Print Ad Analysis
Micha Rahder

This ad for Perrier water appearing in Vogue magazine in September 2003 features three chic white women with well-styled hair and formal clothes on the front steps of a residential building. Through a window into the building near the right edge of the frame, a party of people with wine glasses in hand is visible. The women sit in an aggressive, territorial posture; they are grouped closely together, leaning seductively back and staring directly into the eye of the camera. Each woman has a bottle in a brown paper bag with the neck exposed, and one of the bags is bunched down far enough to show that they contain not alcohol, but Perrier water. The image is subtitled with the words "Perrier in America".

The scene of the three women references images of young black men sitting on stoops with bagged bottles of alcohol, seen for instance in the 1991 film Boyz N the Hood. The contrast between this stereotypical image and the one of sexy, sophisticated white models is being drawn upon in the ad, and is made especially prominent by the subtitle of the ad campaign. The women are placed in poses reminiscent of, but not identical to, poses of young black men with malt liquor. The differences created are key to understanding the gendering of the ad: one woman, farthest to the left, sits in a pose most like that one would expect from a young black man in the scene. She sits with her legs apart â?" a luxury the other women do not have with their short skirts â?" with her arms resting loosely and confidently on her knees. She is leaning forward with her head cocked to one side, a very aggressive and challenging position to the viewer. She is the only one of the three one could imagine being replaced by a young black man without looking ridiculous.

The other two women are settled back into more relaxed, seductive poses. Their legs, exposed far up the thigh, are demurely held together; the woman farthest to the right crosses her ankles in a familiar pose of modesty. One woman reclines back onto the other with her arm placed familiarly over the other woman's bare legs. These two women are far more sexualized than young black men would be in the same setting. The familiarity and closeness of their touch, the reclining, seductive poses of their bodies, and the large amount of visible skin all contribute to their status as sexual objects. Their placement in an aggressive, territorial, setting, calls particular attention to the challenge the women pose. If the image were of young black men, the perceived message would be "stay away". When seductive white women are placed in the image instead, the challenge becomes "just try to come and get us."

This ad links the drinking of Perrier to characteristics of aggression and confidence, stereotypically associated with black working class men, and offers these characteristics to their target audience of affluent white women between the ages of 18-24. The advertisement is drawing on the appeal of a few "desirable" characteristics of a stereotyped oppressed group, and offers them to women who are often seen as weak and passive. Because the women in and targeted by the ad belong in some ways to the dominant white majority, yet are not men, they are seen as lacking several characteristics viewed as both positive and masculine by American popular culture. The sexism of the American ads is not isolated from Perrier's other campaigns; some of the billboard ads for Perrier in Europe have been so explicitly sexist that they have caused several feminist groups to call for boycotts of the company - one such ad featured the naked torso of a woman with Perrier bottle caps covering her nipples (http://advertising.utexas.edu/

research/law/recent.html) .

The â?~Perrier in America' campaign of which this particular ad is an example is part of a larger move on the part of Perrier to market to American audiences differently from those in Europe. Even the Perrier website is divided into "USA" (www.usa.perrier.com) and "International" sites (www.perrier.com/EN), the international of which holds all the history and information of the drink. The Perrier USA site is completely devoted to marketing, and links the drinking of Perrier to night club life and the world of fashion. It features sections on party tips and "paparazzi" photos of famous people (the majority of whom are white female fashion models) drinking Perrier. This â?~Perrier in America' print ad campaign features several others ads that draw on particularly American notions of class, race, and gender, including one with a pile of empty Perrier bottles in the back of a pickup truck.

Perrier is marketed on the USA website as a "fun," non-alcoholic club drink, a message reference by the women in the ad leaving the party, and its alcohol, inside. It is marketed particularly to women by focusing largely on the fact that it contains no calories. This highlighted fact, paired with the album of snapshots of very thin female models holding Perrier bottles backstage at fashion shows, clearly links the drinking of Perrier with the attainment of a particular cultural ideal of ultra-thin femininity. The thin, white models in this ad are also marked by their placement in a context not normally associated with models and fashion â?" their portrayal in the realm of lower class black men draws especial attention to their affluence, their whiteness, and their femininity. Because the image associating women with power, aggressiveness, and confidence is framed as ironic humor, it reinforces the idea that middle class women do not in fact have these characteristics themselves. Perrier draws on specifically American cultural ideas of race, class, and gender to create an â?~humorous' image to sell their product.

References: