Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

ScarJo’s Other SodaStream Problem: The Sexist Ad

No matter where you stand on Israeli politics, it’s hard not to see Scarlett Johansson’s decision to become a spokesperson for SodaStream as a bold choice.

Unfortunately, this boldness didn’t make its way into the commercial itself. Instead, the ad relies on the most cliche, ickily retro advertising tropes imaginable.

If you are reading this you have probably have already seen the spot. If not, spare yourself the 33 seconds and allow me to summarize. We meet Johansson on a set, where she is wearing a full face of make-up and a crisp, white robe. She runs through the environmental and health benefits of the product, and then, changing gears to a more girlish voice, says “if only I could make this message go viral.”

The robe slips off, baritone-voiced soul music pipes in, and Johansson walks up to a stage where she begins to make out with her straw, coming up for air only to say “sorry Coke and Pepsi” in a tone that suggests she is bidding adieu to aggrieved ex-lovers. Yech.

The commercial’s campy vibe suggests that its makers were trying to play it light and kitschy — it’s possible they even thought that they were making fun of using sex to sell something, all the while knowing they were using sex to sell something. Ya know, they were having their (possibly illegal) soda water and drinking it too.

Except the irony, if even intended, doesn’t really come through. What is clear, however, is Johansson’s pillowy lips moving up and down a straw and, well, that’s enough. The woman played a cyborg with very believable sex appeal. You know what she is capable of.

There is a lot riding on this campaign, for Johannson and the company. They must have spent a lot of money on the sultry-voiced actress, and she gambled some serious political capital aligning herself with a business that is based behind the Green Line.

What SodaStream’s got going for it, location of one of its factory aside, is it’s progressive values. It’s product represents a greener future, a more progressive and mindful way to live, all the while Coke and Pepsi are still wasting fossil fuels shipping sugar water around the world. Too bad then that this commercial, its big attempt to go mainstream, didn’t message any of those forward thinking values. Instead, they came off looking just like all the those sugar-water peddlers they so desire to eclipse.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.