Coca Cola Ads That Led To The Sociological Evolution Of The 1880s

Do you take time to read about a product, or do your eyes quickly scheme through the ads? In the 1880s campaigns consisted of long texts, no colors, and few pictures, in the other hand, one can observe that today marketing companies tend to opt for more colors and visuals instead. Why so? By looking into two Coca Cola ads this essay will explore the reader, culture and text, and attempt to superficially understand the society of the time period they are inserted in, given the techniques and technologies used. These two Coca Cola advertisement campaigns clearly reveal the sociological evolution from the 1880s to the 2000s that led to the removal of long texts from advertisements, using logos, colors and images; the ad suggests the idea that

In light of this context people lived a less hectic life that was composed of more leisure time that allowed mairketing companies to advertise their products in a more complete manner, by offering descriptions of it in writing. The Coca Cola ad is quite opposing to what is seen nowadays, it does not contain characteristic and memorable fonts, or pictures, but incorporates the rhetorical device of logos. Logos is what Aristotle describes as the use of logic or written pieces to convince consumers of a product’s incredibility. This campaign details the origin and how it was made, as well as a degree of snob appeal by calling it the “Intellectual Beverage.” Furthermore, the sellers attempt to incorporate ethos by adding a chemist’s signature at the end to contribute to the reliability of the statement that this drink is the “cure for all nervous affections – sick head-ache, neuralgia, hysteria, melancholy, etc.” The lack of color might indicate that it was not common to have colored printing during the period, and therefore it reinforces the idea of the lack of

Market increased by over a thousand times, which generated excessive competition, therefore gradually people became exposed to huge amounts of advertisements. Due to the increase of technology, globalization and the capitalist economic system, life became more dynamic, in such way that advertisers had to adapt their methods to cope with the sociological evolution. Men were able to multitask; having more than 20 tabs open in the Internet at once, transportation became quicker, substituting horses for powerful engines, mobile phones and social networks allowing a broader span of communication. The spread of information has taken a gigantic proportion, increasing the necessity for a vast global knowledge, therefore opening space for diverse and multiple interests. Assuming such ability to coordinate many things at once, everything became a lot more superficial in comparison to the 1880s. Thus, advertisement had to gradually adjust to be efficient for these contemporary human beings, meaning that they had to find ways to convey the message with the least amount of words possible, with quick glances one would understand the feeling. So, through the means of vivid colors, symbols and imagery and glittering generalities they were able to grab the target audience’s