[8.6.1] If you trace the evolution of ads in the following “Timeline” of ads from the 1700s to the 1980s from the American Advertising Museum, note the shift in the focus of the primary topic of the ads from the product itself with a lot of information about the product to an increasing use of images and audience use of the product.

[8.6.2] The “Joy of Pepsi” ad campaigns portrays the “Pepsi Generation” in an idealized manner as a group who is equated with celebrities Britney Spears, Jeff Gordan, Shakira, Ken Griffrey, Jr., and Sammy Sosa, images of status or fame that are they equated with being a member of the “Pepsi Generation,” which, in turn, is equated with drinking Pepsi.

Ads also position audience to adopt gazes that define females or males as the objects of desire — as things to be desired:

[8.6.3] Notes on ‘The Gaze’
[8.6.4] This is Not Sex: A Web Essay on the Male Gaze, Fashion Advertising, and the Pose