The ad for Nabisco 100-calorie snacks features Venus and Serena Williams in the back of a limo glamorized. The advertisement is meant to sell Nabisco 100 Calorie Milk Chocolate Pretzels, but the product is barely visible. What is visible, however, are negative messages.
The ad copy says, “Venus and Serena Diet Like a Diva” which already implies that these beautiful women are fat and need to go on a diet. The problem with this statement is that both women are athletes and athletes need more calories to supplement the ones the burn off while working out. It implies that the Williams’ sisters eat these measly snacks and get great, toned bodies.
It targets women in general. There are no constraints to age, but it does seem more targeted to women of color. This ad is offensive for many reasons, the first being that you would not know these women are incredibly successful tennis players, because the ad implies that women are only judged on how much they weigh,
Visible in this ad are the sort of bulky muscles that these sisters have developed from playing tennis, and even though it is muscle, they are considered heavier. In “Food for Our Souls,” by Dyann Logwood, she says “Black women have forgotten to define health on our own terms. Even as we continue to embrace the diversity of sizes among us, we must ask, what does a healthy body feel like (as cited in “Body Outlaws”, Ophira Edut, 101)?”
Eating disorders are also subtly encouraged in this ad because the copy does not say anything about eating fewer calories to be healthier. It explicitly says that this is meant to help you diet. The choice of the word “diva” also has an impact. A diva is usually viewed as a person who is incredibly high-maintenance, but at the same time beautiful. This is the girl that guys want to take out, but not necessarily take home to their mothers.
Although Venus and Serena are African-American, the only way you would know that in this ad is by the color of their skin. Their facial features and their hair are distinctly altered to give them a more “white” appearance. African-American women do not possess this hair type naturally, so the audience is told more of the body must be altered to be beautiful.
In “The Art of the Ponytail,” by Akkida McDowell, focuses specifically on the vast amount of effort it takes to tame an African-American woman’s hair and make it look like a woman’s. They feel the need to have their hair relaxed instead of going natural because of ads like this one. McDowell says, “According to movies, my beloved television, my classmates and even my neighbors, a proper hairstyle not only completed the package, but defined and delivered it (as cited in “Body Outlaws, Ophira Edut, 124).”
The photographer was also apparently unhappy with their African features because it is obvious that the women’s noses and lips have been tampered with. Both have been thinned out to not look so African. Because they are African American women in an ad, they are supposed to be breaking stereotypes and yet here they are condoning them. Worse off is the fact that they are supposed to be role models to girls all over the world because they got ahead in life, not on their looks, but on their talent.
They send the message that they are not proud of their heritage. Serena is known to stand out in outfits she wears for tennis tournaments, but here she blends in to the background. They become like any other celebrity endorsing a product; they are in it for the money. They star power should have been used in another ad that actually promotes a healthy body image and acceptance of one’s culture.
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