'Rhetorical Analysis Of Popchips'

In today’s culture, many women possess the desire to lose weight and maintain perfect and glamorous bodies. This ideology often occurs as a result of media pressure where advertisements endorse obtaining better physiques and create comparisons to celebrities. An advertisement that combines these two stressing issues would then have great influence on a woman and persuade them to buy items that achieve the look wanted by society. Evidence of this impact can be found through the evaluation of advertisements that rely on celebrity endorsement as well as an appealing ad to sell a product. Through an analysis of the effects of celebrity endorsement and rhetorical elements of the ad, Popchips, a type of healthy potato chip substitute, presents itself as an example of rhetorical manipulation on an fitness-orientated society.

This Popchip ad portrays the singer Katy Perry in workout clothes sitting on a yoga ball against a red background. Her outfit exposes her abs and arms to display a toned body. Bright makeup is applied onto her face and her hair is an eccentric

purple. The background and chip bags are red. In contrast, Katy Perry’s headband, workout pants, and yoga ball are purple. Her arms are lifting two barbeque Popchips bags in the place of dumbbells. The camera catches Katy Perry from a front view with an expression of mild fatigue as if lifting the bags is physically draining. Above her head, the writing “Love. Without the Handles.” is displayed in big, bold, and white text. Then, Katy Perry’s quote “I curl Popchips straight to my lips. Good thing they don’t go straight to my hips.” appears above her head in smaller text.
This 2012 ad by Popchips originates from a campaign that displays celebrities Katy Perry and Ashton Kutcher in different situations in which they eat Popchips (Marikar). Before this ad’s release, Popchips received backlash from a racist ad that involved Ashton Kutcher in brown makeup. In order to balance out this backlash, Popchips needed to have a more light and goal-orientated ad. So, they utilized Katy Perry’s bubbly personality combined with a large claim to produce this ad. Popchips aims to persuade people to buy their chips, because they are a healthier alternative to baked and regular potato chips. The focus on glamour, fitness and “love handles” suggest that people, more specifically women, should be more inclined to buy these healthy chips.
Visual metaphor is largely used to emphasize the claim that Popchips are more healthy.

In the ad, Katy Perry lifts Popchips instead of dumbbells which symbolizes a claim such as “Popchips are also a tool to help you get a slim and healthy figure.” With this symbolism, viewers can conclude that, like a dumbbell, Popchips can give them the healthy body that they desire. Katy Perry’s use of workout clothes also adds to this idea. Her outfit cleverly shows her strong abs and muscular arms. Working out is also made glamorous by her vibrant makeup and hardworking facial expression as well. This portrayal of physical fitness is persuasive and exciting to the audience. If Katy Perry wore a different outfit and still lifted the chips as dumbbells, then the message would remain unclear. Thus, the ad’s main point suggests to the audience that they can look as glamorous and healthy as Katy Perry if they eat

Popchips.
The position of the elements of the ad also adds interesting appeal to the advertisement. For example, Katy Perry is centered in the ad, but her body is slightly twisted as if to appear in motion and focused on something else. Only her face is directly facing the audience. This posture creates an active look for Katy Perry and builds her image of athleticism. Her arms hold the bag of Popchips in a symmetrical fashion that give the ad a balanced look despite the contrasting bright colors of red and purple. Throughout the ad, the viewers’ eyes tend to travel from the bottom of the ad to the top, because every piece of the ad such as her arms creates an imaginary line up to the text. This emphasis on the text makes the viewer focus on the message of “Love without the handles.” at the top of the ad. If any eyes should wander back to the bottom of the ad, the creators of the ad give a second surprise. Next to the exercise ball, the phrase “Think popped.” is displayed. Given the connotation between exercise balls and their tendencies to pop easily, this placement is both clever and gives another lasting impression before the viewer exits the ad.
In addition to clever placement, the appearance of the text included in the ad relays the intended message to the appropriate audience. The most outstanding text in the ad is the claim “Love. Without the Handles.” The periods at the end of the phrases creates a bold statement as the reader briefly pauses when reading each part. In this pause, the reader can reflect on the statement and can determine an appropriate response as to whether the ad is believable. With a simple but bold claim, the ad attracts its targeted audience of people avoid weight gain as well as separates skepticism in the quality of Popchips. If a person looked at this ad, they would be immediately drawn to this phrase and would continue to search the ad for the item that would avoid weight gain. Under this large slogan, Katy Perry’s name is in medium text size under her quote: “I curl Popchips to my lips. Good thing they don’t go straight to my hips.” The quote itself uses rhetorical devices to persuade the reader. The use of rhyme through the words “chips”, “lips”, and “hips” provides a fun and memorable touch to the quote. The phrase “go straight to my hips” contains a hyperbole as well. By stating this phrase, Katy Perry implies in an exaggerated form that other chips are the cause of weight gain. This idea also aligns with the ad’s message to the audience that Popchips are healthy than other chips.
The use of color and shadow also creates an emphasis on Katy Perry and her desirable body. Red is often a color that symbolizes empowerment or anger. In this case, the red in the ad empowers women to delight in the fact that they can still eat potato chips while trying to lose weight. In comparison to the fiery red background, Katy Perry’s bright purple outfit stands out creating a quirky and active look to Katy Perry. The background also creates a focus on her pale skin and accentuates the muscular ripples throughout her body. This effect makes Katy Perry appear more physically fit than reality. As another rhetorical image, Katy Perry’s shadows portray a enlarged figure on the outside of her body. This idea conveys that Katy Perry has lost weight through Popchips and her old figure is only a shadow. This hidden message plays on the intended audience of women looking to obtain a slimmer appearance.
Throughout this Popchips ad, celebrity endorsement and rhetorical elements provide an instance of the power of rhetoric on an audience that focuses on body image. The endeavor to obtain a perfect body creates an audience that follows the trends and celebrities closely. With this occurrence, advertisements have leverage over the audience and can easily persuade them to a certain action using celebrities and visual appeal. As a result, the desire to lose weight and maintain celebrity physique is one of many instances where visual rhetoric plays a large part in advertising's influence on audience.