Frito-Lay advert from National Geographic supplement (April, 2009)

This advertisement is from a National Geographic supplement (April, 2009). The target audience for this ad is, obviously, a National Geographic audience that is likely to support environmental causes and (admittedly without doing formal research) is largely of an educated middle class. Note the use of more formal images and a more sophisticated accompanying text than we would see in the Frito-Lay magazine, Good Fun. Good Fun, whose audience is Frito-Lay employees (largely blue-collar working class) uses a much more simplistic aesthetic and textual style. This is not to say that the ad proclaiming Frito-Lay’s devotion to all things environmental is complex enough to challenge the understanding of anyone but young children, but there is certainly a difference in approach.

In this National Geographic advertisement, several images are juxtaposed to reinforce the idea that Frito-Lay’s use of alternative energy (this selection of gleaming solar panels) will preserve idealized images of a beautiful world filled with nature—free from all things wasteful and unsightly (crystal clear waterfalls, pristine virgin forests, beautiful landscapes, sunflowers in full bloom).

Without fail, our consumption of Frito-Lay as a brand cannot be complete without some of the “cute” tags that are common to our understanding of Frito-Lay as “good” and “fun.” Even the recycling symbol is made of Fritos. So, the message is that Frito-Lay is an environmentally conscious company that still knows how to have a good and fun time. Who can deny themselves good and fun or fun and good? Brilliant.