On a late September night I found myself hungry at the Southern parts of The Pennsylvania State University, so I decided to walk to “The Mix” and purchase food. As I waited in line to input my order, I realized two Fruity Pebble cereal boxes standing next to each other. One of the cereal boxes was advertising cocoa cereal with a colored male and the other was advertising the original Fruity Pebbles with a caucasian male. At first glance, the two cereal boxes seemed like an honest mistake someone had committed by placing them adjacently. In fact, up to a certain extent the mistake seemed humorous. However, after a while my intellectual curiosity kicked in and I launched a quick search on my phone and realized that the cereal boxes were no mistake. Both cereal boxes were part of a new campaign that Post Foods had just launched specifically with their cereal Fruity Pebbles.
In Fall 2014 Fruity Pebbles cereals launched their new “Choose Your Side” campaign, in which the company displayed the face of world famous wrestler John Cena on the box of the Fruit Fruity Pebbles, and the face of professional basketball player Kyrie Irving on the Cocoa Fruity Pebbles box. The “Choose Your Side” campaign had as a main goal to tally Americas favorite flavor of Fruity Pebbles, Fruit or Cocoa, by allowing the clientele to purchase their favorite flavor and later on vote online at www.teampebbles.com for future company purposes. Unfortunately, instead of polling America, the “Choose Your Side” Fruity Pebbles campaign failed to persuade the public by embracing the racist system in society, bringing colored stereotypes into display and asking the public to “choose a side”.
When displayed, the Fruity Pebble “Choose Your Side Campaign” seems humorous; two cereal boxes next to each other with opposite races advertising opposite flavors. However, when analyzed the Fruity Pebble Choose Your Side Campaign is depicting an ideological world in which racism exists. In other words, by allowing Kyrie Irving, a colored basketball player, to advertise the chocolate cereal and John Cena, a caucasian wrestler, to advertise the original flavor racism is being portrayed. In fact, a race stereotype is also being implied in this advertisement, since the colored man is a basketball player and the caucasian is a strong male. Even though the profession depicted by each person is their legitimate job, it is a way in which Fruity Pebbles is embracing a living stereotype that exists in our society; all tall colored males are basketball players and all strong cacasian males are fighters. Curiously, Post Foods decided to depict The Flintstone’s main characters, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, to also mimic the strong versus athletic stereotype.
Thus, the racism and stereotype may have agitated the public with controversy, but Fruity Pebbles are rewarding those who encourage segregation by raffling prices through their websites if you “pick a side”, or submit a picture of you with your Fruity Pebbles using the hashtag “Team Fruity” or “Team Cocoa”. According to polls, as of October 6, 2014, 55% of the population has voted team fruity and 45% of the population has voted team cocoa. These numbers represent the world that this campaign is aiming for, a world in which racism exists and for voting for the better “team”, black or white, which you will be rewarded for. The logos behind this campaign are a reflection of the numerous race problems society has faced, since it is not the first time in history that society will get voting by voting for a specific race.
Food brands use characters and celebrities like, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, and John Cena and Kyrie Irving, in order to persuade their audience into purchasing their product or participate in their event. Acknowledging such, it is easy to perceive the negative use of ethos in the “Choose Your Side” campaign since by using world acclaimed characters and celebrities Fruity Pebbles is manipulating a younger audience to vote for “a side”, which in reality a race. In a way, this campaign can be perceive as if Fruity Pebbles is asking children to vote for a race by covering the polls with professional athletes and cartoons, which means that Fruity Pebbles is encouraging racism and encouraging children to take a vote on racism.
Through history it is easy to acknowledge that kairos is always present when in reference to race. It is inevitable not to talk about society without pointing out racism and its stereotype, however there are always different levels at which it is touched. For instance, in the “Choose Your Side” racism is observed in its blandest form, but what would have occurred if John Cena and Kyrie Irving switched boxes? Would there still be controversy? Would people point out the fact that it was done in such manner because if not racism would have emerged? Even tough these questions cannot be answered assertively because none of these were the case in this campaign, the one thing we know for sure is that the “Choose Your Side” campaign is encouraging our society, mainly our younger generation, to vote for a race. By embracing stereotypes and allowing color representation, Fruity Pebbles is depicting a world that the United States is trying to over come, a segregated world. Through a series of pictures, polls and teams they are ineffectively experimenting America’s flavor preference, but effectively promoting racism.
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