{"id":45944,"date":"2012-04-09T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=45944"},"modified":"2013-11-08T04:41:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T09:41:02","slug":"the-quaker-oats-man-gets-a-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/04\/09\/the-quaker-oats-man-gets-a-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quaker Oats Man Gets a Makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Given <a href=\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/socimages\/sexy-toy-make-overs\/\" target=\"_blank\">our collection of toy make-overs<\/a>, I was curious when I heard that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adweek.com\/adfreak\/quaker-oats-man-gets-makeover-look-healthier-139286\" target=\"_blank\">Quaker Oats had re-vamped their mascot, Larry<\/a>. \u00a0In the toys we&#8217;ve covered, the trend is towards greater feminization and sexualization. \u00a0Larry, though, is a dude. \u00a0And do we really need to sexualize our oatmeal? \u00a0(Well, <a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2008\/11\/13\/using-sex-to-encourage-organ-donation\/\">you never know<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>It turns out what prompted the mascot make-over wasn&#8217;t an effort to make Larry sexier, but to make him look healthier. \u00a0According to the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052702303404704577309540451674640.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_1\" target=\"_blank\">Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/em>, the director of Quaker&#8217;s brand-design firm wanted to reinforce people&#8217;s association of oatmeal with &#8220;energy and healthy choices.&#8221; \u00a0And by &#8220;healthy,&#8221; they mean &#8220;thin.&#8221; \u00a0 They reduced the roundness of his chin and cheeks. \u00a0They also gave him a hair cut in order to expose the sides of his neck. \u00a0Another representative of the brand redesign explains:\u00a0&#8220;It&#8217;s the same neck,&#8221; but the haircut &#8220;makes him look thinner&#8230;\u00a0We took about five pounds off him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.adweek.com\/adfreak\/quaker-oats-man-gets-makeover-look-healthier-139286\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-45946\" title=\"1\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/04\/13.jpg\" width=\"484\" height=\"272\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If it&#8217;s tough for you to tell the difference between the two, it&#8217;s by design. \u00a0Quaker wants the changes to work on a subconscious level. \u00a0A fascinating peak into the motives and tactics of brand management.<\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\">Lisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/American-Hookup-New-Culture-Campus\/dp\/039328509X?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">American Hookup<\/a><em>, a book about college sexual culture; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gender-Interactions-Institutions-Lisa-Wade\/dp\/0393931072?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/intro\/\">Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a><em>.\u00a0You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisawadephd\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Given our collection of toy make-overs, I was curious when I heard that Quaker Oats had re-vamped their mascot, Larry. \u00a0In the toys we&#8217;ve covered, the trend is towards greater feminization and sexualization. \u00a0Larry, though, is a dude. \u00a0And do we really need to sexualize our oatmeal? \u00a0(Well, you never know.) It turns out what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[244,252,23703],"class_list":["post-45944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fat","tag-healthmedicine","tag-marketing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45944"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58416,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45944\/revisions\/58416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}