Food and Drink 
 
 Is the new 'skinny' Diet Pepsi sexist? 
 
 Pepsi says its slim new diet cola can celebrates "beautiful, confident women." Some say that's a message in bad taste 
 
 Just in time for New York City's fashion week, Pepsi has introduced a skinny new can meant to complement "today's most stylish looks." Photo: PEPSICO 
 
 Best Opinion: Brand Channel, Slate, BNET 
 
 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: 

 Pepsi is promoting a “skinny” can for Fashion Week, a move that is sure to offend many women — especially when they read PepsiCo (PEP)’s press release. The statement suggests that there is a connection between beautiful, stylish, confident women and being tall and skinny: 
 
 In celebration of beautiful, confident women, Diet Pepsi presents the taller, sassier new Skinny Can … 
 
 Chief Marketing Officer Jill Beraud — who ought to know better — is quoted saying: 
 
 Diet Pepsi has a long history of celebrating women through iconic fashion imagery seen in our infamous and historical campaigns, and we’re proud to continue that tradition as an official sponsor of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. 
 
 Our slim, attractive new can is the perfect complement to today’s most stylish looks, and we’re excited to throw its coming-out party during the biggest celebration of innovative design in the world. 
 
 Got that, fat chicks? Pepsi is celebrating tall and skinny soda/women because that’s what’s confident and stylish! And was it a Freudian slip that the statement uses the word “infamous” instead of the word Beraud probably meant, “famous”? Pepsi wasn’t particularly “infamous” for its advertising previously, but this can design will help correct that. 
 
 The backstory: The can actually has nothing to do with Fashion Week, although good luck getting that message across to the masses now that the grrrl blogosphere has gotten a hold of this. The alternate can redesign was previously unveiled in January and November. It hits at the retail level in March, weeks after Fashion Week is over. 
 
 The can holds the same amount of cola — 12 oz — so the redesign is actually an excellent idea in terms of distinguishing it from Diet Coke and grabbing some of the heat that’s been generated by Red Bull et al. in the energy drink category. And you can probably fit more of them in the door of your fridge. 
 
 But tying the can to an event with a history of favoring women whose body types are unusual at best and so unhealthy as to be fatal at worst? Not smart. Makes the old can look like your fat friend. 
 
 Related:
– It's Fashion Week in New York, and Pepsi is debuting a new design of its own: a skinny can. Sounds harmless enough, until you read the press release accompanying the slender product. "In celebration of beautiful, confident women, Diet Pepsi presents the taller, sassier new Skinny Can…" Ouch. "Got that, fat chicks?," writes Jim Edwards for BNET. "Pepsi is celebrating tall and skinny soda/women because that’s what’s confident and stylish!" The skinny can itself is a great idea, writes Edwards: It holds the same 12 ounces, but no longer looks just like Diet Coke. In fact, it's more like Red Bull and other brands in the oh-so-hot energy drink category. Plus, "you can probably fit more of them in the door of your fridge." But Edwards notes that the redesign was unveiled months ago, and won't hit stores til March, and chides Pepsi for unnecessarily "tying the can to an event with a history of favoring women whose body types are unusual at best and so unhealthy as to be fatal at worst." Dumb move, he writes. "Makes the old can look like your fat friend." (Click for more sexist-or-not? opinions.)