Coca Cola Advert Analysis

    During the media lesson last week, we looked at three different coke TV adverts, the, 'Hilltop campaign', 'I wish', and the, 'Northern Lights' advert. We then had to analyse the first two adverts for our prepwork and we found that each one had different meanings to it, and were broadcast in different ways around the world.

    The, 'Hilltop Campaign' sends a message to the audience about the unity of all ethnicity and the harmony of all people. In the advert, young people from all around the globe has gathered on top of a hill, and sings the song, 'I want to teach the world to sing' with a few changed lyrics. The people in the advert hold coke bottles from their countries and use it to look like a microphone. The advert is very symbolic in a way that not only coke is a famous brand all around the world, but that coke can create a unity between people from different cultural backgrounds. The lyrics in the song also has meanings to it. "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" is the most symbolic verse. Harmony in this case can be understood in two meanings. The first meaning would be people singing together, which in this case we can observe in the advert. The second meaning is more important, and this also means the unity between people, once again emphasizing the campaign's main messages. This advert was created by Bill Backer, the creative director of the coke company after a plane was delayed to Heathrow airport due to heavy fog. Passengers were angry about the situation but the next day, they were enjoying the people around and were drinking cokes. This gave him the initiative for the campaign and had a clear message aimed at everyone.

     The, 'I wish' advert's message is in a similar direction with the hilltop campaign. The message of the, 'I wish' advert is that coke has no discrimination and is a sharing company. In the advert, the background is America, with people from different ethnicity in the background. An African-american woman is handing out coke to people she meets on the street and sings a song with the lyrics,

  "I wish I could share all the love that's in my heart
Remove all the bars that keep us apart
I wish I could say all the things that I should say
Say em loud, say em clear, for the whole round world to hear
I wish I could give like I'm longin to give
I wish I could live like I'm longin to live
I wish I could do all the things that I can do
And though I'm way overdue, I'd be startin anew

In comparison to the advert, we see that coke is compared to love and she wants to give out love to people. The reason the woman giving out coke is African-american is not because of a racial discriminative purpose but rather, to illustrate the clear background of the advert, and to show that coke has no separated zones for different backgrounds. Both of these adverts show coke's side of view as a fair and loving company and this was coke's main focus in the 1970s, not far from racial tensions, not only in America, but across the world. The Coca Cola company used this fact as their weapon and saw great success upon it.

     Also in the advert, we can see that there is no discrimination from the people in the background. The most symbolic people is the black and white couple in the advert towards the end, and from the assumption that this was America, coke had a clever attempt.