Why PEP Vitamins? Pep Gives You Energy

The source I chose to analyze was an advertisement by Kellogg’s. The advertisement seems to be a fairly old photograph from the 1930’s-1940. There’s a photo of a man and woman who appears to be husband and wife, the box of vitamins in the lower left corner, and a few sayings from the couple. You can tell this is an old photograph because the photo is in black and white. Also by the way they’re dressed. The wife is dressed you’re your typical house wife while the husband is dressed in a suit in tie. The intended audience for this advertisement is the general public.

Kellogg’s is trying to promote PEP vitamins. The message they’re trying to give is that these vitamins are good for you. Kellogg’s claims that you should consider taking PEP vitamins because they give you energy. One may choose to rebuttal against Kellogg’s promoting this because they may think that it’s just a regular vitamin, or they just won’t take it simply because they don’t want to, but after reading the message between the husband and wife in the lower right corner, they may consider taking it. Kellogg’s is backing up their claim by having the wife saying “Vitamins darling! I always get my vitamins”. The wife says this because the husband see’s that she’s full of energy after a long day of work. In the conversation on the bottom right, the husband makes a remark talking about all of the house cleaning and cooking, and after all of that she’s still thriving, but after he’s done a day’s worth of work, he’s exhausted.

We can assume that the author of this advertisement values energy and health. We can assume this, again referring to the conversation in the lower right, because of how energized the woman is. Kellogg’s main point is that PEP vitamins give you strength to do a full day of work and still have energy afterwards. Also, from the name of the vitamins ‘PEP’, one may be familiar with the saying “put a PEP in your step”, meaning some sort of boost, and that’s what PEP does. It gives you a boost of energy.

Although Kellogg’s does a great job at promoting their PEP vitamins, one may say that this advertisement is sexist. Because there’s a woman promoting the vitamins, then perhaps these vitamins are for women only. If you look at the bigger picture, the woman is standing in front of her husband in with a dress and apron on with the dust bunny in her hand. The husband is standing behind her in his nice suit. This is your typical housewife and working husband. The husband says to his wife “so the harder a wife works, the cuter she looks!” One may interpret this and say that the husband is saying how it’s the woman’s job as a wife to stay home and clean, and still look nice. A woman has the right to work as well as a man. Some men make it seem as if the women shouldn’t be in the work place. They try to make it seem like women are incapable of doing anything other than staying home and being a housewife.

“Flashback: Every Wifey’s Beauty Secret Circa 1930.” RSS. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://www.popsugar.com/love/1930s-Kellogg-Pep-Cereal-Advertisement-1673932>.