Way to Sell Your Product, Pepsi Max
“Zero Calorie” Pepsi Max recently released an appalling commercial that reinforces gender stereotypes, makes men and women look equally stupid and beastly, and makes me want to buy their product about as much as I want to contract a case of smallpox. The equality in the commercial is the only upside; at least we’re not looking at the woman’s boobs (though they are at least hinted at by the repugnant depiction of the man) as we might in most commercials. That’s where the upside of the commercial unfortunately ends.
A man and a woman are sitting in a restaurant, apparently on either a first date or early in their relationship. The woman sits and smiles, a bunch of vapid but perky thoughts running through her mind. She wonders how much money he makes, if he lives with his parents, if he wants kids, and if he’s “the one.”
Yes, that’s all a woman can possibly think about when looking at a single man.
The man, in turn, can only repeat one thought over and over again, rapidly in his head: “I want to sleep with her I want to sleep with her I want to sleep with her…” When the Pepsi Max is set upon the table, his refrain changes to, “I want a Pepsi Max I want a Pepsi Max I want a Pepsi Max.” Apparently a man only has the capability to mirror the thought process of a basset hound.
What are we supposed to take from this commercial? That Pepsi Max drinkers are idiots, and, therefore, we should just assume that when we buy the product we, too, are idiots? That consuming Pepsi Max is akin to having sex with a woman? Not only is the commercial worthy of our contempt—it also fails to engage us with the product (as most commercials admittedly do; rarely are we encouraged to purchase a product based upon the value of the product itself) or even give us details about it other than it’s found to be desirable by a man who could as easily be selling Beggin’ Bits or kibble.
Pepsi Max, I think it’s safe to say that women and men, in general, are much more substantive than the way you’ve portrayed us. Though I suppose the accuracy with which you’ve depicted your own contempt for your customers (or, at least, your intended audience) should be refreshing, since most large corporations give their customers a big, fake smile as they hate them from behind closed doors, scheming of ways to kill them softly. Still, you expecting us to purchase your product after you so openly mock us under a feeble cover of comedy is a pretty ludicrous notion.