In 2011, Coca-Cola launched an ad campaign to spike men’s interest in the low-calorie soda known as Dr. Pepper 10. In this advertisement, the Coca-Cola Company made suggestions as to what it means to be masculine and how Dr. Pepper 10 can help men live out that lifestyle. In this commercial, a man can be seen performing exaggerated feats of masculinity, such as effortlessly carrying a tree trunk and crushing an ice-encrusted arm against a rock. The third scene of importance is almost an afterthought, but it’s subliminal message can’t be missed. It can be reasonably inferred that Coca-Cola has targeted the male mentality that low-calorie drinks are for women and are not masculine enough for them. So, Coca-Cola created this ad campaign just …show more content…
Pepper 10. In this scene, Coca-Cola is highlighting the humor of the situation just as much as they are advertising their product. The size of the tree is many times that of the man and would be impossible to lift. The fact that this man is doing it alone adds comedic relief to the obvious gender stereotype they are displaying. Shortly after, the man is featured standing in the water cracking the ice from his hand to get to the soda within. This scene is particularly important to the comedic portion of this commercial. A question of logic can easily be asked here. If the man’s arm is frozen from reaching into the water for only a few seconds, when what is happening to his legs? Will he smash them against the rock as well? While this is not the focus of this scene it is not far beyond the imagination and does well to give a hint of humor to the otherwise tense gender-stereotype.
Coca-Cola designed this scene to exaggerate the idea that Dr. Pepper 10 has allowed the man to be more harmonized with his surrounding than he would have before. In the third and final scene where the eagle delivers a can of Dr. Pepper 10 to the man, the eagle first scoops it out of the water. Very similar to how it might catch a fish if it were hunting. Here Coca-Cola is projecting the idea that Dr. Pepper 10 is something natural and healthy. However, it is widely known that no soda is or
This is another commercial where we can directly see how the advertisers are overlooking gender stereotypes, by it being ranked number one it proves that when gender stereotypes and gender bias are not incorporated the advertisement becomes effective and
Common sense seems to dictate that commercials just advertise products. But in reality, advertising is a multi-headed beast that targets specific genders, races, ages, etc. In “Men’s Men & Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig focuses on one head of the beast: gender. Craig suggests that, “Advertisers . . . portray different images to men and women in order to exploit the different deep seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity.” In other words, advertisers manipulate consumers’ fantasies to sell their product. In this essay, I will be analyzing four different commercials that focuses on appealing to specific genders.
Michael Messner and Jeffrey Montez de Oca explain that contemporary beer ads represent a desirable male lifestyle to reaffirm masculinity in a time when men are insecure. Their essay, “The Male Consumer as a Loser: Beer and Liquor Ads in Mega Sports Media Events,” goes on to list the reasons for their insecurities: historic and cultural shifts such as deindustrialization, declining real value of wages, feminists and sexual minorities. They support their main point by providing a window to the past as beer ads of the 1950s depicted a desirable lifestyle that was appropriate for post war style of living. By following the transitions of beer ads from the 1950s to now, we could follow the accepted lifestyles of the times during which the ad was made.
In 2011, Dr. Pepper 10 released a new ad campaign. Their new commercial’s primary purpose is to present a soda that is both healthy and still “manly.” In doing this, Dr. Pepper addressed a longstanding notion that Diet Dr. Pepper and Dr. Pepper Zero sodas are inherently unmanly. They attempted to reconcile this societal belief by creating a character that is extremely manly and still enjoys their 10 calorie drink. The average man is the target audience. They were hoping that they could target men that may want to drink more healthy beverages while still retaining their manliness. The character that Dr. Pepper creates to target this audience is a Paul Bunyan type. The actor has a long beard, is very rugged looking and shown being rowed down a river by a bear. The commercial is designed to bring back images of Grizzly Adams.
The 2012 Canadian Club Whisky ad uses gender roles attributes in order to persuade possible male consumers into consuming the product by appealing to their sense of masculinity. The goal is to reach men’s pride and lead them to believe that Canadian Club Whisky is capable of “helping” them achieve society’s ideal of a man through images and sentences that remind them of manhood.
When Americans think of masculinity, they often see an unemotional, assertive, and muscular man. This identity is broadcast all over America and young boys and men are soaking it up like sponges. During the Super Bowl every year, companies display commercials that are intended to subconsciously show men how they’re supposed to carry themselves. For instance, in the Miller Lite commercial “Man card”, four friends are at a club when they see their friend sweet talking to a girl in the corner and they proceed to tell him to “Man up”. Also in the next clip the same 3 guys are playing football when they see the other guy riding a scooter and they proceed to tell him what he’s doing is “unmanly”.
Carrie Packwood Freeman and Debra Merskin are the authors of “Having it his Way: The Construction of Masculinity in Fast-Food TV Advertising”. They describe how fast food restaurants across America use masculinity in their commercials to target the male population and get them to buy their food. Although I concede that fast food restaurants do use masculinity to target the male population, I also insist that they are also used to target the female population of America as well. The masculinity not only appeals to the male population, but the female population as well. In the article, Freeman and Merskin analyze commercials for six different fast food restaurants that use masculinity to sell the idea of their food being good and manly.
Pathos, being the strategy most strongly used in this commercial, connects with the feelings of the audience. By featuring the commercial atop a green hill with a diverse group of people, Coca-Cola is showing that people of different cultures can come together in harmony, which aforementioned, was what people were looking for at this period in history. Not only the thought of harmony among groups of people, but the song that they sing together melodiously. When the commercial begins we see a young blonde woman begin the song, then she is joined by the rest of the crowd in singing, “I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love…” along with other verses describing animals and pleasantries that would accompany them in furnishing this home. When we think of home, we think of a place where we can be loved and cared for, a place that is peaceful and pleasant (or this is what most people hope for), which is exactly what Coke describes to us as we watch enchanted by the beautiful voices of the people. Coca-Cola connects with us by evoking emotions of belongingness, love, peace and harmony amongst our fellow friends and people. This form of pathos is what really hooks the
This ad does a very good job of accomplishing PepsiCo’s brand communications strategy. It is exciting and exhilarating and shows the personality traits of fun, irreverence and daring.
The objectification of women is a huge issue in society and is often led by advertising. However, many men still believe that the adverts depicting women in a sexual and often passive posture are not very offensive, but rather very funny or sexy. However, how would they feel if it were their daughter or sister being advertised throughout the world as a sexual object? The Tiger Beer advertisement shown in the appendix is a clear example of the objectification of women in advertising. The Tiger Beer advert was made to appeal to men from the age of 20 to 60.
This advertisement makes Diet Coke popular because it focuses on why the consumers drink the product; it 's refreshing and does not cause weight gain. This is proved in the advertisement because the women portrayed are happy and having a good time while sharing a Diet Coke, which leads the consumers to believe that they should buy a Diet Coke as well. This association increases sales and helps improve the overall market
The portrayals of men in advertising began shifting towards a focus on sexual appeal in the 1980s, which is around the same that women in advertising were making this shift as well. According to Amy-Chinn, advertisements from 1985 conveyed the message that “men no longer just looked, they were also to be looked at” as seen in advertisements with men who were stripped down to their briefs (2). Additionally, advertisements like these were influencing society to view the male body “as an objectified commodity” (Mager and Helgeson 240). This shows how advertisements made an impact on societal views towards gender roles by portraying men as sex objects, similarly to women. By showcasing men and women in little clothing and provocative poses, advertisements influenced society to perceive men and women with more sexual
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.
Delicious, sweet, refreshing: just some of the few words that are used to describe the taste of soft drinks. For over 125 years, one of the most iconic soft drink brands in the world has been the Coca-Cola Company. However, when an image as iconic as the Coca-Cola logo is reimagined and placed in a new situation, its entire meaning can change. In this case, by transforming the Coca-Cola logo, the message of the icon is shifted from the original intention to convey its relatively recent controversy with racial discrimination.
There are a variety of beverages available to us today with a wide range of differences, some are flavored, carbonated, low calorie, energy boosters, and just plain water. When it comes down to carbonated drinks there are two major rivalry soda companies dominating the market. Coca Cola and Pepsi are two well know cola distributors with very credible history, but the question still remains one is America’s favorite? With the ongoing competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, each company is incorporating new strategies for marketing and advertising there brands. When comparing an advertisement from each of the companies, we will review how they appeal to consumers.