SE2: Ad Analysis/Comparison

Autumn Lange

April 7, 2013

SE2: Food Advertisement Comparison

            Food advertisements are carefully crafted with rhetorical devices to send a certain message or appeal to a certain group. They play on cultural values and gender roles, and their advertisements target the specific group that their product is marketed to. For this essay I chose to examine two different advertisements for Diet Coke, a well-known diet alternative to the global recognized Coca-Cola. Both ads use various strategies to market the product to their intended buyers.

            The first ad is an obvious effort to emphasize the ‘diet’ part of Diet Coke. It reads ‘all curves. no calories,’ followed by the Diet Coke logo.

  

The ‘no calories’ stamp makes it pretty evident that this ad is for a female audience. Because of gender stereotypes, it’s mostly assumed that a diet or low-cal product is for females more so than males. The ad shows a Diet Coke bottle laying on its side. However, the image combined with the text above is very reminiscent of the curves of a woman’s body, and that’s the ad’s intention. Women who drink diet soda are more likely to be watching their weight or their calorie intake than those who would go for a regular Coke. “All curves, no calories” implies that drinking Diet Coke will help a consumer to obtain the attractive ‘curves’ that she is trying to get or maintain by dieting. The visual in the ad is an important piece, too. Although sexual appeals are generally aimed toward a male audience rather than a female one, females still appreciate the attractiveness of other women, and aspire to be like them. Rather than being sexual, in this case, likening the ‘curves’ of the Diet Coke bottle to the shape of an attractive woman leads to a direct connection by the viewer between consumption of this beverage and being attractive.

           

The next ad is arguably also marketed to women, but uses different strategies than the first to convey its message. This one shows a Diet Coke bottle and has text reading “What to drink on your way to the top.” At the bottom of the ad, the phrase “Stay Extraordinary” is also included.

We make the assumption that this ad is primarily for a female audience based on the previous idea that diet soda is, in general, marketed to women. However, there are some indicators that reinforce this idea. The main one, I think, is the font that the main text is written in, as well as the font on the label of the bottle. Both look decidedly more feminine than masculine, with the former being almost bubbly-looking, and similar to many females’ writing style, being neat and having large loops in letters that require it. The way that ‘Diet’ is written on the bottle is rather feminine, too, with a swirly cursive feel to it. The text, rather than the image, is the most important part of this ad. “What to drink on your way to the top” gives the viewer the association that successful women drink Diet Coke. This success is probably meant to be tied to working in a career, since most women that Diet Coke markets to are of working age. The purpose of this ad, especially given that it’s worded directly to the consumer (on YOUR way), is to guide the viewer to believe that successful women drink Diet Coke. There is also an association with the typical stereotype that many professionals drink coffee. The text at the bottom, which reads ‘Stay Extraordinary,’ further plays on the implication that Diet Coke will help one to succeed by implying that Diet Coke is more extraordinary than its competitors, and is the caffeinated drink of choice for the successful woman.

            These advertisements give us some insight into cultural values about food. Primarily, they reinforce our already prominent notion that diet products are for females. This association can be taken one step further, and because diet products are linked with weight loss or dieting, we can postulate that as a culture, we promote the idea that women SHOULD diet and aspire to lose weight or stay thin, which is why diet products are made ‘for them.’ Because diet products aren’t marketed to men, it would appear that as a culture, we don’t expect men to watch their weight or diet, so they can have the full-calorie versions of these foods. It would probably be safe to postulate that the advertisements for regular Coke would be more gender-neutral or even male-oriented.