Coca-Cola Advertisement - Essay Example

Coca-Cola Advertisement and The recently concluded football world cup attracted millions of football fans worldwide. Many viewers were glued to their TV sets while others opted to watch the unfolding football matches in various recreation centers away from home. The world cup provided a perfect opportunity for business organizations to devise creative advertisements in order to market their products, and generate convincing appeals to the millions of viewers on a global scale. Catchy and hilarious advertisements were broadcasted, but the most amusing advertisement of all was Coca-Cola’s: What type of fan are you? Not only was the advertisement hilarious but it also generated positive applause from the millions of football fans, especially in Africa. Clearly, the creators of this advertisement were innovative enough to acknowledge that football can be used to create attractive appeals to consumers through relating it with refreshing moments. While millions of viewers were united by football, the Coca-Cola Company identified this as a perfect opportunity to establish long lasting appeals of its Coke product to the football fans. This paper seeks to analyze the different ways in which Coca-Cola Company presented its intended appeals on football viewers, specifically the youth age group (between 18 and 30 years.) The advertisement is divided into five-screen sections of different settings: the old timer, the worrier, the show off, the admirers, and the die-hards. The advertisement begins with screens of football fans in different locations who are watching football matches. Some of the viewers are refreshing their throats with a Coke soda in the different locations. The next screen focuses on an old man who cannot sit down due to the excitement arousal caused by drinking Coke. Although he has poor vision to follow up the football match, he is keen enough to notice and celebrate a goal. The advertisement then shifts to a football fan who has actively chewed his football gloves due to the anxiety caused by watching a game filled with suspense. A woman appears, and hands him two bottles of Coke, which seem to offer him a sense of relaxation. Another screenshot appears where a girl seems to be celebrating that her team won, only to be informed by a man drinking Coke that the match is at half time. The next screen focuses on three chefs in the kitchen who are keenly concentrating on a football match while drinking coke. They seem to have forgotten about their occupational responsibilities; food seems to be burning in the background and producing a huge amount of smoke. When one chef asks the other if he smells something (after smelling the burning of food), the other chef replies that he smells victory (in the football context). The next screen focuses on a man dressed in a football costume after drinking Coke; he seems to be the center of attention due to his funny dancing moves. The last part shows young women who are drinking Coke and admiring the masculinity of the football players instead of focusing on the match. Although the first section focused on an old man in a family setting, the other four sections focus on young men and women in pubs and recreational centers. This implies that Coca Cola’s main target of appeal focused on people aged between eighteen and thirty years. This could be explained by the fact that most football fans are youth members, who are able to relate football with happiness. To precisely figure out the appeals’ target from the commercial, one can easily identify that most of the settings as based on pubs where under-eighteen are highly unlikely, and older adults cannot prefer such places due to the noisy crowds. In addition, youths prefer noisy and disorganized kind of setting where they can have fun without any form of orderliness. However, the commercial appeals to both young men and women who are of the middle economic class since they can afford to spend refreshing moments in commercial places such as pubs and hotels. The commercial also appeals to young men and who have a high affection for sports. This can be explained by the fact that in all scenarios, all the viewers are concentrating in football matches. Clearly, Coca Cola’s main objective is to target young men and women, who display a high affection for sport activities in order for them appear cool and updated. Coca-Cola applied different types of appeals in the advertisement, ranging from emotional to physiological appeals. The Coca-Cola advertisement seems to explore the innermost desires, of its potential customers. As such, the advertisement is keen to target the usual desires that most youth members possess in order to achieve a sense of satisfaction and belonging. What type of fan are you? commercial falls under several categories that have been explained by Jib Fowles. Coca Cola uses these appeals to influence an effect of inner emotions and feelings of the target audience. The Coca Cola appeals to four of these needs and desires- the need for attention, the need to escape, physiological needs, and the need for affiliation. The need for attention is clearly depicted in the Show off part where a football fan has put on a funny football costume and is participating in hilarious dancing moves at the center of a crowd, after drinking Coke. According to Fowler (par.50), human beings possess the desire to portray themselves in such a way that makes them presentable and appear confident before others. Using a football costume, the football fan becomes the center of attention. To illustrate further, they advertisers use Coke to demonstrate the positive appeal of gaining confidence and using such confidence to show off one’s personality and skills. In the advertisement, the skills are expressed through dancing. The appeal is also trying to imply that a young man or woman can unleash his or her innermost talents by using the product (Coke). While many young people experience mixed feelings on decisions to make, some decisions such as gaining mass attention may be suppressed by emotions such as fear and lack of confidence. By drinking Coke, the Company tries to insinuate that confidence can be ultimately gained, and one can easily be presentable enough to be the center of attention. The need to escape is another important appeal that has been demonstrated by the advertisement. The basic settings of most of the sections are outdoor places that are concerned with relieving the mind off the daily hustles. While many young people face challenges like establishing career paths, settling down and tackling other social issues, they need to escape from the hectic life and have fun. For example, in the pub scene, the girls are screaming at the top of their lungs as they support and admire the football players. The emotional appeal created here is that Coke can be used as a stress reliever and an energetic drink to trigger happy moments. Again, there is a scene where young people are seen to be dancing and refreshing their spirits with a Coke drink as they cheer a dancing football fan. A viewer will get the idea that the young men and women have escaped their hectic kind of life to engage in exciting outdoor activities. Such a scene will appeal to many viewers, especially young people who are in their twenties and thirties, so that they may also buy Coke and participate in refreshing moments. In addition to escaping from reality, there comes a need for affiliation. This type of need is an appeal is an effective strategy that is used by advertisers to relate their products with a sense of unity. Towards the end of the advertisement, a male sound is heard in the background, which states that although football fans may be different, they are all united by football, Coca Cola unites fan. The sound is a representative of an appeal for affiliation among football fans with diverse nature. Additionally, in the restaurant scene, all the football fans are celebrating in unison when a goal is scored. It is demonstrated by the hugging among the young people as well as tossing their Coke bottles in the air simultaneously to depict unity. In the modern times, many young people want to associate and socialize in different gatherings, which relates to the advertisement. The need to have a similar psychological coincidence is a greatly desired accomplishment among the young people in their twenties. The togetherness in cheering a football match signifies the need for affiliation. The desire of the target audience is provoked by such an advertisement and there is a high likelihood for the viewers to visit refreshing centers and buy a Coke drink while celebrating with other football fans. Every individual possesses physiological needs at different points in their lives. Advertisers have creatively devised attractive designs of physiological products such as drinks and foods in order to establish the desire in the minds of the target audience. The creators behind this Coca-Cola ad have identified that the youth have a desire for popular drinks in order to appear cool and updated. In one of the scenes, a young man appears to have literally chewed goalkeeper gloves while waiting for a Coke drink. When a woman appears and places the Coke drinks before him, the young man is puzzled to realize that he has been chewing the gloves. Directly, this advertisement intended to bring out the impact of an individual lacking a drink during a football match. The intention of the advertisement is to appeal to the young people to always purchase a Coke drink when watching a football match before things get out of hand. The advertisement uses well-designed Coke sodas that are always kept in a fridge so that they can have that cool satisfying effect on the viewer upon drinking. The ad is ideally crafted to provoke that physiological desire for a drink in order to quench the young people’s thirst as well as refresh them. When a number of young men and women were reached through interviews and telephone calls, their responses were quite similar. Most of the respondents gave a positive feedback concerning the influence of the advertisement in their lives. Young women who had previously not participated in watching football matches in outdoor sites said the advertisement influenced their drive to try the new trend. For instance, Joanne Cate, a fresh college graduate during an email interview said, “The Coke advertisement was both amusing and educative. I used to watch football indoors alone but the next time a great football game comes, my friends and I will buy a crate of Coke and experience the thrill along the beach” (Cate). Clearly, the appeal seems to have caused a need for affiliation as well as physiological needs. When I asked the young male football fans whether they would opt for another brand of drink, before and after the commercial, the responses were consistent. Eighty percent of respondents said that Coke had that ‘cool’ kind of status after watching the commercial. “I do not think if there is any other cool brand out there that has magical effects as those of Coke, especially when watching a big game. I think I will also develop a sense of humor after drinking Coke,” asserted John Vasco, a 26-year-old man who recently secured his first job (Vasco). The ad seems to have had a positive review among the youths. The appeal was strong enough to cause a positive feeling of affiliation, attention and need for escape. Since many youths seem to like being rowdy and autonomous, the ad was effective enough in delivering the appeals. More so, a high number of young people are likely to purchase Coke in outdoor centers since they would love to be the center of attention. During football breaks, a good number of the respondents admitted that they would dance their hearts out while drinking Coke, in order to gain fame and appear cool. Confidence was a major personality observed that was associated with Coke after watching the commercial. In conclusion, the Coca Cola advertisement: What type of fan are you? was an effective commercial in appealing to its target audience, specifically the youth aged between twenty and thirty years. The advertisement also targeted an audience from the middle-class status who can afford to visit outdoor places and experience refreshing moments. After establishing their target audience, the advertisers went ahead to establish particular emotions that had a direct impact on the youth. The need for attention, which many youth desire was extensively illustrated in the ad through a young man dressing in a football costume and dancing to attract attention. They used the appeal to address the need for any youth to be confident enough in order to display an attractive presentation before his friends. The ad also demonstrated the need for affiliation, which is a sensitive aspect among the youth. The need for affiliation is appealed when different football fans unite to celebrate in unison despite their diverse backgrounds. Additionally, the concluding statement by the narrator also emphasizes on the need for association. The need to escape is also demonstrated through youth choosing to share their fun moments in outdoor activities through drinking and watching football. This is crucial since many youths encounter various challenges especially when adapting to the real world hence they need some space to relieve the stressful situations. The advertisers behind the Coca Cola advertisement are innovative enough to establish a strong appeal in the mind of the youths such that it has influenced their present and future preferences on the drink to choose when they desire to have refreshing moments. The advertisement fully achieves its intended objectives since a majority of the youth provided a positive review, concerning the commercial. Works Cited Cate, Joanne. Email interview. 22 July 2014. “Fans United 2014- Nigeria.” Adverisement. YouTube.com Coca-cola. 28 Apr.2014. Web. 25 July. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0y2qlAEeiU Fowles, Jib. “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals.” Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture. Ed. Michael Petracca, Madeleine Sorapure. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998. Shirl’s Site. Shirley Galloway, n.d. Web. 25 July. 2014. . Vasco, John. Email interview. 23 July 2014. Read More