I was interested to read this piece by Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon today about a Yoplait ad that’s been pulled because it too closely replicated eating-disordered modes of thought. (I’ve seen that ad and yes, it’s pretty disordered.)
Yogurt ads in general inspire rage, but this one in particular has been tripping my WHAT?! radar recently:
It’s also a Yoplait ad – not incidentally, I think -- and I’m pretty sure from its weird voice track that it’s been dubbed from the French. That’s not the bizarre thing about it, though. I’ve been insisting to Nick for weeks that this ad implies – probably unintentionally -- that the woman’s friends are searching for evidence of bulimia, but instead find yogurt! Allow me to impose my reading on you.
So the hostess says “Now I’ll go get the dessert,” prompting her friends to exchange incredulous glances. All well and good, we’re still in typical annoying-but-not-astounding Yogurt World in which women can’t eat dessert (but can eat yogurt).
But then the ad carries that assumption one step further, and we’re in Eating Disorder Land.
“How does she do itt?” one of the guests asks. “She looks amazing!” (read: thin). The women then search all around the house for the “secret” to the hostess’s thin physique, which she apparently maintains despite gluttonous dessert-eating (which she scandalously professes openly).
The “secret,” of course, is revealed to be that the hostess does not, in fact, eat dessert – only yogurt, which these women are so deprived as to believe is just like dessert.
But the wacko part is what comes before that revelation – the frantic search around the house. What kind of “secret” could possibly explain “bingeing” on dessert, as the guests clearly believe the hostess does, but not gaining any weight? And why would signs of it especially be found in the bathroom (where they head)? Oh wait, I know! If you read the plot literally, this woman’s friends are gleefuly inspecting her house for tell-tale signs of purging.
Honestly, this commercial doesn’t make sense in any other context. I know, I know, they probably didn’t think it through and it doesn’t really make sense, but I maintain that this commercial shows an establishment so deeply mired in disordered thought that the act of searching someone’s life for a “secret” to eating (but staying very, very thin) seems like a normal response to “outlandish” food consumption (read: normal food consumption).
Moral of the story – Yogurt commercials are really very unhealthy indeed.
(Oh, and I almost forgot -- why does Williams have to spoil a perfectly good post about body acceptance with that pat last paragraph about "but it's really not ok to be fat, guys, no for realz"? We were getting along so well until then! Mary Elizabeth, no one reasonable could possibly read this post and imagine that you are "endorsing a steady diet of dessert!" Sigh.)
Yogurt ads in general inspire rage, but this one in particular has been tripping my WHAT?! radar recently:
It’s also a Yoplait ad – not incidentally, I think -- and I’m pretty sure from its weird voice track that it’s been dubbed from the French. That’s not the bizarre thing about it, though. I’ve been insisting to Nick for weeks that this ad implies – probably unintentionally -- that the woman’s friends are searching for evidence of bulimia, but instead find yogurt! Allow me to impose my reading on you.
So the hostess says “Now I’ll go get the dessert,” prompting her friends to exchange incredulous glances. All well and good, we’re still in typical annoying-but-not-astounding Yogurt World in which women can’t eat dessert (but can eat yogurt).
But then the ad carries that assumption one step further, and we’re in Eating Disorder Land.
“How does she do itt?” one of the guests asks. “She looks amazing!” (read: thin). The women then search all around the house for the “secret” to the hostess’s thin physique, which she apparently maintains despite gluttonous dessert-eating (which she scandalously professes openly).
The “secret,” of course, is revealed to be that the hostess does not, in fact, eat dessert – only yogurt, which these women are so deprived as to believe is just like dessert.
But the wacko part is what comes before that revelation – the frantic search around the house. What kind of “secret” could possibly explain “bingeing” on dessert, as the guests clearly believe the hostess does, but not gaining any weight? And why would signs of it especially be found in the bathroom (where they head)? Oh wait, I know! If you read the plot literally, this woman’s friends are gleefuly inspecting her house for tell-tale signs of purging.
Honestly, this commercial doesn’t make sense in any other context. I know, I know, they probably didn’t think it through and it doesn’t really make sense, but I maintain that this commercial shows an establishment so deeply mired in disordered thought that the act of searching someone’s life for a “secret” to eating (but staying very, very thin) seems like a normal response to “outlandish” food consumption (read: normal food consumption).
Moral of the story – Yogurt commercials are really very unhealthy indeed.
(Oh, and I almost forgot -- why does Williams have to spoil a perfectly good post about body acceptance with that pat last paragraph about "but it's really not ok to be fat, guys, no for realz"? We were getting along so well until then! Mary Elizabeth, no one reasonable could possibly read this post and imagine that you are "endorsing a steady diet of dessert!" Sigh.)
0 Responses to “Unhealthy Yogurt”
Post a Comment