the answer is yes. Dinner time has become a competition to see who can create the most photogenic meal and gain the most likes; it’s not even about the taste anymore it’s about the presentation.

Of course, this doesn’t really surprise me or other members of the team at Holyrood PR. Every day we help businesses improve the way they present to the world, by digging out and telling their stories – on paper, online and on air, in words, pictures and video.

To us, the rest of the world suddenly “getting” Instagram, Snapchat and the like is them finally catching up with what we’ve practiced AND preached for years.


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I can take a selfie and achieve a measly two likes (most likely from my mum and dad) but a picture of my dinner can come close to Kim Kardashian breaking the internet. We have become a generation fascinated with foodography.

Despite the seemingly essential need to fill our Instagram’s with pictures of pretty looking foods, a lot of unimaginative critics complain that their newsfeeds are annoyingly being taken up with ridiculous posts including dressed up avocados and filtered smoothie bowls – welcome to the 21st century everyone.

Vegan Chocolate & Banana and Chocolate & Stout Cakes from All About Patisserie at our Edinburgh festival this weekend.

A photo posted by Foodies Festival (@foodiesfestival) on Aug 5, 2016 at 5:40am PDT

But even those most against it are starting to realise that it’s not all bad, these “annoying” posts have encouraged us to eat healthier, inspired us to be more adventurous with our meal choices and helped us to understand more about what we are putting into our bodies.

Nowadays you don’t need to rush to the book shop to buy the newest Jamie Oliver cook book ahead of your dinner party or frantically research healthy meal choices before your diet ‘starts on Monday’; you can simply follow various foodie experts on Instagram and from one picture discover every ingredient you need to rustle up an exquisite dish that will suit all of your needs.

And it doesn’t stop there, these popular foodie accounts range from sweet treats and whole hearty meals to healthy and nutritious recipes. The power of social media could be helping us acquire the necessary knowledge and motivation to eat healthily and tackle obesity or simply cure our dreaded hangovers on a Sunday afternoon as we spend the day craving chocolate infused delights.

The power of social media has become addictive, we find ourselves making day to day decisions based on current online trends. It started with simple pictures showing off what you had for dinner that night and has escalated into a competitive world of people actually being paid to flaunt their recommended meal choices on Instagram and gain the most likes and followers. What started out as a joke, #foodporn has now become a serious business.


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With the world now well and truly gulled by this social media show-boating the pressure to meet the foodstagram standards has increased. The more likes you get the more worthy the post is and the more you are excited to rustle up your next meal and show it off.

Of course not all of us are addicted, although I’d be lying if I said I haven’t posted the occasional food picture and been ecstatic when the likes came flooding in. Social media channels are platforms which help us keep up with current trends and build on them. They create big opportunities for businesses to get their name out there.

For example Protein World has become a huge hit thanks to the ability to pay celebrities to endorse products on their social media channels. The popular brand has also been seen to jump on the #foodporn bandwagon by posting and suggesting meal choices to go with their shakes – the opportunities are endless.

We will complain when information is hard to find and we will complain when it’s right in front of our faces. Despite this current ‘Instafood’ trend being branded annoying it’s proving to be a huge success in helping people follow their diets, expand on their cooking skills and ultimately build various brands.

fried soft shell crab @ the foodies festival. this event was too good ?☺️? #foodiesfestival

A photo posted by hafsa ? (@hafsa_at) on Jul 17, 2016 at 9:37am PDT

Find out how could your business could benefit from our food and drink PR services and understand the power or PR photography in staying ahead of social media trends

Instagrammed food pictures are just one of the ways that businesses are having to face up to new communications challenges. Our Scottish PR agency helps clients overcome those hurdles and master the new platforms available.

We’d love to discuss ways that our varied communications and PR services – including cost effective photography and video – could help boost the bottom line for your business. We’re a chatty bunch and would love the chance to speak with you.

We can be contacted on 0131 561 2244, or take just a few seconds to fill out the simple form, below and we’ll get straight back to you:

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