Celebrity food critic Keith Lee canceled his culinary tour of San Francisco partway through because of its unsafe conditions and bad food, some of which he said caused him to have an allergic reaction.
Lee, who has nearly 16 million followers on TikTok and more than half a billion likes on the content he posts there, announced to his fans this week that he was cutting his trip to the Bay Area short due to some less than desirable conditions he found when he got there.
In a video posted Thursday, he stated, “Unfortunately, the Bay Area stop on the Keith Lee and Family Food Tour is officially over, prematurely.”
The popular content creator, who shares video of him reviewing food from different establishments across the country, had been preparing to take a culinary tour of the city for some time despite warnings from social media users that he should avoid it for his own safety.
Lee noted he wasn’t fazed by these warnings. In a TikTok he shared before the trip, he said, “I go where I feel like I’m supposed to go, I go by faith and not by sight, and I heard a lot of people calling the Bay Gotham City, and the way my mind works, that’s even more reason for me to go.”
But during his tour, Lee encountered what his fans were warning about. In his TikTok summarizing the trip, he gave several reasons for why he was ending it. He first said, “I truly don’t believe the Bay is a place for tourists right now, and that’s what I was – a tourist.”
He continued, noting how the residents and business owners are “just surviving.” He also cited the unsafe conditions that have become synonymous with the city in recent years: “The amount of tents and living structures and burnt up cars that we saw people living in was shocking to say the least.”
“Before we went, people were comparing it to Gotham City. I might not agree, but I understand where it’s coming from,” Lee said, adding that he still felt the people there were “amazing.”
Before moving onto his next reason for ending the tour, he mentioned he feels that the city government “should step in” to help those trying to survive there.
He then mentioned that this was the first food-centric city trip he ever took where he had “over six videos” which he “didn’t feel comfortable posting” because he had nothing good to say about the food.
His third and “probably most important” reason for ending the tour was that he had to go to the hospital after having an allergic reaction to one of his meals, due to an apparent exposure to shellfish.
Lee did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
A New York middle school is apologizing after serving students with a meal on the first day of Black History Month that was deemed to be culturally insensitive.
Administrators at Nyack Middle School say that the hot lunch menu was changed by the vendor without their knowledge on February 1st, the first day of Black History Month, to include chicken and waffles with a watermelon dessert which the school’s principal called an “unfortunate situation”, The Journal News reported.
“We are extremely disappointed by this regrettable situation and apologize to the entire Nyack community for the cultural insensitivity displayed by our food service provider,” Nyack Middle School Principal David Johnson said in a statement.
“I am disappointed that Aramark would serve items that differed from the published monthly menu. Especially items that reinforce negative stereotypes concerning the African-American Community.”
Multiple families expressed outrage over the menu selection including parent Lindsay Siegel who told the outlet that it was “really disappointing” the change wasn’t caught.
Aramark, the school district’s food vendor, issued a statement on the matter on Thursday.
“While our menu was not intended as a cultural meal, we acknowledge that the timing was inappropriate, and our team should have been more thoughtful in its service,” the Aramark statement said. “This was a mistake and does not represent the values of our company, and we are committed to doing better in the future.”
Aramark also said that it will be partnering with the school to provide sensitivity training for employees who work at the school to make sure their actions align with the district’s “vision and commitment to equity-driven work.”
“We believe this will provide a good learning opportunity to deepen understanding on the impact of systemic biases and negative stereotypes concerning the African-American Community,” the statement said.
Aramark has found itself in similar situations in years past including an incident in 2011 where UC California-Irvine, an Aramark client, was criticized for serving a “MLH Holiday Special” that featured chicken and waffles.
Fox News Digital reached out to Nyack Middle School and Aramark but did not immediately receive a response.
With over 660,000 restaurants operating in the U.S. alone, digital food advertisement is an incredibly competitive market.
To stand out, you need to combine humor, design, strategy, and user engagement, all while keeping your audience hungry.
What Makes Food Advertisements Unique?
Without creative marketing campaigns, the food industry could be pretty dull. Luckily, there are so many ways to bring food to life in digital food advertisements.
What makes food advertisements unique is their ability to turn the mundane into excitement.
A simple burger on a plate can become a narrative story about your favorite sports game.
In order to create unbeatable food advertisements, you need to focus on high-quality ingredients.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating a unique food advertisement:
Here are some of our top picks for digital food advertisements.
1. Jif Peanut Butter
Leveraging motion graphics in your digital food advertisement is a great way to catch the eye of your scrolling audience.
In this Jif Peanut Butter ad, a beating heart communicates the excitement and love that the world has come to feel for Jif. Branded in the signature Jif colors, it also delivers clear brand awareness and integrity. This is a big brand marketing lesson in a jar!
No Frills is a Canadian supermarket chain that has made its name in recent years with humorous social media advertising.
No Frills is most known for its meme-worthy content, taking inspiration from the internet’s latest trends and delivering them in dead-pan content across their social channels.
In this No Frills Facebook ad, No Frills takes advantage of the popular “expectation versus reality” meme while also advertising their in-house pancake batter brand.
The result? A resounding audience laugh, hundreds of likes and comments, and a food advertisement win for this growing brand.
4. Clevr
Sometimes, all you need to create a high-quality food advertisement is a bit of color and simple movement.
In this Clevr food advertisement, the brand displays its Matcha Chai Latte and Chai Super Latte drinks.
Simple design, calming music, and pastel colors give the viewer a relaxing feel that evokes tranquility and calm.
Not only is the ad visually appealing, but it also offers diverse advertising usage. Clevr could easily use this food advertisement on a number of channels, from Twitter to Instagram and more.
5. Panera Bread
This Panera Bread Facebook ad leverages the thing we love most about food advertisements: the food!
With an immediate appeal to our most natural human emotion (hunger), this food advertisement sets the stage for our cravings. From there, high-quality, macaroni-and-cheese imagery delights the senses.
It’s so delectable, you can almost taste it.
Another great thing about this food advertisement is that it uses a call-to-action at the end of the ad. In this way, Panera guides its audience directly to its desired end goal of purchasing some of their delicious macaroni.
6. Five Guys
Five Guys is one of those brands that always keeps it real. They do a few things really well, namely burgers, fries, and milkshakes.
With this kind of established brand identity, Five Guys can lean on the quality of their products more often.
In this ad, they are showcasing one of their best-loved products: the burger bun. The ad shows an image of the bun warming up, just waiting to be ordered.
They also use a creative call-to-action at the bottom, urging viewers to find their nearest Five Guys shop. This is a great tactic for brands who have a widespread presence and are looking to make sales in multiple locations.
Using a bit of humor, an appeal to emotion, and a simple yet effective image, this Instagram ad reminds customers that Five Guys knows what they’re good at, and they deliver it every time.
7. Burger King
Legacy fast-food chains have had to get creative in recent years in order to capture the hearts of millennial viewers.
Burger King knows millennials love nostalgia, and what better way to appeal to that emotion than by bringing back their legendary chicken fries.
In this Burger King Twitter ad, the brand relates its chicken fries to some of the most essential human traits. This appeal, although absurd, delivers the right dose of comedy to the ad.
In addition, the use of a custom graphic design is eye-catching and fun. The design ensures that any millennial scrolling down will stop and stare, remembering chicken fries from days past.
This campaign garnered features in HuffPost and Time magazine, alongside bringing 380 tweets per minute into the Burger King ecosystem. This is millennial marketing done right.
8. IHOP
There’s no doubt about it, IHOP is an American classic. When it was time for the brand to celebrate 60 years of successful business, they wanted to do it in style.
This IHOP Twitter ad uses music, design, and graphics to thank their loyal customers for 60 years of continued service.
The creative copy of the post offers comedic relief, stating that the brand has been operating “for 60 pancakin’ years.”
Also, they further entice viewers by hinting at a surprise announcement only available on a certain date. This use of a deadline to encourage conversions is a great way to maintain audience engagement over time.
For 60 pancakin’ years, we’ve been IHOP. Now, we’re flippin’ our name to IHOb. Find out what it could b on 6.11.18. #IHObpic.twitter.com/evSxKV3QmT
This food advertisement immediately piqued the attention of IHOP’s viewers, bringing in more than 43,000 retweets.
What was the big reveal? We’ll let you visit the IHOP Twitter page to find out.
9. Taco Bell
Emojis are part of the modern lexicon. Every day, the online world is full of these fun, little pictures that help us communicate over text.
Although emoji are always evolving, users often complain their favorite images aren’t available in emoji.
Taco Bell decided to flip this idea on its head and in 2015, they began petitioning for a taco emoji to be included in the emoji dictionary.
Not only did Taco Bell create a legendary advertising campaign, but they started a petition to lobby emoji creators, Unicode Consortium, for their cause.
The result? We now have a taco emoji.
This food advertisement campaign was one part passion and two parts humor, resulting in one of the most memorable creative marketing campaigns of the decade.
In this HelloFresh story ad, a human voice is heard listing off the benefits of the meal-delivery service in an honest and human way.
The quality of the video is less than what we would expect from a well-known company like HelloFresh, but it adds to the honest nature of the post.
By using social proof, HelloFresh manages to show its audience that its product is legitimate and trustworthy.
11. Publix
One of the easiest ways to appeal to audience emotion is to connect your product to a well-loved pastime.
Publix knows America loves football. They also know no football game is complete without friends, drinks, and food.
This Publix Facebook Ad ran in the Southern U.S. during football season. It targeted southern users who were known to enjoy football and were ages 21+.
If you were planning your weekend with a tailgate party and you saw this ad, it would immediately remind you to stock up on your favorite beer and snacks at your local Publix. This is emotional targeting at its finest.
12. Wendy’s
Another great paid advertising tactic is to offer a deal or use a coupon strategy.
In this Wendy’s Instagram ad, the brand uses a creative flatlay to promote their 4 for $4 summer deal.
This ad is effective because it creates a story for the viewer. Once you see this image, you can immediately picture yourself sitting poolside with a cheap meal, enjoying your best summertime life.
Wendy’s manages to promote their sale, appeal to emotion, and create a narrative, all with a few pieces of cardstock paper and a chicken burger. That’s impressive!
13. Dunkin’
When creating digital food advertisements, it’s important to leverage every tool available to you.
When you advertise using paid social, there are so many ways to get creative, encourage audience interaction, and show off your products at the same time.
Take this Dunkin’ food advertisement as an example. Dunkin’ is promoting their iconic donut fries.
To build hype around the release, they created an interactive Instagram story using the poll feature. This allowed their audience to vote on what they liked better: donuts or fries.
Not only was this a creative way to boost user engagement, but the brand gathered important data to inform their future campaigns.
14. Dr. Pepper
Beverages and food go hand in hand. There’s nothing like a cold Dr. Pepper alongside your favorite meal.
Dr. Pepper wanted to capitalize on the way their customers pair their drinks with other foods.
In this Diet Dr. Pepper advertisement, the brand uses fun motion graphics and design to show all of the different snack foods and meals that go well with the popular drink.
The use of music in the ad also adds a fun, youthful element to the viewing experience.
The end result? Viewers are both thirsty, hungry, and looking forward to cracking open their next Dr. Pepper.
15. Mochi Foods
Mochi Foods is a gluten-free, Hawaiian food maker that creates pancake mixes, breads, waffles, and more which use rice flour instead of wheat.
In this fun Mochi Foods social media ad, they show viewers what they can create with one pack of Mochi Food mix.
This ad is a great example of showcasing a product in action. Although a bag of Mochi Food mix might seem a bit boring, the product takes on new life once we see how it can be transformed into a delicious stack of fresh pancakes.
This ad can be used on a variety of platforms, which makes it diverse and multifaceted.
After watching it, you’re immediately hungry, which is the sign of an effective food advertisement.
Conclusion
To create successful digital food advertisements you need to come up with unique campaign ideas and maintain a cohesive brand image.
It’s also important to harness your social media marketing tactics across all channels, appeal to your audience’s emotions, leverage storytelling, and showcase your products in action are great ways to create food advertisements that stand out.
Because the food advertising marketing is so saturated, it may be hard to develop a paid ad strategy that actually gets you noticed. If you’re struggling to create or find success with your paid ads, our agency is here to help!
What tactics do you use when creating great food advertisements?
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