An Ideal Body with Diet Pepsi

            Many people believe that advertisements are used to increase sales by promoting a product, however, these are also resources used to communicate different messages to society. In this critique I’ll analyze a Diet Pepsi advertisement that has actress Sofia Vergara has the main figure. This product was introduced by Pepsi in 2015 and it’s a no-calorie carbonated soft drink.

            The advertisement is made of three main elements. First, Sofia Vergara who is in a profile position on the left margin and we can only see the upper part of her body from her arms to her head. Next, we have the Diet Pepsi can with the company and the product logo; there is a straw that goes from Sofia’s lips into the can connecting these first two elements. Finally there is the text that says “the new skinny can” which is rotated up at the right margin of the poster.  The advertisement, in a broad level, promotes this beverage. However, at a deeper level, this print ad is targeted to woman and promotes a skinny lifestyle. This is obtained by using a very symmetrical design structure, portraying woman as an object, the use of different elements and colors with specific implications.

            First of all, the design used in the ad, primarily the alignment, is key to understand the deeper meaning of the ad. As it’s observed, the three elements in the poster are aligned symmetrically and vertically. The Pepsi can, is placed exactly in between the woman and the text, making this the centered object and therefore showing that this is the product being promoted. However, the fact that the three elements are vertically aligned gives a sense of strictness as if everything has to be perfectly positioned and nothing can be out of line. Consequently, it gives the poster the notion that it’s very well organized. This relates to the idea of diets and going on a diet since this means changing one’s eating habits and becoming extremely strict and careful with what they consume. All the elements in the poster do not take much space since it relates to the idea of thinness. Moreover, there’s also the word “skinny” in the text and the word “diet” on the can label. This urges women, who are the targeted audience, to become through diets and drinking this beverage that is sugar free.  

            Moreover, the way that the woman is portrayed in the advertisement uses the male gaze theory developed by Laura Mulvey in her essay entitled “Visual Pleasure andNarrative Cinema”. This theory suggests that the “woman as icon, [is] displayed for the gaze and enjoyment of men”. According to Mulvey, the male gaze relegates women to the status of objects to be admired only for their physical appearance which is what happens in this print advertisement. First, we can only see the actress’ fragmented body instead of her body as a whole. This reduces her to an object and suggests that the important part of the woman is her beauty and physical aspect instead of other more internal or intellectual qualities. Moreover, Sofia Vergara’s figure is highly sexualized. The straw from which she is drinking her Diet Pepsi has a very obvious sexual connotation which, once again, degrades her to a sexual object that’s used only to pleasure men. The red color of her lips also represents passion and sensuality.

Furthermore, in the poster, she is directing her sight to her right, which makes her a passive character since she isn’t interacting directly with the audience. The big blue hat she is wearing, covers part of her face and we can only barely see part of her eyes. We can observe she is wearing makeup thus promoting physical beauty and superficiality. Even though Sofia Vergara is admired for her curvy body, she looks extremely thin in this advertisement as a way to promote dieting and a thin body. Lana Rakow’s “The Images and Representation Approach” can be explicitly seen in the poster since it shows women being represented as sexual objects. As Rakow says, women are portrayed as “housewifely, passive, wholesome, and pretty”.

One may ask, if the poster uses the male gaze theory, then how or why is it targeted for women? Well, first the male gaze theory suggests that women are seen as objects in men’s perspective. Sofia Vergara represents this objectification of women and portrays the way that men want women to look like. However, this is directed towards women because they are the ones who must change in order to become desirable to men and one way to accomplish this is with sugar free products like the Diet Pepsi.

Moreover, there are other advertisements that Pepsi uses to promote their different products but these do not have the same targeted audience. For example, there’s an ad that uses former soccer player David Beckham, however this is an ad for regular Pepsi. The ad portrays David Beckham as a warrior. Unlike Sofia Vergara’s advertisement, David Beckham has direct contact with the audience making him an active character. These two examples show the difference between female and male advertisements. While Vergara’s ad promotes a light lifestyle and urges women to become thin, Beckham’s advertisement serves to portray male strength and power.  

            The creator of this Diet Pepsi print advertisement uses different elements to portray the way that the “ideal” woman should look like. The design used represents organization, symmetry and perfection which relates to the point previously made and to the idea of diets. The woman is represented as a passive character and also it’s portray as a sexual object. All these components form the poster and, at a deeper level, urges women to become thin because that’s the way men want them to be. Even though I disagree with the message that this ad gives, I believe it is a good example of an advertisement used as a tool not only to sell a product but to promote a lifestyle for women.