While at the grocery store this morning, I bought a 'Mangajo Pomegranate & Green Tea' (picture right). While looking over the packaging, I noticed the following description on the side of the bottle: "Combining age-old wisdom of the Middle East and Asia, two of the world's best-known sources of antioxidants come together here for a double dose of detoxing refreshment that tastes great". I presume the idea of "the Middle East and Asia" refers to the green tea ingredient, which originates in China, and pomegranates, which are meant to have been first cultivated in Persia. However, pomegranates today are grown throughout Asia as well as in Africa and Europe and green tea is now consumed around the world. Yet the product seems to portray these ingredients as being from an ancient Asian/Middle-Eastern world, calling up images of sultans and paper lanterns. In this way, I think the product description fits in well with the portrays of the 'East' as ancient and trapped in time that we discussed last class, although it is interesting how such images of the 'exotic East' have been used in marketing products to 'Western' consumers.
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