Looking at Adverts: 11

As it is summer (allegedly) I thought I would choose an appropriately summery product for this blog. The tactics employed to sell ice cream vary dramatically depending on the intended audience. Frequently, the more expensive range of ice creams is marketed to adults as an indulgent treat or a naughty temptation. Enjoyment of the product is often depicted as a decadent and private pleasure. Ever since the Flake advert appeared on our screens in 1959 we have been led to believe that chocolate is a sensual pleasure that should be enjoyed alone (preferably in an overflowing roll top bath). This magnum advert takes the idea of solo self-indulgence to another level. The separation between person and product is removed so the individual doesn’t need anyone or anything else.
The sensual pleasure associated with the product is emphasised because it is associated directly with ideas of touch and taste. This is achieved because the skin and lips of the model are visually prominent. Because the skin is transformed into chocolate the ideas of tactile pleasure and taste are completely intertwined. It’s a succinct way of implying the effect the product is supposed to have on the consumer, but it is also deeply troubling. The product and body are given equivalence and body becomes an object to be consumed. This advert codes the female body as a sweet, pleasurable commodity that is racially coded. The misconception that African people are more physical and sexual than their European counterparts was used to justify the sexual exploitation of female slaves. I wonder what is implied by the ‘broken’ skin revealing white ice cream underneath.

In other adverts a similar but inverse visual trick takes place. Rather than turning the body into food, the food is made to resemble the body. I wonder what this means in terms of pleasure? The ice cream is anthropomorphised (made to resemble a person) but it is not overtly coded in pleasure. Rather the look or aesthetic value of the body is highlighted in this image.
In Critique of Commodity Aesthetics Wolfgang Haug suggests that commodities ‘borrow their aesthetic language from human courtship’ (1986, 19) to maximise their attractiveness. He describes how the commodities use equivalents of jewellery, scent and colour to cast ‘flirtatious glances at the buyers’ and entice them to buy. In this advert the skin / chocolate is highly sexualised. The condensation visible in the highlights of the ice cream bars gives the impression of a ‘hot’ body. The condensation is synonymous with sweat, used on bodies in advertisements to denote energetic activity, often of a sexual nature. (See black and white Athena posters of muscular men circa 1990)

The second Magnum Light advert is a little more subtle in the way it anthropomorphises the commodity. The nibbled edges of the ice cream bar imply that the body of the consumer will be reduced or shaped by eating the product. This advert seems more restrained because it is not so obviously sexualised. If I compare it with the first non-diet Magnum advert, in which broken skin and open mouth imply a devouring form of consumption, the consumer of this product seems to nibble in a controlled way. To me this implies that the indulgence doesn’t involve unrestrained ‘out of control’ consumption in which the eater gives in to temptation. This advert implies that the product can be part of a controlled diet.
I end this blog with another anthropomorphised ice cream. Although this is not strictly an advert, as it was created by David Lesage as a student project and was not commissioned by the French Ministry of Health, I think it offers a refreshing new take on the ‘body-as-ice cream’ motif. In a way it carries a similar message as the two diet products, that eating ice cream can have a negative impact on the way the body looks. Rather than sexualising the product as a sort of carrot, this image shows us the stick….enjoy.