To start off, the fact that the women are puppets in the advert, just starts off presenting them in a negative way. As we associate puppets as objects therefore objectifying the female gender, and also these objects are controlled by humans which in this case are the males, therefore categorising the men in the dominant group and the women in the subordinates. As the main subject sees more work on her desk, she slams her fists in rage, suggesting that women cannot not do paper work, and are weak, again presenting women in a negative light. Then we go on to see that her eyes ‘lighten’ up when she sees DIET coke. The fact that it is diet coke, can infer that women should be image conscious and in fact are image conscious, also even though she needs a break, she still needs to maintain her look, creates a male dominating atmosphere around the advert.
Then all the girl puppets line up and dance towards the drink machine, inferring that all the women are the same and they should all just drink Diet coke, which in some sense is quite misogynistic, because the women are objectified, then categorised as one, and on top of that they are shown “the right way”. When the subject pushes her button, she uses her heel which I think is suggesting that women have to use accessories, or charms to gain power, and physically there is nothing powerful about them. The slogan saying “if you love it light” is put next to a can of diet coke, held up by string. Throughout the advert the puppets are also held up from strings, this is trying to promote a negative message that women should ‘light’ in weight and therefore need to be image conscious and drink something that will make them ‘light’ in hopes that someday a man may love them. In this sense we are opened up to a patriarchy society, and the message of the advert is that women are controlled by men and they must do all that the men expect from them, including looking just right.
Another very interesting thing about this advert was the soundtrack they used, “Maniac” by Michael Sembello. The key lyric from this soundtrack which is played upon the advert is “She’s a maniac, maniac on the floor, and she’s dancing like she’s never danced before”. With these lyrics in mind, and watching the advert, we can infer that the women are represented as mad (subordinate) women, who are crazy about losing weight, as the puppets dancing like they’ve never danced before to get the diet coke (this can also betaken as a misogynitic element).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1mkS0X6gJ8 (Link to the advert)
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