Gatorade

             "Is it in you?" This saying alone will generally spark the thought of Gatorade into almost any consumers head. Over the last few years Gatorade has been nailing this phrase into Americans heads in order to persuade them to buy there colorful fruit flavored sport drinks. Recently, Gatorade has put a new product onto the market. Gatorade has introduced Propel fitness water into the already crowded market of bottled waters. In an ad in a July/August 2002 issue of Men's Health, Gatorade tries to "propel" their new water past the competition. Gatorade tries to focus on America's notions of fitness, athletes, and sports drinks by trying to aim their advertisement to the average person by portraying a drink for the "hardcore" athlete.
             As you first turn to the advertisement you are immediately drawn to the colorful soccer players spurting out of a bubbler as if they were a stream of water. All the players are wearing very colorful and contrasting uniforms, which separates them from the drab background of the bubbler and wall. A Propel bottle also sits very vibrantly in the bottom right hand corner. There are also to very bold statements running across the page that say "What if Gatorade made water?" and "Lightly flavored. Vitamin Charged. The fitness water.".
             When I look at this advertisement I see more than meets the eye. For instance, the soccer players, I see this as an attempt by Gatorade to give Propel a "hardcore athlete" appearance to the consumers, who in all likely hood are not hardcore athletes. It is almost as if Gatorade is saying, "Drink this and you shall be a superstar." Every American at some point in their life has desired to be the scorer of the winning goal, the superstar so to speak. Gatorade is appealing to the consumer's fantasy with the graphic in this ad.
             Another interesting repetition in this particular ad is the emphasis on how Propel contains vitamins. Americans have such an obsession with their weight and diets in this new century that the word vitamin automatically strikes a cord.