As I flipped through the channels the other evening, I came across a commercial that was incredibly reminiscent of the Sun Maid Raisin commercial. The advertisement was for Canada Dry (ginger ale) and shows several men and women working the picturesque land with their hands. One man uproots a plastic bottle of this soda, and another soon after unearths what is revealed to be a Canada Dry vending machine that they then make use of. Like the Sun Maid commercial, this does not account for the true ingredients or integrity of the product, nor does it represent the actual methods of production.

Canada Dry does not come from the earth, and even though it advertises a “Natural Flavor”, not all of its ingredients are of the organic nature. Soda is commonly produced in a factory in giant metal vats and through the manipulation of processed sugars and flavors, but this is not what we see in this advertisement. This discounts not only the workers used in the making of the product, but also the demographic that generally work the land in respect to produce. This is not often done by a white male in clean clothes, but rather an unrepresented voice. This reminds me of a term I recently learned in one of my cinema studies classes, called exclusionary emulation. An example of this is the use of the white characters performing a generally minority based act of labor; they are emulating these people but excluding them from the actual advertisement and are not given credit.

The depiction of the land is nothing short of picturesque. The soil is rich and fluffy, the vegetation luscious and green, and the characters of the commercial are cast in a beautiful glowing light. This is not derived from reality, and only serves to muddle the true nature of the product. It is fascinating to see how the environment is depicted and transformed in commercials and other forms of media to manipulate viewers.

Here is a link to the ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4EqRZPxncg