Final Essay T4- 24 de setiembre de 2012

1 1232 words

Andrea Galvez Teacher Barbara Drake English TI4 Section TR41 September 24, 2012 Advertisement on Food and Gender Stereotypes

Campaigns about sodas in Peru have been well accepted for all over the country, especially when they are related in some point with food because is an element of national pride and patriotism around Peruvian people. Coca Cola and Inca Kola are the best-selling sodas in the country. The way they persuade their audience is regularly full of gender stereotypes. Both the Inca Kola ad and the Coca Cola ad convey the stereotype that women always have to be related with food, however the Inca Kola ad use extreme stereotypes with clothing and other elements to emphasize negative stereotypes about women. In the first place, the billboard ad for Coca-Cola1 was made in Peru this year; they started their campaign to make a mix of Peruvian food with this international soda brand. As can be shown, the ad is setting at night but in an especial place which seems to be somewhere in the streets of Lima where working class pass through. Their target are Peruvian people and they know that one of the ways to persuade them is to use Peruvian food, so the most common ads usually use the cheapest and the most available working class food, in this case the famous “anticucho” (Peruvian food that is made of chicken’s heart with few potatoes, all fried, and salad). For this billboard ad, they have as a title

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“Destapa tu felicidad” (or Bring out your happiness while opened your soda) using as models two Peruvian’s citizen working class, and have a close-up of them leaving the background and taking attention to these models who are close each other. The ad exhibits a man holding the soda while the woman is eating the “anticucho.” In this ad, the man is really happy while seeing with especial attention to the woman while she is eating so this can be relate to the title of the ad which the happiness for him is her, and for her is the “anticucho” as she is grinning from ear to ear. The logo is on the bottom right, even though they don’t make an evident emphasis to it because they display just a half of it. Subsequently, the Inca Kola ad made on 20092, which is the most famous soda in Peru, shows a traditional Peruvian family. The setting of the ad is a yellow room with a big maroon table in the center of the ad that doesn’t have too much things on it but three dishes with traditional Peruvian food (two arroz con pollo, and one papa a la huancayna). The models are a father, son, mother, and daughter and they are in a specific position. The father is on the middle of the ad sitting on the top of the table and looking to his wife, while she is to the left of him close enough to serve the Inca Kola’s soda and both seems to be very happy. Next, the two kids are in front of each other, the boy is sitting to the left of his father and the girl to the right; both are with a big ear-to-ear smile looking each other. The two boys in the ad are dressed with a light blue t-shirt and the girls are with a pink one. As it is illustrated, the mother seems to be tidy and well-dressed with a very nice hair, even though most of Peruvian housewife are not quite so, and the father as the children are welldressed too and with a perfect hair too. The logo that the ad shows is on the top center, it is quite notorious, and have another smaller image on the bottom right which says “La noche

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de la comida peruana” (or Peruvian food night,) with a small Peruvian flags around the two logos, their tagline lie in making a gratefulness to all Peruvian people about the Peruvian dishes with a small white letters. Despite that both advertisements are from two different brands they share one similarity which is the gender stereotypes of always relating Peruvian food with a woman eating or not the dish. Peru is a country very male chauvinist where the wife is tied to household chores thus she is the one who have to make everything for everyone. As a result of this, the well done dish has to be made from a woman. Also, in both ads the woman is often of the low class because there is where these brands can reach their audience, so their specific target is the Peruvian working class. That is quite obvious in both ads, on the one hand Coca-Cola displays a working class woman (because of the simple clothing and simple hairstyle) eating very happy her small dish, and on the other one the woman represent to the so typical housewife who seems very happy of doing her mother role – serving to the family. - Both ads shown that both women are not holding their sodas but men do. Besides that both have two men looking at their couples and all of them are smiling. Of course, the Inca Kola ad displays more emphasis about women stereotypes in Peru. In fact, both ads are quite different one of each other, the Inca Kola ad use more extreme gender stereotypes elements than the Coca-Cola ad does. First the Inca Kola ad shows a remarkable gender stereotype where women is the housewife and have to serve to her family, in this case the mother is serving to his husband and her kids, and the dishes are served on the table and no one is helping her, all her family is sitting with a bright smile. What is more, the mother doesn’t have a place on the table, she doesn´t have a dish as the

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other members do. There is not a dish for her or a glass for her; she is acting like a servant instead of a real wife. On the other hand, in the Coca-Cola ad, the woman is sharing her happiness with the man and she is enjoying her food and not necessarily serving to another people. Second, the Inca cola ad shows that girls wear pink shirts and the boy a light blue tshirt which are a remarkable gender stereotype about colors between men and women. In contrast, the Coca-Cola ad isn’t the same, in this case the woman is wearing a blue jean shirt and the man is just wearing a simple lilac and purple polo t-shirt which brakes totally the gender stereotypes about colors. In conclusion, gender stereotypes are everywhere and the mass media use it as much they can, in this case, these advertisements sell their product not taking too much importance on the possible damage they can bring with their indirect or direct message to society. To me, is a shame that some ads still make these remarkable gender stereotypes where women or men can be damaged and make a wrong idea about the roles assumptions of boys and girls. Ads play an important role in our life because we grow up with these ideas so they have the power to stop it or change their ads in positive ways, like in this case, Coca-Cola did.

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