"Only In A Woman's World" Are There So Many Dieting Stereotypes

After our earlier post about Frito-Lay’s new ad campaign targeting women, and numerous emails, we decided to check out the new commercials. Apparently, Frito-Lay thinks all women care about is men and dieting.

“Only In A Woman’s World,” Frito-Lay’s new Sex and the City-inspired commercials have already started running on TV and more print and online advertising will be rolled out early this month.

Though the four cartoon women are shown gabbing over Frito-Lay products, it’s a little unclear what’s being advertised in the commercials. Mainly, the commercials focus on the friends worrying that bikini season is approaching, obsessing about hot guys, and crying hysterically at the loss of their hairdresser or “skinny mirror.”

In the worst commercial/webisode, Episode 2, two of the friends visit “Cheryl,” who is home sick and hasn’t been able to eat in days – but lost four pounds. The other two swoon and say she is “so lucky.” One remarks: “You guys are whack jobs, you know that right?” Maybe so, but Cheryl says she can almost fit into her skinny jeans!

The unbelievably involved website also features commercials, games, and e-cards. In the “meet the girls” section, we learn tons of information about each character’s job, weakness, and relationship status. Is knowing that Anna’s favorite author is Toni Morrison, that Cheryl, the stay-at-home mom, “puts everyone else’s happiness first,” or that Maya “hides how much she spends on shopping from her husband” supposed to make women want to buy chips? The one thing that would make us life-long Frito-Lay customers (aside from, of course, the company producing delicious snacks) is an ad campaign that shows women eating potato chips like normal human beings, without making a self-loathing comments about their weight.