Freedom: a critique of Gatorade's Bill of Rights

Jackson Lears, in his essay, "The Culture of Consumption," addresses Henri Lefebvre's view on the "decline of referentials."

"Under capitalism, visual and verbal signs become from all traditional associations and meanings in general have eroded. The world or advertisements has gradually acquired an Alice-in-Wonderland quality."

In this magical world of advertising the words and ideas which have for centuries been attached to, and filled with the meanings of, concrete tangible objects, have been cut free. These floating signifiers, detached from their original significance, have been appropriated by advertisers and used to sell products. In Gatorade's "Bill of Rights" the idea of freedom, so key to the American way of life, is subject to this referential rape.

Karl Marx argued that the structure of a capitalist society alienated man from the product of his labor, and thus from his freedom. For Marx, alienation meant unfreedom. For the working class, the trading of labor for wage is not done freely, rather it is coerced from the worker as a necessary means of existence. It is the job of the capitalist to sell back to the working class, for profit, the very product of the workingman's labor. Thus, in a sense, with the help of advertising, the capitalist offers to sell workers back their freedom. In this Gatorade ad the idea of purchasing freedom in the form of a commodity has reached its Zenith.

Let me break down this ad into bite sized pieces to discover how Gatorade has appropriated the idea of freedom. Starting with the obvious, Gatorade has appropriated the national symbol, the stars and stripes, the red, white, and blue, to signify our nation's heroic identity. In this version the blue sky is complete with stars and clouds, while the red is a mix of heroic athletic images and people gulping down Gatorade. Since red has long been the color of courage, of blood on the battle field, we can assume that these athletes (and Gatorade drinkers) are courageously exercising their freedom with a military-like heroism. Reading in-between the lines, that is on the white stripes of the flag, we find the text of the athletic "Bill of Rights," and isolated images of a tall black basketball player, a runner in full stride, a crumpled Gatorade cup, and the Gatorade icon. All that is left to do is to connect the dots. The text of the athletic Bill of rights, a cheesy appropriation of the real thing, has symbolically referenced the American ideal of freedom, though the translation does some damage to the previous meaning of the concept. This method of appropriating authentic American symbols, such as the flag and the Bill of Rights, while referencing old meanings, has effectively created new meanings for these symbols. In this ad freedom is no longer equated with war or democracy, rather with a sports drink and the ability to exercise your body. By using this symbolic representation of freedom, Gatorade sells back to the consumer the patriotic identity and spirit of our country which we have been alienated from over the last century. In a twisted and backwards way the consumer is granted his or her freedom by buying back into this hegemony.

Alison McLain