ad analysis: Campbell Soup

I looked through O, the Oprah magazine for an ad, because I wanted to show how a magazine targeted toward women that has the tagline of "Live Your Best Life" and headlines such as "You don't have to be thin to be gorgeous," "Getting Good at Love," "The Happiness Plan", also has tons of ads that reinforce everything the articles claim to combat. Why have a huge headlining story about body image and embracing all body types, with ads on every other page that promote weight loss programs and cosmetic surgery? Oprah magazine seems to be targeted at middle-class women by the cost of the items they promote and some of the issues they address, such as how to get promotions when working corporate jobs. The ad I picked is for Campbell Soup. The headline says: "Help Michelle get from lunch to dinner without stuffing her face with stuff." The rest of the page is a maze in the shape of a bag of chips, where the starting point is Lunch and the end is Dinner. In the middle of the maze is a can of Campbell soup, which they are marketing as the "between-meal meal" that is under 100 calories.
I think the ad is meant to be amusing or funny, but I find the tone of the headline nasty and demeaning. The headline "Help Michelle get from lunch to dinner without stuffing her face" portrays women as having no self-control and encourages and normalizes dieting, the super thin standard of beauty, and the unhealthy eating behavior found in a lot of women who diet. It is also infantilizing—Michelle can't help herself, so you should help her by navigating through the maze drawing in the ad, which is reminiscent of childhood games. It reinforces the idea that women should have a negative relationship with food, and feeds the shame that many women feel about their eating habits, or about being overweight.
I think this ad is one of the many ways that cultural norms of beauty and desirability are enforced through shaming and negatively framing anyone who isn't really thin. Being inundated in ads like this results in at the worst eating disorders, and at best, leads to general body image insecurities and negative feelings about food.