# I am appalled by this ad for Diet Coke. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 18, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887 "2004-09-18T19:39:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/21 "2004-09-18T20:37:35Z")
> [@pool](#): > > an asian peron _Don’t cly for me, Algentina / The tluth is, I never reft you_ ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/22 "2004-09-18T20:39:08Z")
Oh Evita I miss you 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/23 "2004-09-18T20:52:02Z")
> [@trandallt](#): > > Isn’t the stereotype that they have trouble with L’s, not R’s? In which case there would be no slur anyway. From what I’ve read here on the boards, [Japanese speakers can’t pronounce either.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4972042&postcount=16) ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/24 "2004-09-18T21:08:05Z")
And in related news, the Watermelon Growers Assocation of America fired Bernard Dill, their African-American spokesman in several recent advertisements, because he was “Too stereotypical.” ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/25 "2004-09-18T21:31:02Z")
An ad like that described in the OP would probably get past the Advertising Standards Authority here in NZ, but only just. They have a code of ethics about not denigrating people belonging to a culture or race. Depends on whether anyone remembered the old stereotype. That memory is dying out here. But yeah. I got what the OP was on about almost immediately. Made me go :eek: ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/26 "2004-09-18T22:00:01Z")
What really hurts here is that Coke was probably all excited because they were really going for diversity in their advertising with this campaign, and then someone jumps right to the Isle of Conclusions off the bat. Personally, I doubt it was even noticed. The juxtaposition of the ethnicity of the model and the unintentional pun (the pronunciational pun as opposed to the definitional/rhyming one) is a total coincidence. “Treat yourself light” is apparently a major new promotional slogan for Diet Coke and I can’t see something like this being done intentionally by a major international company. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/27 "2004-09-18T22:25:51Z")
> [@](#): > > “Treat yourself light” is apparently a major new promotional slogan for Diet Coke and I can’t see something like this being done intentionally by a major international company. As opposed to by, say, Abercrombie & Fitch, right? 🙂 Again, I’m not jumping to conclusions. I’m not ascribing any sinister motives. But considering that I’m not the only one for whom the unfortunate juxtaposition of slogan and model came immediately to mind, I’m surprised this wasn’t flagged and nixed in the development stages. It’s not as if it’s a smashing and witty slogan standing alone, anyhow. “Treat yourself light” doesn’t even make that much sense, even as a play on “treat yourself right.” “Live light,” for example, is a far more euphonious construction, and one to which I would be more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. But anyway, the title of the OP overstates things. Not appalled. Mildly gobsmacked. _shrug_ But YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/28 "2004-09-18T23:00:45Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Treat yourself “light”, as opposed to “right”, being that one of those typical Asian stereotypes is the pronunciation of Rs as Ls. It’s not a stereotype, it’s reality. The japanese language doesn’t make a distinction between R and L. So to their ears both letters sound the same. Our ears can hear only the sounds that they are expecting to hear. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/29 "2004-09-18T23:03:45Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > It’s not a stereotype, it’s reality. The japanese language doesn’t make a distinction between R and L. So to their ears both letters sound the same. Our ears can hear only the sounds that they are expecting to hear. True, but that’s Japanese - not Asians as a whole, and plenty of Japanese people can properly pronounce their Ls and Rs. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/30 "2004-09-18T23:32:13Z")
Funny, and I thought this OP was just going to be pitting the sheer stupidity of replacing “right” with “light” and calling it an ad campign. Weak rant, but vaguely more justified at least, but I guess I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/31 "2004-09-18T23:40:29Z")
> [@Gadarene](#): > > As opposed to by, say, Abercrombie & Fitch, right? 🙂 > > Again, I’m not jumping to conclusions. I’m not ascribing any sinister motives. But considering that I’m not the only one for whom the unfortunate juxtaposition of slogan and model came immediately to mind, I’m surprised this wasn’t flagged and nixed in the development stages. It’s not as if it’s a smashing and witty slogan standing alone, anyhow. “Treat yourself light” doesn’t even make that much sense, even as a play on “treat yourself right.” “Live light,” for example, is a far more euphonious construction, and one to which I would be more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. > > But anyway, the title of the OP overstates things. Not appalled. Mildly gobsmacked. _shrug_ But YMMV. Nobody ever said Graberbootie & Pinch was a _smart_ international retailer. And I think there’s a serious difference between deliberately selling a t-shirt that trades on an offensive stereotype and a coincidental merging of an innocuous (if vapid) ad slogan and one particular model of the appropriate ethnic background to make that slogan sound like its playing on a linguistic stereotype. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/32 "2004-09-19T00:02:59Z")
Well, when they run one of Barbara Walters telling us to “Tweet Yourself White . . .” ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/33 "2004-09-19T00:31:47Z")
And of course, if it were a caucasian blonde holding the product and saying “treat yourself light,” I’m sure someone would complain that there weren’t enough Asians being represented in the ads… Please, **Gadarene** …I normally like and agree with your posts…please, don’t go over to the ranks of the congenitally offended… ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/34 "2004-09-19T00:58:06Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Treat yourself “light”, as opposed to “right”, being that one of those typical Asian stereotypes is the pronunciation of Rs as Ls. I’m glad I’m not the only one who didn’t get it until you explained it. I thought maybe the OP was implying that Asian women don’t need to drink Diet Coke or something … ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/35 "2004-09-19T01:13:42Z")
This is only tangentially related but the only part of Lost in Translation that I enjoyed and wasn’t actively bored by was the call girl scene where Murray’s character is repeatedly told to _“lip my stockings”_ and it takes him around a minute to figure out what she was saying. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/36 "2004-09-19T01:13:47Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > And of course, if it were a caucasian blonde holding the product and saying “treat yourself light,” I’m sure someone would complain that there weren’t enough Asians being represented in the ads… More likely there’d be some English language mavens commenting loudly over the increasing incomprehensilibility of modern advertising slogans. ---
**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/37 "2004-09-19T01:14:46Z")
> [@](#): > > I was in CVS today, and I saw the new ad for Diet Coke that they’ve got displayed prominently above the twelve-packs. It features a smiling Asian woman holding a bottle of Diet Coke. Hmm, could the photo on the floor display have been the same as shown [here](http://www.creativemag.com/images2004/pacoke.jpg)? Or was the photograph on the floor display you encountered different? (Yes, I know it’s a little difficult to assess similarities and differences, given the distance at which the display was photographed, but perhaps you can let us know whether that image in the photograph above meshes with your overall impression of the model’s appearance and posture on the display you saw.) – Tammi Terrell ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/38 "2004-09-19T02:07:11Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > From what I’ve read here on the boards, [Japanese speakers can’t pronounce either.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4972042&postcount=16) > [@Dog80](#): > > It’s not a stereotype, it’s reality. The japanese language doesn’t make a distinction between R and L. So to their ears both letters sound the same. Our ears can hear only the sounds that they are expecting to hear. However, whatever sound is actually pronounced, the standard transliteration to English tends to represent it as an R: _Ryushu_, _Hirohito_, _Hiroshima_, _Subaru_, _maru_, and a host of others. (Hawaiian had a similar “problem” between Rs and Ls and between Ts and Ks, among others, until the Missionaries were were composing the Hawaaian dictionaries decided to impose specific rules that forced Honoruru to be written and spoken Honolulu and the name Thomas to be written and pronounced Koma.) ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/39 "2004-09-19T02:11:28Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > This is not an irrelevant observation: the stereotypes are that Japanese cannot pronounce /L/ and that Chinese cannot pronounce /R/–and those stereotypes do not even extend to the Koreans, Thais, etc. Therefore, the woman needs to be clearly identifiable as Chinese before such a stereotypical claim can be made. It’s not often i can say this about your posts, **tomndebb** , but i disagree completely. Just because **you** are aware of the differences doesn’t mean everyone is. All evidence i have seen of the “/L/ and /R/” stereotype suggests that it is quite frequently used for Asians in general, and used without respect to specific nationality. I’ve seen cases where Chinese were parodied in this manner, and Japanese, and Koreans, and Vietnamese. I don’t think the people who indulge in such stereotypes very often make the distinction, and i think perhaps that you credit their intelligence too much by suggesting that they do. As for the specific case of the OP’s example, i can certainly see how one might interpret the ad as playing to stereotypes, but nowdays big companies like Coke are so conscious of not projecting any adverse public image that i’m willing to bet that this ad is just an ad for light (i.e., diet) soda. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887/40 "2004-09-19T02:20:13Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > As for the specific case of the OP’s example, i can certainly see how one might interpret the ad as playing to stereotypes, but nowdays big companies like Coke are so conscious of not projecting any adverse public image that i’m willing to bet that this ad is just an ad for light (i.e., diet) soda. CHA-CHING!!! From here, [it’s clearly a part in the whole low-carb craze the kids are all talking about](http://www.bevnet.com/news/2004/05-05-2004-dietcoke_newgraph.asp) > [@](#): > > In January, new Diet Coke with Lime hit store shelves and is being exceptionally well-received by consumers, selling ahead of projections. The “light” citrus flavor approach taken with Diet Coke with Lime also was applied to a reformulated Diet Coke with Lemon, which was reintroduced at the same time. > Coca-Cola North America also is in the process of rolling out a merchandising program called “Treat Yourself Light,” that creates convenient diet beverage centers in supermarkets, mass merchandising outlets and drug stores. Anchored by Diet Coke, it features all diet carbonated soft drinks and Minute Maid Light products in the Coca-Cola North America portfolio. Let’s just hope that the ad for Coke with Lime doesn’t include any British women, lest we offend anyone’s sensibilities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-appalled-by-this-ad-for-diet-coke/264887.md?page=3)