Mazola Corn Oil (Group Project)

    Hotel World Group Project

by Christina Hedding, Matt Knapp, and Jennifer Mannara

In Hotel World Else observes the egocentricity (in regards to production) not only of hotel guests, but the employees as well. This relates to the Robbins’ article in that he discusses a person’s desire to not think about the process of production or who was impacted in the making of material objects such as shirts, oils, and coffees. Mazola corn oil’s jingle/slogan states, “Mazola/Simple corn oil/Mazola/Lets the flavour through/You never taste the oil/You only taste the food/With Mazola” (Smith 82). The idea that this oil—an object or product—is a necessity in cooking or frying but one supposedly cannot detect that it was even used, reflects the operations of the Global Hotel.  Much like Mazola’s slogan promises that their corn oil cannot be tasted, therefore is undetectable, the presence of Global Hotel guests and employees cannot and do not desire to be detected as well.

   In examining the text from Smith’s novel in which Lise, bedridden with some unknown illness, contemplates the Mazola Corn Oil song readers can see parallels to Robbins’s idea of “the sweatshop sublime.” While lying in bed, Lise starts to sing the corn oil jingle in her head, “Mazola/Simply corn oil/Mazola/Lets the flavor through” (Smith 82). Here the lines of the jingle are ingrained into Lise’s mind in spite of the fact that she can hardly remember what day it is, she can still remember the words to the corn oil song. This shows how deeply advertising becomes ingrained into our minds as consumers. However, as Robbins suggests we do not think any deeper than the surface of this issue. We as consumers never look beyond the bridges of our own noses. We go to the store and by corn oil, or any other product, without thinking about its origins. Even if we read the label of the bottle and find where the corn oil was made or distributed we never think beyond that because our minds are already full of things we deem more important.

Another passage in which readers can see an example of Robbins’ theory at work is where Lise contemplates the Corn Oil commercial itself:

The voice that was singing the Mazola song inside her head, the same woman’s voice that had sung it years ago…was friendly, reassuring. Mazola lets the flavor through. The pictures of the oil bottle and then the hands of the lady, delicate and ringed, letting chips fall on to kitchen paper and then shaking them off again, had demonstrated in a moment to millions how ungreasy the chips were, how little oil they left on the paper (Smith 82).

Here Smith is trying to show the hopelessness of Lise’s state by allowing her to only remember something ingrained in her brain by some marketing company years ago. This description of the commercial states, “had demonstrated in a moment to millions” which shows that even in her invalid state Lise recognizes the power of advertising in her consumerist culture. However, it also exemplifies Robbins’ idea of the “sweatshop sublime” because Lise does not wonder; where was the oil made? Who made it? Under what conditions? How much were the workers paid? Who picked the corn and processed it to make the oil in the first place? These are all questions that make up the chain of resources that would lead to production of the oil. That production then becomes lost in the minds of the average consumer, like Lise, because they do not wish to think about it. Lise is unable to ponder these questions because she is ill, but the rest of the able-bodied world around her also chooses not to question this “chain of resources” further supporting Robbins’ argument.

This inability to perceive the lines of production and work is important to Robbins’ piece, in the spirit of that we will trace back the origins of the Mazola corn oil. When Lise hears the jingle she does not contemplate the people behind it, be it the marketing firm who concocted the jingle or the workers growing the corn out of the country. When researching Mazola Corn Oil we found they did not point to where they purchase their raw materials or any other production but they do label their parent company as ACH Food Companies, Inc. When looking at the ACH website we see that they are a company centered in the United States but their parent company, Associated British Foods, is headed in the UK (ACH). Mazola was acquired by ABF in 2002, and this leads us further down the line. ACH states that:

ACH Food Companies source from high-risk sectors in developing countries where working conditions have not yet reached the high standards found in more developed countries. We strongly believe in the beneficial economic and social effects of sourcing from such countries. However, under no circumstance, does ACH support or condone the use of forced or slave labor for any human being, especially children. Our supplier approval process contains screening protocol to help insure we use only vendors that meet our high expectations for the ethical treatment of their workforce. (ACH)

ACH freely admits that it employs labor in developing nations but are quick to assure the consumer that it does not employ suppliers who use “forced or slave labor” (ACH). While they claim to be free of sweatshop conditions that does not mean that the product is free of bad production methods. Mazola has bought corn and other vegetables from a known GMO corn supplier called Ingredion, “Corn Products, known today as Ingredion Inc. …  supplied the material for Argo cornstarch and Mazola corn oil” (Tseng). GMO grown vegetables have little oversight, no need to label their own product when used, and contain many chemicals that are harmful to the environment. Lise does not interact with this, could not from her position on the couch, unable to move or do any prolonged action, but this product is effecting her life. Just as the jingle says you never taste the oil, you never taste the production. This same lease manifests in the people inside the Global Hotel.

Day in and day out, people check in and check out of the Global Hotel. While these are clearly actual people, they are forgotten the moment they check out, perhaps even sooner sometimes. They sleep in the beds, order room service, and use the tiny little bottles of shampoo and prepackaged Q-tips, yet when they leave, it is as if they never even existed.  Maids, chefs, bell boys, and concierges do not know their names or their back stories. All they know is that however long they are guests of the hotel, it is their job to make them comfortable with as little personal interaction or interference as possible. Once the guest’s stay has come to its conclusion, the hotel employees wipe away all evidence of their existence at the moment of their check out. The beds are remade, tiny bottles replaced, and the minibars restocked for the next guest. The same process repeats itself again as the new guests check in, unable to detect any prior visitors in “their” room.

When observing the same scenario from a hotel guest’s perspective, almost the same can be said. When checking into Global Hotel, guests forget the face of the receptionist the moment they are handed their room key. No further thought is given to them because as far as the guest is concerned, their job is complete. They enter their immaculately made-up room and do not give a single thought to those who inhabited it prior to them. They do not think about the neatly folded towels, the fresh linens, the stocked minibar, or the tiny bottles of shampoo that magically reappear every time they step out for a day of shopping or an evening meal. Sure, they are well aware that someone has taken care of their rooms but that thought is as quickly forgotten as it arrived in the first place. Perhaps some guests may give thought to a few of these occurrences and some hotel staff may think about their guests after their departure, however the majority of them do not and their lives all go on, business as usual. Isn’t it easier to forget?  Isn’t it easier to not think about other’s back stories?  Isn’t that exactly Bruce Robbins’ point?       

The comparison between Mazola corn oil and the happenings of Global Hotel speak to Robbins’ idea that whether or not one gives thought to the people behind the production line or the label on a shirt, “…the result is the same as if you had not examined the label. All lines converge in the end on the same box:  you put on the shirt and forget about it” (85). We want to use the corn oil but we certainly don’t want to remember that it has been used.

                                                               Works Cited

"ACH." ACH. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.

Smith, Ali. Hotel World. New York: Anchor, 2002. Print.

Tseng, Nin-Hai. "Corn Products (Fortune 1938)." Fortune. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.