Comparing Coca-Cola 'And It's The Real Thing'

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In Herbert’s and Seaver’s letters (1970), Herbert writes to Seaver discussing Seaver’s commercial use of the line “It’s the Real Thing” for Mr. Haskin’s book without “consent” from the Coca-Cola company: Seaver’s letter is a reply discussing the misunderstanding for the line. The speaker of both letters utilizes a different approach to explain to each other their justification of Coca-Cola’s ownership for the line and commercial use of it. Herbert’s letter contains a condescending and arrogant tone; because of this, Seaver replied back in a satirical, sarcastic, and an almost amused tone.
Herbert applies logos to his letter: He bluntly states to Seaver that the line “It’s the Real Thing” was “first used in print advertising in 1942,” therefore …show more content…

He assumes that since Coca-Cola is a huge and intimidating company, they could easily get what they want by indirectly daunting Seaver into revoking Mr. Haskin’s use of the line for his book: He assumes so by …show more content…

W. Seaver, however, replies to Herbert in a satirical and an almost amused tone to resolve the misunderstanding by the Coca-Cola company. Seaver takes great advantage of satire by basically mocking Coca-Cola’s concern over the line: As if “the public might be confused by the use of the expression, and mistake a book by a Harlem school teacher for a six-pack of Coca-Cola.” He shows Herbert in an indirect way that this is a situation encountered years ago by a book they published called “One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding.” He used this reference to mock Coca-Cola and guilt them for the situation; protecting the line is not worth sacrificing one-hundred dollars since Coca-Cola is, most likely, notorious for the line. He also shows sympathy towards Coca-Cola and describes a situation that Grove Press Inc. has encountered in the past: He claims that “Problems not unsimilar to the ones you raise in your letter have occurred to us in the past. You may recall that we published Games People Play which became one of the biggest nonfiction best-sellers of all time, and spawned conscious imitations (Games Children Play, Games Psychiatrists Play, Games Ministers Play, etc.).” He defends his company’s use of the line for a novel by showing that they “were merely quoting” in their ads for “Peter S. Prescott’s review of Diary of a Harlem School Teacher in Look” which begins with “Diary of a Harlem School Teacher is the real thing.” Seaver ends his reply by showing Herbert his sincere

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