Introducing the New Sun Maid Girl

I came across an article about the controversy over changing the Sun Maid raisin advertisement. The Sun Maid girl has been a popular icon that has been easily recognized for over 90 years. It is the bottom picture of the two I posted. The original icon was based upon a woman picking grapes in her backyard and symbolizes the simplicity of life in rural areas. However, in the past three years, the advertising agency has been pushing for a more modernized Sun Maid girl, with a refreshed and refurbished look. This icon is the topmost picture in my post. The agency thought this new icon would be more appealing to consumers because it would represent the reality of women in this day and age, and therefore would be more relatable to modern society. There are some feminists who are against the refurbished icon state and they claim that the new Sun Maid Girl looks like “Julia Roberts decided to don a red bonnet and start picking some grapes”. These feminists would prefer the simplicity of the classic icon and believe that reforming the Sun Maid girl would project ideas to women about their body image, since the new Sun Maid girl is much thinner and has more defined breasts than the original. However, the president of Sun Maid claims that the point of the icon is to promote raisins as a healthy snack, so showing a leaner icon may reinforce this notion.

I personally do not think it is a good idea to change the Sun Maid girl. There are certain icons that are classics that we have grown up with, such as the Pillsbury doughboy and Aunt Jemima. These are icons that we would recognize anywhere, and once they are changed, I feel like that would change a consumer’s ideas about the product even though the product remains the same. One benefit of refurbishing the icon would be that the new advertisement would appeal to ethos of people in modern society. Consumers would look at the Sun Maid girl as a typical woman in the 21st century and therefore be interested in buying the healthy snack so they could look like her or be as pleased as she looks in the ad. However, in this case, I think that keeping the original icon would evoke a strong emotional reaction from consumers and use pathos to persuade consumers to buy Sun Maid raisins. When people see the Sun Maid girl, they experience nostalgia about their childhood and remember how long that icon has been around. I agree that the icon reminds consumers about the simple things in life, and allows them to temporarily escape from the pressures of modern society. This has a stronger appeal than identifying the traits an audience possesses. Although identification before persuasion as advocated by Charland is generally a useful tactic in persuasion, sometimes the traditional approach can evoke pathos and be more effective.

Here's the link to the article: http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108296/sun-maid-girl-makeover-sparks-controversy.html?mod=family-love_money