Is the new 'skinny' Diet Pepsi sexist?

The product: Just in time for New York's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Pepsi has introduced a new taller, skinnier can for its diet cola. PepsiCo says the new "Diet Pepsi Skinny Can" will "celebrate beautiful, confident women" and make for "the perfect complement to today's most stylish looks." Commentators, however, aren't so sure the soda's sleek new cylinder sends a positive message.

The reaction: On the surface, the new can is a smart way to "refresh" an old product, says Abe Sauer at Brand Channel. But Pepsi's marketing pitch equating "skinny" with "beautiful and confident" is a "tremendous shame." Indeed, consumers expect a more "more sophisticated argument" than this, like Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty," says Libby Copeland at Slate. Pepsi's marketing pitch is particularly tone deaf because they're tying the new can to New York Fashion Week, says Jim Edwards at BNET. That's an "event with a history of favoring women whose body types are unusual at best and so unhealthy as to be fatal at worst." Pepsi should "know better." See the can makeover for yourself:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up