Consumer item in USA: Coca Cola

 

 

 

 

Coca Cola is a renowned consumer item within the United States and around the rest of the world. As I’ve argued in a previous post, Coca Cola is a brand that is often considered as being representative of the ‘American Dream’, particularly due to its humble beginnings in 1886 in Atlanta. The Coca Cola Company has grown and expanded their products ever since and is consequently one of the most famous and influential companies in America today.

While researching Coca Cola advertisements and commercials it became clear that from the very start they wished to get across how ‘American’ its products were and wanted to emphasise the ideals and values they hold, with many highlighting the ‘American Dream’ aspect of the brand. Similarly, something that is also very clear is that each advertisement reflects the time in which it was produced, for example ‘The Great National Temperance Beverage’ slogan from 1906 reveals a time in America when people were moving away from alcohol and Coca Cola took the opportunity to exploit this and offer themselves as the alternative. One of the more recent advertisements (1986) inscribed the slogan ‘Red, White & You’ which most likely would have expressed to the American consumers that if they bought and thus consumed a Coca Cola product they would be doing something very patriotic and even making their country proud. Other advertisements throughout the 20^th century seem to focus on the ideal American family as well as America as the place for adventure and excitement (and the place to drink Coca Cola), such as the ‘Along the Highway to Anywhere’ ad in 1949 and the ‘Look up, America’ ad in 1975.

One of the most recent commercials for Coca Cola (2010) focuses more, I think, on the diversity of the American people and how their products can bring these people together to have some fun and be happy. The ‘Happiness Vending Machine’ advertisements show Coca Cola vending machines across America, primarily in University campuses , dispensing not only their own products but flowers, pizza and many other ‘gifts’ to the unsuspecting students and consequently brings them all together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqT_dPApj9U

This emphasises again how the Coca Cola Company attempts to reveal their American ideals and through this ‘spread happiness’.

Other Sources:

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-slogans

http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/about-us/history-of-coca-cola-2000-now.html