I recently read Slate writer Katy Waldman's piece in reaction to Models Who Can't Decide, a tumblr that collects stock images of women looking quizzically at apples and donuts, among other foods, trying to decide if they should eat healthily or indulge. In the piece, "We Can't Decide How We Feel About 'Models Who Can't Decide'," Waldman talks about the representation of food as good and evil and our obsession with women's relationship to food. After all, there is only one man looking quizzically at food on the tumblr page.
Then I remembered that I wrote a paper about this for a media class I took in my sophomore year of college for a Mass Media class. We analyzed advertising images and the one I choose happened to revolve around a woman struggling to decide between good and evil: A protein bar and dessert. I don't have the image and I couldn't find it, but I describe it below. I bolded the parts that I think are most relevant. In total the message is that a) overindulgence for women is bad no matter what the indulgence is, b) women feel more guilty about eating "forbidden" foods, and c) beauty is always emphasized over health.
"Eat Good. Look Great."
Flipping through the pages of Redbook I found an advertisement for
protein bars in candy and ice cream flavors. The ad contains at the very top
two panels of the same woman. In one panel, she is a devil and in the other
panel, she is depicted as an angel. In the devil panel the woman is wearing red
against a red background, computer imposed devil horns growing
out. There are small differences between her and the angel on the other side
that you may not notice until you look for a while.
The devil wears black eyeliner, heavy blush and red glossy lipstick. Her
hair is tousled and looks enlarged with hairspray. She’s wearing large silver
earrings shaped like a paper clip. Her look is trendy not classic, maybe
on the trashy side. Her tongue and bottom teeth stick out as she makes a wide
grin and her eyes are dilated, with the eyebrows angling downwards. Frequently
women wearing a lot of makeup are associated with promiscuity. The tousled
hair and modern jewelry juxtaposed with the angel suggest that all of
these aesthetics are “bad”. Since the common theme of this ad is guilt, it’s no wonder the stereotype of the “bad”
woman looks this way. Since the devil represents evil, this just
further perpetuates the stereotype that evil in women is represented by promiscuity.
The devil is holding a pie, which is topped with whipped cream in and gobs of
fudge. The red cherry on top is close to her face; its bright red popping
against her crimson lips. The Janice Dickenson style smile is supposed to look
seductive, just like the dessert. It’s quite possible that the dessert and sex
are correlated. Bryan Wilson Keys explains in his book, “Subliminal
Seduction,” that sex and death are both issues we constantly repress, so ads
look to bring out these feelings in order to convince us to buy the product. He
derives this idea from Freud’s theory that sex and death are repressed ideas
that always exist in the subconscious [i].
The idea is that overindulgence in sex can lead to guilt, and so can
overindulgence in food.
In contrast, the angel is wearing a grey shirt and a necklace of
gold and pearls. The hair is neat and tidy. The makeup is minimal and the lips
are salmon pink, not red. The look is very classic and the virginal absence of
over-embellishment may symbolize a re-purification of your life through the
product. She is holding the dish in a praying gesture. Her posture is upright,
not hunched slightly like the devil and her centered body brings attention to
the panel with the product, a wrapped protein bar. Her face is calm and demure.
The centered body suggests renewal of balance in your life.
Guilt is
a huge motivator when it comes to persuading women to buy a product. Women
tend to stay focused on their guilt longer then men and it’s likely to make
them more depressed and feel helpless. A 2004 University of Minnesota
study showed that women are twice as likely as men to be depressed, and
tend to turn to sweet desserts for comfort, resulting in guilt, which
could lead to more eating [ii].
The
guilt-relieving protein bar is then very attractive to a good number of women, especially
when it suggests immunity from indulgence as this one does. The angel’s protein
bar is called chocolate peanut butter, offering great taste without the consequences. The consequence women worry about is
the weight gain associated with desserts. But in its clever packaging and
label, this protein bar doesn’t seem gluttonous at
all.
In the
large font under the panels, the slogan reads “Eat Good. Look Great.” The word
“Great” is underlined. Looking great is obviously going to be more emphasized
than eating well because women are motivated to eat well only for the
purpose of looking great. Looking great will always be the primary
reason for selling products to women in ads. These ads are tailored for pre-existing
beliefs, perpetuating and exaggerating the “need” for women to look
great. The image of what is “good” for women in this ad is to be aesthetically pleasing, a common theme in
every medium.
In the type below the slogan there is the use of words and phrases “like high-quality”,
“protein”, and “active lifestyle” to convince the reader of its health
benefits. The immunity from guilt is repeated with “sinfully delicious” and
“heavenly flavors,” reminding the reader that it is possible to combine
chocolate and health. The emphasis of the phrase “high protein” is the effect
of the Dr. Atkins Diet on the marketing of food. Protein is much desirable than
carbohydrates now in the weight loss department, so women have been looking for
protein to lose weight [iii].
“According
to a study published last year by Morgan Stanley, ‘19 per cent of U.S. adults
are either currently on a low-carb diet or have tried one earlier this year,
which is three to five times higher than many previous
public estimates.’”
Ads for
protein bars aimed at women have always reinforced the conventional beauty ideal:
slender, young or young-looking, and most typically white. In 2001, EAS protein
bars, normally advertised to muscle-seeking men, were pitched to women.
Christie Brinkley and Cindy Crawford were portrayed in the television ad as
soccer moms leading busy lives, showing you can have the perfect body and be a
busy mother [iv].
I
chose this ad because the contrast between the panels grabbed my attention. When
I saw the obvious differences between the women in the panels and the message of
guilt, it reminded me of ads women see in beauty magazines. It is a “before and
after” type of ad because the message is carried through it’s juxtaposition of
the same woman in different panels. This juxtaposition is much more obvious
though than “before and after” ads because its idea of what is good and bad is
shown through the devil and angel. The ad’s message is direct and simple which
makes it more effective.
The ad’s
suggestive details, like the difference in makeup and hair have underlying
messages but they don’t qualify as being a part of the traditional idea of what
subliminal advertising is. In the book, “Advertising and Popular Culture”
edited by Sammy R. Danna, a researcher suggests that subliminal advertising
hasn’t been shown effective to the mass media. “Procedures for the development
of commercial exploitation appear so unlikely that subliminal stimulation can
initiate subsequent action, to say nothing of commercially or politically
significant action.[v]”
While the
elements of sex and death we may be repressing are part of the emotional appeals
found in advertising, they probably do not constitute as subliminal advertising
but as more of an unhidden subtext.
[ii] Academic Premier (3/24/07) Denise
Foley, “lose weight like a guy”. Prevention May 2006: p158-217.
Maclean’s February 2, 2004:p.34.
[iv] Academic
Premier (3/28/07) Goetzl, David, “New EAS Ads Aim to Attract Women”. The
Advertising Age January 1, 2001: p.4.
[v] Eric J.
Zanot, Sammy R. Danna, Advertising in Popular Culture. Ohio: Bowling
Green State University Popular Press, 1992: p.61
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