Original Ad

This advertisement was released by smart water. The company uses the celebrity endorsement of Tom Brady, a Professional NFL quarter back, as the main focus of the ad. It shows the male climbing up a wall and in the corner stats “Corporate ladder”. The ad is implying that in order climb said ladder of success, smart water and the electrolytes provided by the water can aid you “electrolytes: remember you don’t work for them, they work for you.” The overall theme of the ad is targeted at middle class men, with the message of being your own boss and showing the hard work it take to get to the top.. that is why you need smart water. The ad is reminding the targeted audience that the corporate ladder involves others working for them. The attractiveness of the ad is the ideal male, Tom Brady and his endorsement of smart water. Targeting the male audience, the idea of him and strength and authority in the work place is something that is intended to help sell the product, along with this image of strength and masculinity.

Jammed ad

Privilege and Patriarchy

I chose to recognize the cultural discrepancy that smart water failed to see or used in promotion of their product. What I saw when I first looked at the ad what your typical white male, a successful and rich football player at the forefront of the ad. Right away it did not make sense to me that they would choose someone like to look as though they are working hard to climb the ladder in which the ad implies is the corporate ladder. For the pegs he is climbing I replaced the words opportunity and patriarchy. In this I am referring to the privilege that white males receive based on these factors of race and gender. There are more males in positions of authority in corporate business than there are women, and even more in positions than minorities. It is much more difficult for minorities and women to climb the corporate ladder. I have put Tom Brady’s face with a large smile on his face to contrast his facial expression of “hard work” in climbing the corporate ladder. I believe this ad portrays the wrong image and chose the wrong advocate for the theme of this ad. Along with the underlying themes of white privilege and patriarchy, I see an ad driven towards masculinity. The color scheme of the ad, its dark gray and black tones imply that this ad is for males. like most male product ads, the idea of a masculinity standard is very high. The irony of this ad is that we have a successful white male athlete as the representation for this climbing of the corporate ladder. “remember, they don’t work for you, you work for them” in this obvious statement, we can deconstruct it and see the disparity in women in position of power in corporations vs white males who hold these positions. I changed the words to “opportunity: remember, you have it, they don’t” to show the ways in which a white male has advantages over others in the business world and day to day life.