Introduction
Coca-Cola boasts a very rich advertising history with over one hundred years of print advertising and over one hundred promotional advertisements. Coca-Cola has not only been among the leaders in the soft drinks industry with the over 500 brands it has today and selling 1.7 billion drinks in a single day. The company has made numerous strides since its inception in May 1886. The company was incepted by an Atlanta-based pharmacist who sold the syrup that now makes the beverage as a soda fountain and his partner, Mr. Robinson suggested that they brand it Coca-Cola as he felt that the two Cs would look nice in an advert and thus began the long history of Coca-Cola advertising.
Most of the Coca-Cola brand’s success is attributed to their pervasive and persuasive advertising campaigns. Coca-Cola understands that we are a consumer society where people will buy products not because they need them, but because they perceive some satisfaction and pleasure that they so thirst for that they think the product will provide. This realization has made Coca-Cola an integral part of not just the American but also, increasingly, the international community. The corporation’s ability to target several audiences with their highly effective adverts is a topic worth studying. In its over one hundred advertisements, Coca-Cola though targeting different audiences, remains true to its aim, to appeal to young and youthful audiences.
I will attempt to juxtapose two of the widely known and highly effective Coca-Cola advertisement campaigns, try to identify their similarities and their differences while at the same time seeking to find out whether they were a hit or a miss: The sprite boy and the naked girl. The pixie in the Sprite boy Coca-Cola advert made his first appearance in the early 1940s and, contrary to popular belief, this sprite did not represent the company’s today’s Sprite brand. In fact, the two are totally unrelated. The Sprite brand only came to be over 20 years later long after the sprite boy left the advertising scene. The Sprite boy poster has its main character as a pixie adorned in a devil like a smile surrounded by stars. The body of the boy is not visible, and only his head and hands are visible. The message on the poster is ‘come let’s enjoy a coke’ and the pixie points at a giant bottle of Coca-Cola. Additionally, he wears a Coca-Cola cap hat that further drives the message home. The essence of the Sprite Boy advert, at least the very first one, was as a form of resigned acceptance of the nickname ‘coke’ that Coca-Cola had been branded in the market place. When it was first referred as ‘coke’ the company was vehemently against it due to its negative connotation, seeing as it is that cocaine was and is still widely referred to under the same name. However, in June 1941, the company accepted that this nickname was not about to go away and the sooner they accepted it the sooner they would move on (The Coca-Cola Company, 2009).
The Sprite boy Coca-Cola advert, therefore, sought to show the connection between the nickname Coke and the brand Coca-Cola and not cocaine. The boy seems to be inviting the audience to join him and enjoy a coke, which, as he points out is Coca-Cola. To convince the audience further, Sprite boy addressed them directly by telling them that although they call him Coke, it is short for Coca-Cola and indicated that he does not blame them as it is natural for people to be drawn to short words. In this one single image, the resistance to the name coke came to a halt and was accepted universally. Such is the power of a well thought out and crafted advertising campaign.
The other coca cola advert that caused a stir in a different way was the Coca-Cola sexy girl advert (The Coca-Cola Company, 2009). In this advert is a large image of a youthful looking girl, flawless skin and long brunet hair, completely naked. She sits on a Coca-Cola bottle cap with a posture that conveniently shields her private parts from the eyes of the audience. She faces the audience with a provocative smile etched on her face. Behind her head is a large Coca Cola sign.
The two adverts created decades apart reveal as many similarities as there are differences. Produced by different creators, no doubt, the two campaigns sought to, and succeeded in resonating with the audiences in an emotional way, appealing to them in a highly intelligible way. Although the Sprite Boy advert and the Sexy girl advert targeted different audiences, the former being very child-friendly and the latter appealing to a more mature audience, they are both a reflection of the dramatic changes that Coca-Cola, a microcosm of the society has undergone. The varied use of rhetorical devices and imagery in the two adverts are indicative of the company’s consistent efforts to continually meet the changing needs of its consumers over time while remaining relevant and true to the brand.
The contrast in the message and visuals of the two advertisement posters represent how the American culture is changing. The Sprite boy advertisement poster depicts an idealized mythical figure, the pixie, with a debonair smile, a sign of happiness and excitement. This is clearly is as a result of the Coca-Cola that he is inviting us, the audience, whom he refers to as ‘friends’ to join him and enjoy (The Coca-Cola Company, 2009). The Kairos this advert uses is undeniable. It is very intelligent of Coca-Cola to use a universally accepted mythical figure, the pixie to not only assure the audience that they are right in referring to Coca-Cola as ‘Coke’ because’ everyone loves shortened words’ but also to show the audience that the beverage is responsible for the pixie’s happiness and excitement.
This happiness and excitement is also personified by the naked sexy girl in the other advertisement poster. By attributing this happiness and excitement to their product, ‘Coca Cola’, Coca-Cola sought to appeal to not only the consumers’ needs but also to their emotions. This kind of appeal to positive emotions is anchored in the theory of motivational hedonism whose foundation is that people are only either motivated by pleasure or pain. Since consumers are drawn to the products they believe will bring them pleasure, putting up an image of a smiling consumer, having taken the same product had an immense boost on Coca-Cola as a product. Coca-Cola, in the smiling Sprite boy and smiling sexy girl adverts managed to convince the consumers that there is a positive correlation between taking the beverage and happiness. As a result, consumers were convinced that when they buy the product, he will, by extension, have bought the emotion of happiness and, who does not desire happiness?
While the two advertisements were successful in the projection of positive emotions of happiness, their target audiences were quite different. The Sprite boy advert was a little conservative, probably as it was created in the early 40s a period characterized by conservatism and because the success of an advertisement campaign is determined by how much it appeals to the target audience, Coca-Cola had to comply with the social norms of the 1940s. Analyzed today, the Sprite Boy advertisement campaign appears as if it was created with the children audience as the target. However, the intelligence in the message and the fact that it was meant to communicate a form of acceptance to the nickname ‘Coke’ made it ideal for all audiences. The smiling pixie character appeals to all ages and all nations, inviting friends to join him in celebrating with the Coca-Cola they have come to call ‘Coke.’ (The Coca-Cola Company, 2009).
The sexy girl advert appeals to an audience of a different kind, a more mature audience. The provocative image of a naked girl seems to be inviting the men to join her in the pleasurable world of Coca-Cola. While critics dismissed this advert as sexist, that it objectified women as no less a product of pleasure as Coca-Cola, it certainly did serve its purpose. The naked girl visual appealed to the men who would kill to have a girl like her, those who dream of such adventurous life escapades with unknown women and this Coke image was presented as making it all possible (The Coca-Cola Company, 2009). To understand the difference in the appeal of the two advertisements selling the same product requires looking at the cultural changes that have taken place between the year the Sprite Boy Advertisement came out and when the Sexy girl advert came out. Coca-Cola, like every other company understands the importance of staying relevant in the rapidly changing times. Most of the Coke adverts that came immediately after the Sprite Boy advert were centered on a good girl image in opposition to the bad girl image that we see in the sexy girl advert. However, times have changed and the youth, the biggest group of Coca-Cola consumers are no longer drawn to the 19th-century stock, child feeding model of a woman that dominated Coca Cola’s adverts. The youth have had a taste of Hollywood and what they want now is the scantily dressed Hollywood model. This advert feeds the notion that consumers are always seeking to fulfill a desire.
While the young men look at the sexy girl and desire her and the product she represents, Coca-Cola, women look at her and desire her long hair, her flawless skin, her charming smile and her confidence. Because most of them cannot be like her, and most men cannot have her, the only way we can substitute this desire is to have the one thing that promises us such enjoyment and it is right there, the Coca-Cola drink. The two adverts assume that we, the consumers will get the one thing that is closest to fulfilling our desires, our need for admiration and self-realization as epitomized by the pixie and the sexy girl. They understand that we are happier in our stereotyped lives where we want to be admired for exuding happiness and excitement, for having that flawless skin and perfect Hollywood figure. They tell us that we can achieve all this by buying the one product that is responsible for bestowing the characters in the advert the attributes we so desire. Sexist or not, the sexy girl advert had an equally good response as the Sprite Boy advert, they both managed to appeal to their target audience.
References
The Coca Cola Company. (2009). Retrieved February 27, 2016, from Advertisements:
http://www.antiquesnavigator.com/d-1916674/coca-cola-sexy-girl-advertising-poster-fridge-locker-magnet-size-2-x-3-.html
The Coca-Cola Company. (2009). Advertisements. Retrieved February 27, 2016, from Coca
Cola: http://www.antiquesnavigator.com/d-1916584/coca-cola-large-sprite-boy-sign.html
