HERE IS A CLOSE ANALYSIS OF THE NEW PEPSI-COLA ADVERTISEMENT, RECENTLY RELEASED IN GREAT BRITAIN --
Firstly, for our valued readers who have not yet viewed this new video advertisement from Pepsi, here is the link, which will allow the ad to be played as a streaming file ( broadband ), or downloaded to a Windows-viewable file via dial-up connection --
http://www.pepsi.co.uk/music/videomusic.asp?artist_id=12
The production values of this music video-style advertisement are strictly first-class, and the three singers selected to play female gladiators are among the most popular and successful pop entertainers in the world: Britney Spears has, of course, represented Pepsi-Cola for some time, but her recent "publicity" binge appears to have been a stunt of some kind. Savvy readers will recall her recent "binge", wherein she ran off to Las Vegas with an young man from her home town, and enjoyed about fifty-five hours of being married to him. It was then annulled in a very public way and quickly forgotten.
THE GLADIATRIX
Although she is not the first one to appear in the video, Aelicia Moore of Doylestown, Pennsylvania is the first female gladiator to enter the arena of the amphitheater. She is also the first one to begin singing. Raised in Philadelphia and known by her stage name of Pink, she appears without her shocking pink hair. Rather her hair is silky, long and nearly platinum blonde, suggesting that she was taken captive from the Suevi ( ancestors of the Swiss ), or from a Teutonic tribe from across the Rhine. By tradition, gladiators were usually recruited from captives taken in battle, from slave families, and occasionally from 'freeborn' persons who hired out to fight.
She wears the metal shoulder piece called a galerus and what appears to be a chain-mail bikini top, and the short apron or subligaculum which is also armored. Appearing without a partner, "Pink" would thus be a Teutonic or German Catervarii, the specific Roman term for gladiators who appeared in groups, unpaired. Her weapon is the Mace, rounded with barbs and she carries the small Thracian shield.
First to appear in the video, but third to enter the arena, Beyonce Giselle Knowles was born in Houston, Texas and is now twenty-two years old. Her appearance suggests that this gladiator was taken captive in either southern Egypt or another part of northern Africa, for her skin is dark but her hair is auburn with golden highlights. In modern terms she might appear to be a Berber or an inhabitant of Ethiopia. She wears no helmet or armor but has a tiara-like band of gold on her head.
As a gladiator she is outfitted in the style of the Retiarii, carrying the three-pronged Fuscina or Trident harpoon, and the net called a rete. In Roman times the Retiarii would usually also have a dagger but no sword. Knowles is photographed in a posed position before entering the arena, enveloped in a soft blue haze or light, suggesting she is a Mermaid or a supernatural woman of the Mediterranean sea. She does not wear the galerus but stylized golden shoulder-pieces.
Appearing third in the video, entering the arena second, is the gladiator played by Britney Jean Spears of Kentwood, Louisiana. Aptly named Britney, she appears as a kind of captive Briton and evokes the legendary Queen Boudicca, who led a revolt against Roman occupation in 61 A.D. She wears the galerus and carries the short Thracian sword. Her attire definitely evokes royalty or a royal origin, as her breastplate-top bears two eight-pointed stars [ geometrical, not specifically like the eight-pointed medallion which graced the bared breast of Janet Jackson at the recent Super Bowl show ]. So, too, her stylized headband evokes the status of a princess or a Queen of a Britannic tribe.
Strutting out in order, and surveying the cheering throngs, after tossing their weapons to the dirt floor of the arena, Pink begins the "we will, we will rock you" chant, and then Britney, Beyonce and Pink sing the lyrics in sequence. Their voices are precisely modulated and each one has its own characteristics accentuated. Pink is raspy and rough, Britney is melodious and vixenish, Beyonce is daring and dramatic, sensual and graceful.
THE ARENA AND THE MUNERATOR OR DOMINUS
The way the amphitheater or colosseum is shot for this video, it appears stylized from any of a number of similar places where gladiatorial combats were held. Defined as a munus, the presentation of gladiatorial combats evolved from Etruscan times, and was adopted by Romans originally for the purpose of completed a funeral procession ( including a pyre ). The suggestion of a funeral celebration is made in the video by the prominence of black bunting, draped conspicuously in "M" shapes. Thus, too, the host of the munus is called an "editor," munerator or dominus. The person presenting a gladiatorial combat could be a public official, which usually meant the fighting was a part of a celebration or festival, or a private person. Under the Republic, when a private person hosted the munus, they were allowed to display emblems or insignia of a magistrate. Women were included in gladiatorial combats after the end of the republic and the beginning of the Empire.
In the video for this Pepsi ad, the munerator is played by Enrique Iglesias ( or 'Henry Church' ), who is also a popular young singer. In the first part of the video he takes a Pepsi from a large bronze chest, which appears to contain fifteen cans of the soft-drink, and as the vibrations of the crowd chanting and beating drums grows in volume, the bronze chest slides off the pedestal on which it rests and falls into the arena. The reaction of the pedestal springing back propels the munerator, who appears dressed as a Roman consul or noble, into the arena as well.
At the conclusion of the video, the three gladiatrix -- the two fair-skinned Catervarii and the Retarii -- grab cans of Pepsi to quench their own thirsty voices, and then proceed to toss Pepis-Cola into the wildly-cheering crowd. It is at this point that the Lion appears behind the shocked munerator ( Iglesias ).
A MOST MEANINGFUL COMMENT
Captured for all interested viewers, Pink makes a comment on the production of the video for the Pepsi advertisement. She notes that the three girls come out into the arena as gladiatrix, where they are "expected to fight each other", but instead, "they band together, as they should, to overthrow the King." Given that Rome was not ruled by a regular king, after the collapse of the Republic, but by an Emperor, this strongly suggests that the munerator -- 'Henry Church' or Enrique Iglesias -- is a King of some notability who is hosting the munus as a funeral celebration !!! The fact that he is young and handsome appears to be irrelevant to the sentiment of the crowd in attendance. He is a singular character, he sits alone in the box, with his "treasure trove" of Pepsi, and even his advisors ( pictured standing well behind him ), appear to be laughing at him.
Thus, the inescapable conclusion of this presentation, made with great skill and at considerable expense, is that these three are captives of this King, each wearing a headband which suggests some royal standing of their own ( individual sovereignty ), each representing an ethnic strain or bloodline.
Spears represents the rebel queen of the Roman occupation of Brittania, and thus rebellious British-Americans of 1776, and their Anglo-Celtic origins. Moore represents the Teutonic bloodline of immigration to the United States both in the colonial era and afterwards, and she comes out of the modern Philadelphia music scene. Knowles represents what has to be called 'the Creole strain' of the American population, being so obviously a combination of both African and French Creole characteristics, and all baked to a beautiful golden brown in the Texas sun. Nor can the video be viewed without noticing that these three young singers are physically beautiful and artistically talented.
The associations to be made here are also inescapable. Musical ability trumps their skill with weapons, the three young gladiatrix refuse to fight each other in the arena, and the "King" is literally thrown over and to the Lions. The victorious vixens then scoop up the "treasure" held so selfishly by the King, and they each participate in offering this bounty to the people at large.
Finally, the FIFTEEN cans of Pepsi-Cola evokes the FIFTEEN members of Skull & Bones selected each year, the black funeral bunting of the munus evokes the knowledge that Skull & Bones is part of the mysterious Brotherhood of Death, and the fact that fourteen cans in the "treasure chest," so like pirates' booty, are given away at the end of the drama, tells its own miraculous tale. That is, "the treasure which has been stolen by those who style themselves the Kings of Death" has been reclaimed, so drink Pepsi, and get your own share of the treasure.
Pictured below: Aelicia "Pink" Moore rocks out --
