Critical Analysis of Coca-Cola Adverts - Essay Example

Name Professor's name Course no. Date Coca-Cola Adverts Coca-Cola is the largest drinking company in the world that serves consumers in more than 200 countries with over 500 different brands. Even though the company is well known for its Coca-Cola drink, its total range consists of both sparkling water and localized brands that still adds to its over 14 billion portfolios globally. Coca-Cola was first established in 1886 by its co-founder Mr. John S Pemberton and now owns four of the largest five non-alcoholic brands around the world (Staff, n.d.). Its world penetration has been calculated to over 1.7 billion serving every day to consumers from the Coca-Cola portfolio. This represents over three thousand different products ranging from water to juices, coffer to teas and clearly to soft drinks. The company employees over 138,000 employees as of 2011 (Grillo, n.d.). The Coca-Cola Company's mission is simple but with a similar time vast. It approaches three major ideological concerts which are that of refreshing the world through further market penetration, to inspire and create value to itself, the shareholders and most importantly, the customers. Coca-Cola has been able to achieve the world market through relentless marketing campaigns especially through advertisements(Svendsen, 2013). The advertisement is the business of persuading consumers to purchase a product or a service. It has been a global cultural interaction that people experience in a practically reflexive manner on a daily basis. This is because adverts pursue people's fantasy aspirations and attract them to products and services offered. Consumers are influenced by adverts and are inspired by their way of life by merely looking at these adverts and creating a cultural thing of their own. Through advertisements and influences, consumers have had certain distinctive characteristics that represent their way of life while characterizing their existing civilized and cultural sphere in the present era. Adverts decide what people consume including clothes, food or drinks as their central utilization in their daily lives. AD 1: Coke First Ad The Coca-Cola Company employs different methods to endorse their products, and one of those methods used includes advertisements. The popular soft drink beverage started advertising from inception. When owner John Pemberton first sold his product at a soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, he published his first advert in 1886 in an Atlanta journal. The inaugural newspaper advert showed Coca-Cola's first and last tagline: "Delicious! Refreshing! Exhilarating! Invigorating!" This advert was simple with no inventiveness just some ordinary text that used no stylish fonts or images. Pemberton would later administer the advert at an influential newspaper to endorse his drink (Svendsen, 2013). Pemberton made an unlikely assertion that his drink would heal people from various ailments and also increase intelligence. These claims would later be proved false as newspaper adverts at that time were fraudulent and created by scam artists. Asa Candler took over after Pemberton death. He channelled twenty percent of the revenue to advertising realizing the impact it brought about sales. Chandler recognized the power of branding through large scale advertising that brought along huge success to the business. It is apparent that even in the early era, Coca-Cola spending a huge advertising budget because they believed in the persuasive message passed along adverts that reached audiences in a short time. The first advert however simple, it did raise curiosity to the people and led to sales. Introducing new products to the market can be a challenging task regarding convincing people to try the product let alone buy it. The message later added how the beverage would increase intelligence and heal ailments. Although false, people are usually gullible despite being lied to. Advertisement works best when it conveys a message of hope to the consumers creating an illusion of fulfilling their innermost desires. As the years progressed, Coca-Cola has continued to invest heavily on advertisements that have seen it grow to a multi-billion company. AD 2: "The Pause That Refreshes" - 1930 In this classic Coca-Cola ad, the image contains two parts. The first part includes a fully clothed brunette with hardly any revealing parts of her body, in the second part, there is a blonde woman showing off her beautiful and young body dressed in a bright yellow bathing suit that exposes her legs for us to see. The brunette lady represents the 1800s woman while the blonde lady represents the then modern 1930s lady. Both ladies in the photo convey the idea of joy and happiness from sipping a drink of Coca-Cola. The slogan for the advert is "The pause that refreshes" (Mooney, 2008). In essence, the ad represents how far America has evolved since the late 1800s to the early-mid 1900s. Coca-cola has remained the same, refreshing drink over the years. How these two women dress shows the time differences. The ad appeals to one's pathos since it captures the true emotions of happiness when a person drinks coke. Since everyone wants to be happy, the advertisement appeals to people to drink a Coca-Cola. Furthermore, the advert is an appeal to one's pathos nostalgically in that; in the fifty-year gap between the 1880s to the early 1930s, most people seeing the advert would relate to it as most have experienced both eras. It draws a sense of nostalgia, presumably bringing back the memories of the rather innocence of the time. The use of women is in advertisements during the 1930s was consistent throughout. Advertisement agencies recognized that people were attracted to beautiful and young models in an attempt to capture attention. These ads were well crafted to appeal to the consumers who eventually increased the company's profits. The use of a slogan is consistent during all those ads, on this one, "the pause that refreshes," it appeals to people to opt for a Coke whenever they have a break. AD 3: First Black Female ad for Coca-Cola - 1955 In this photo, there are three African American people, presumably a family of the sort. There are two adults, a man and a woman and a young man. The woman in the photo is wearing a swim suit while the two men are also shirtless. They seem to be drying themselves from what I can assume was a swimming activity. The photo ad slogan is "Fun-time is a good time for… The Good Taste of Coke." All three have smiles on their faces revealing a happiness nature of the ad while an elder man holds on to coke. This ad is a piece of history for the African-American community in an era where racial segregation was a real issue. Just like other coke ads, happy faces have been a theme that is consistent over the years. The advert associates happy activities such as swimming to a nice drink of coke. The slogan "Fun-time is a good time for a good taste of coke" indicates that the drink brings more fun in fun filled occasion. When a time of racial and gender equality was being fought for, Coca-Cola stood out and used an African American woman in their campaign. A gesture that would appeal to the black community. This was a marketing opportunity that was yet untapped and provided more market for the company. The happy faces were an assurance of happiness that lacked in the black community dues to the racism and segregation. Creating a happy environment through the taste of a Coke created an illusion of happiness and fun that was so desperately needed by the African American community. Mary Alexander was the coke model in this advert created some history for being the first black woman to appear in a coke advert, and this appealed to many black people at the time. It showed a great effort to combat racism and gender inequality by the Coca-Cola community while gaining a larger market share (STAR-BANNER, 2007). AD 4: "Summer: All it should be" - 2007 This is a modern day ad from Coca-Cola that has not changed much regarding its ideology. In this advertisement, a young, white, blonde lady in a small bikini is portrayed hugging a bigger-than-life classic Coca-Cola bottle. The lady seems perfect or rather "blemish free," and look extremely happy as she is innocent looking. Revealing from the photo is a catch phrase reading; "Summer: All it Should Be" (“Coca Cola - Pin Up posters - (2007) (New Zealand) | Adland ®,” n.d.) Several ideas can be built from this ad. First, seventy-one years later, a white, young, unblemished lady is still regarded as the "ideal" person in the society. Understandably, a 1936 society would comfortably display a white woman as their "showgirl" citing lack of many immigrants. Fast forward to the 2000s; it raises many questions as to why they continue to use white in more diverse culture and the fact that it is a multi-national company. The advert continues to convey the idea of happiness from the "perfect girl with the smile on her face," a standard message that Coca-Cola has set to its multiple audiences. Whether the audience target is male or female, the advertisement takes strides in setting up values of how we see ourselves or how we interact with the world. The advertisement as implied through the quote on top and photo is that, if you have coke in hand, you can be someone who attracts the perfect young girl and therefore achieving happiness. Likewise, you are a lady, the ad's message is that you can become the perfect woman with the perfect body as a standard for happiness. This modern ad has both appeals to pathos and logos since the drive to happiness and pleasure cannot be satisfied fully. The pathos part of this ad draws on the happiness emotion while the logos part is appealed through the man's feelings of happiness with the thought of attracting a young and beautiful lady. Similarly, the lady will assume that the pinnacle of happiness is through the perfect body that will attract any man she wants. Discussion Visual elements have been major aspects in advertisements. People interpret advertising messages from headlines and pictures and avoid reading adverts. Visuals are a great potential for advertisements including Coca-Cola. The main advantage about visual adverts is that they serve different functions simultaneously depending on how the advertiser exploits it. Company's advertising focuses on different techniques to evoke positive feelings towards a consumer. They conveniently place a product in a rather unusual setting or through a combination of unusual visual elements. Through visual adverts, companies can show the consumers a new and different way to consume their products (McQuarrie and Mick, 2003). Coca-Cola has used visual elements throughout their marketing campaigns and the aspect of introducing new ways to consume their product and the effect it may have on them. Just like the last advert discussed earlier, where an attractive young woman is holding on to a giant Coke. This ad evokes a feeling of happiness when a consumer thinks they may have the woman or attract any man when they consume a coke. Again, in the 1936 advert with the two contrasting women, Coca-Cola aims to show the consumer that the product can be consumed by anybody regardless of age or their culture. The third advert portraying an African America family aims at crossing boundaries set by the society. By portraying a black woman in the advert can be viewed as a bold move from Coca-Cola which could have backfired on them. Depending on the interpretation of an ad, however, an advert can have several messages to its audience. Thus, it is important to have a simple visual aspect to your ad to avoid conflicting messages or interpretations. The major shifts in the Coca-Cola advertising history can be attributed to the long-lasting success of its advertisers to adapt to the needs of the market. Over the years, coke advertisers were able to target their audience appropriately without many controversies and eliminating their competition. Conclusion Coca-Cola has always been able to identify its target group and proper linguistics to appeal to consumers. Maslow's hierarchy of needs can be used to identify the five basic categories used by Coca-Cola. The first is psychological which coke advertise as a thirst-quencher. The need to quench thirst is psychological, and coke has been able to present their product as one that can quench their thirst. Through adverts, coke associates itself with thirst and tell consumers to drink it in case of thirst. Secondly, Coca-Cola was created by a pharmacist who introduced the drink as a medicine to the market. The target group at the moment was those suffering from nervous affections and appealing to all groups of life. Thirdly, it is Coca-Cola as a refreshment. When Asa Candler took over Coca-Cola, he changed Coke's advert from medicine to a drink that contributes to someone's well-being and therefore suitable for everyone. Coca-Cola Advertisement has proved very flexible regarding communication with its audience. It has been able to present the same product in new and exciting ways that target new and wider audiences. Coke ads have always had and continues to have an appeal and desire to drink it. Having built a relationship between the product and its target, coke has made it possible for its audience to get emotionally connected. No wonder the company continues to grow. References Coca Cola - Pin Up posters - (2007) (New Zealand) | Adland ® [WWW Document], n.d. URL https://adland.tv/ooh/coca-cola-pin-posters-2007-new-zealand (accessed 8.1.17). Grillo, B., n.d. Exploring the Links Between International Business and Poverty reduction: The Coca-Cola/SABMiller value chain impacts in Zambia and El Salvador. Oxfam. McQuarrie, E.F., Mick, D.G., 2003. The contribution of semiotic and rhetorical perspectives to the explanation of visual persuasion in advertising. Persuas. Imag. Consum. Response Perspect. 191–221. Mooney, P., 2008. Coke and National Geographic: The Coca-Cola Company [WWW Document]. URL http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-and-nation (accessed 8.1.17). Staff, J., n.d. The Beginning | Our History | Coca-Cola GB [WWW Document]. URL http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/our-story-1886-1892--the-beginning (accessed 8.1.17). STAR-BANNER, H.D., 2007. Resident was first black woman in Coca-Cola ads [WWW Document]. Ocala.com. URL http://www.ocala.com/article/20070904/News/604240111 (accessed 8.1.17). Svendsen, S., 2013. Refresh. Create. Inspire. The Mission, Vision and Values Behind The Coca-Cola Company and the Digital Marketing Strategies of the “Open Happiness” Campaign. Masters Theses.  Appendix: AD 1: AD 2: AD 3: AD 4: Read More