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Celina DAmico
Dr. DiSarro
ENG101 05
28 March 2014
Pinch, Poke, You Owe Me a Coke
A summers day, laughter is in the air, everyone is hanging down by the oceanfront.
What is the beverage of choice, maybe a nice cold bottle of Coke? The Coca-Cola Company
does a great job creating its advertisements. A recent commercial during the Super Bowl, Big
Game, portrays an image regularly associated with Coca-Cola and did a swell job of grasping
its viewers at an emotional level. Shots of Americas beautiful scenery including lush forests,
deep blue waters, cities, mountains, and the common street corner, along with smiling faces of
people, young and old, and a whole lot of sunshine fill the screen as the commercial plays. But
what do all of these elements have to do with a bottle of pop and why is this important? Believe
it or not, Coca-Cola incorporates all of these elements into its advertisements for very specific
reasons. A rhetorical analysis of pieces, such as the Coca-Cola commercial, is necessary to
understand the true message they are trying to convey and what helps to convey it. The Coca-
Cola Company succeeds in fulfilling each of the aspects of rhetoric, lacking in some, and
overachieving in others.
Of course, Coca-Cola is a highly credible company, being around for over one hundred
years. Beginning in 1886, it stemmed as a small soda fountain beverage going for about five
cents per glass (History of Bottling, 2014). A storeowner saw the potential value in the
beverage and encouraged its creator, Asa Griggs Candler, to bottle it (History of Bottling,
2014). Candler denied this proposition. Several years later, in 1899, the first bottling agreement
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was sold to two attorneys, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead, later accompanied by
John T. Lupton, for only one dollar (History of Bottling, 2014). Over the years more bottling
plants were established around the country, 400 by the year 1909 (History of Bottling, 2014).
Most of the plants were owned and operated by families. The company began to expand and
eventually became an international business, with bottling plants in over 44 countries including
France, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Belgium, Italy, Peru, Spain, Australia, and South Africa
(History of Bottling, 2014). With all these countries investing in the Coca-Cola Company,
people started to see it as a reliable business. Coca Cola has decades of experience generating
products and attending to the demands of the consumer population. It knows the ways of the
market and mass production driven economy.
Speaking of consumers, commercials play a large role in what products people purchase
and how popular a product becomes. The Coca-Cola commercial Big Game, first featured
during the Super Bowl, does an excellent job of providing entertaining images and an intense
sense of emotion to its viewers. The Coca-Cola Company chose to advertise their product using
a commercial, most likely because so many people watch television. The company may have
decided to air it during the Super Bowl knowing that there would be an increase of viewers
during that time, especially families. Interestingly, the focus of the commercial is on families.
The commercial jumps from scene to scene in an attempt to show as many activities as possible
in the little time given. There are clips of children at the movies, several of families on road or
camping trips, a family eating a sit-down meal together, family members roller blading, and
several others. In every seen Most of the shots are zoomed in and close to the persons face.
This may be so in order to make it seem more personal and like the viewers are apart of the good
times and happiness as well. The company is clever in creating a relatable commercial for those
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watching it (pathos). Not to mention these families are all of different ethnic and cultural
backgrounds, which is also included in the commercial. The company may have incorporated
such a variety of individuals to appeal to a broader audience. It features the song God Bless
America sung in multiple languages, again portraying the diversity, especially here in the
United States. This ties into the overall idea that our country is no longer a so-called melting
pot, but rather a tossed salad containing many components that make up Americaa place
where cultural identities are maintained through traditions, language, etc.
Diversity, language, families all-important aspects to the people of our country; the
commercial focuses on these three aspects of daily life and incorporates the product into these
scenes. It shows a family sitting down together for a meal with Coca-Cola bottles placed on the
table. In another scene it represents what appears to be a father and son swimming in a pool,
diving for Coca-Cola bottle caps. Each scene illustrates a person of a different culture engaging
in a type of recreational activity, some dancing, some surfing, and some on horseback. This
again, creates that sense of belonging and introduces another focus of The Coca-Cola Company,
happy thoughts and memories. A study done at Baylor College of Medicine shows that the Coca-
Cola label itself triggers the part of the brain associated with joy and memories.
In the study, researchers at the college performed a blind taste test on 67 committed
drinkers of Coke and Pepsi (Szegedy, Mysteries of the Mind). The participants were shown the
labels of the drinks before the test. During this time, 3 out of 4 said that they preferred Coke.
Their brains were scanned during the test leading to the discovery that the Coke label prompted
an astounding amount of activity in the hippocampus, where memories are stored, and the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for functions associated with self-
image (Szegedy, Mysteries of the Mind). Pepsi on the other hand did not have the same impact
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on these areas of the brain. This activity relates to the red and white coloring of the logo
(Szegedy, Mysteries of the Mind). As many know, red represents things like love, passion, and
happiness, and white represents innocence and purity (Parker, The Meaning of Color). All of
these in turn relate to memories and the areas of the brain mentioned above. Not only does the
color of the label allude to the success of Coke commercials, but certain thoughts do as well.
Knowing this, it makes more sense that their advertisements would focus on good times and
family fun.
Although the commercial seems as though it does a good job of relating to its viewers, it
has several weaknesses. It is almost hard to distinguish the true purpose of the commercial. Is it
to make people smile or to get them to buy Coke? When the product is displayed on the screen it
is done so discretely. Often the label of the bottle or cup is difficult to read, but it is still
recognizable. It focuses more on the lifestyle, enjoying freedom and the company of loved ones.
This potentially takes away from the likelihood that people will buy the product. Normally
commercials want to make their product noticeable by making it showy, but not Coca-Cola. Why
wouldnt the company want to focus on the product? What do America and families have to do
with a bottle of soda? In a sense the commercial is misleading. It makes people believe that by
drinking Coke that they will be having a good time and that everything will be happy. This is far
from true. Just because Coke is such a popular brand does not mean that it creates good times.
According to the Coca-Cola Company, their mission is to refresh the world [,] to
inspire moments of optimism and happiness[, and] to create value and make a difference
(2014). The commercial expresses this desire to spread creativity and optimism through images
of people smiling and everyone enjoying themselves. All of the elements, the coloring of the
label, promotion of diversity, and positive emotions contribute to the overall message that the
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company is trying to portray. Its strong sense of pathos is the icing on the cake in grabbing the
attention of individuals. This commercial is a good example of how ethos, logos, and pathos are
all combined to build something with a larger meaning. Without its credibility, its play on
emotions, and its touching messages, the Coca-Cola Company would not be flourishing as it is
today.


















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Works Cited

The Coca-Cola Company. Big Game. 2014. Commercial. YouTubeWeb. 6 Mar 2014.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=443Vy3I0gJs>.

History of Bottling. Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company, n.d. Web. 6 Mar 2014.
<http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/history-of-bottling

Parker, Raetta.The Meaning of Colors.N.p. Retrieved from
https://resources.oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/rreagan/Filemanager_Public_Files
/meaningofcolors.htm

Mission, Vision & Values. Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company, n.d. Web. 6 Mar 2014.
<http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values

Maszak , Szegedy. M. Mysteries of the Mind. U.S. News & World Report 138.0041-5537
(2005): n.pag. EBSCO Host. Web. 6 Mar 2014.
<http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=8&sid=add1cba5-c895-4a9c-ac06-
131d1803756a@sessionmgr115&hid=121&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWNvb2tpZSxpcCxjc
GlkJmN1c3RpZD1lbmQmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZlJnNjb3BlPXNpdGU=