so, i went to the corner store near our house the other day because we were out of juice. this is a tragic occurance in our household, one that results in much angst and screaming if we are not able to supply gavin with his beverage-of-choice. so, gavin and i took a field trip.
having worked at whole foods, i always choose Simply Orange by default. it’s been a while since i’ve taste-tested OJ, myself, and i know G doesn’t really care which brand, but i feel better about Simply because i get the impression (whether it’s based on fact or clever marketing) that it’s more natural. so this quasigoth chick was checking out and saw me and gavin and our Simply Orange and told me, very badly, about this ad with an “easy” girl and a “hard” girl, and how it was Tropicana vs. Simply Orange and the “hard” girl was supposed to be Simply Orange. or something. so i Googled this crazy concept and lo! i found this:
the social context is bizarre, archaic, misogynist, and a host of other words that are not favorable to tropicana’s ad campaign. but possibly what i find most interesting is that not only do i identify more with the not-easy side in terms of juice brands, but i also identify more with the not-easy girl in the example. also: i like the shape of Simply Orange’s bottle, thank you. i don’t care if there’s not a handle.
read the commentary in the post that’s linked above because it’s definitely worthwhile and interesting. not terribly surprising, all things considered, but there are some good points and possibly the only thing that did really open my eyes about this whole thing was that i really thought we had moved past this type of social and gender stereotyping. and, is easy really better? cuz i kinda think not…
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