“It's the Pepsi Generation….” Accelerated Aging and the Television Commercial

Abstract

“You've got a lot to live and Pepsi's got a lot to give,” is the Madison Avenue credo around which this article is written. The American youth complex and its disenfranchising effect upon the aging is examined via the medium of the television commercial The study takes a random sampling of one hundred television commercials and examines each according to a number of guidelines. Emphasis then shifts to the Pepsi-Cola commercial in order to illustrate the threefold youth complex which is seen as one of the critical factors in the societal process of disenfranchising the aging. The major concern here is that these commercials oriented toward youth produce anxiety and tension in the aging which, in turn, may cause them to exhibit symptoms of senility. Despite our awareness of the mass media's impact on the individual, further serious inquiry must be made concerning its multiple effects on the aging process.