Coca Cola is a well known soda brand who has globally become very popular. The brand sells over 1.8 billion drinks per day and have used their various picture advertisements to market their drink to make it more desiring. In 2016, Coca Cola launched “Taste the Feeling” campaign all across the world to promote “a simple pleasure that makes everyday moments more special.” (Coca Cola, 2016) Coca Cola emphasizes that they want to promote universal storytelling through consumers drinking coke.
One of the particular advertisements I have closely looked into is one of the “Taste the Feeling” ad, where there is a woman holding a tray with three bottles of the different types of coke. There is a number of problems hidden within this ad where one might not notice right away when looking at it. Firstly, according to the intersectionality theory, the woman in the ad may physically appear to be a woman but, she also holds other identities including being lower to middle class, Latina, and heterosexual female. On the other hand, this advertisement implies gender stereotypes revealed in the media as the individual serving the bottles of coke is a woman. Servers can be men as well however, this gender stereotype that women usually work in the serving industry is a known stereotype that comes from the American culture, where stereotypes, values and norms are socially constructed into the culture one lives in today. The media is one of the resources capitalists and corporate companies use for behaviour modification in their consumers in the messages they convey in their advertisements. Moreover, the woman within the ad is showing a strong sense of female stereotypical femininity as she has curly, long hair, a shoulder cut, low necked dress, earrings, a necklace and her makeup and nails done. Her physical appearance resembles a stereotypical feminine female where they are seen as attractive and loveable. In addition, this woman is most likely in her 20s based on her appearance and can be seen as fairly attractive. This implies that attractive women in their 20s are used as actors in the media to attract consumers, especially male consumers, who see these women as beautiful, desiring, caring, and vulnerable individuals.
The slogan of this ad “Taste the Feeling” can be seen as Coca Cola advertising to the consumer with different meanings depending on how one reads the ad. On one hand, “Taste the Feeling” is tasting the feeling of coke whereas, on the other hand, to “Taste the Coke where the woman who serves it to the consumer comes with the feeling when Coke is consumed.” The slogan in this particular advertisement shows signs of “feeling” being associated with the woman in the ad and the actual consumer product, Coca Cola.
The original Coca Cola advertisement had the slogan “Taste the Feeling” right under the Coca Cola logo. In the jammed version of the ad, “Taste the Feeling” was replaced with “Taste what you desire” and “Come buy me.” With these two slogans in place, it reveals the true meaning of the ad and how it can be presented to consumers. Having this ad being advertised in the mass media, the message conveyed within the ad can construct stereotypes within society. I replaced “Taste the Feeling” to “Taste what you desire” as it represents the ad better. “Tasting what you desire” can have a dual meaning, on one hand, one can desire to purchase and drink coke whereas, another desire can also be “tasting” the woman in the advertisement. It conveys the message to the consumer that whatever they desire, they have the ability to purchase it with money. The “feeling” and experience comes from what they desire to purchase. The addition of “Come buy me” conveys the message of what many companies want; their products to be successfully sold in the market. However, the ad depicts not only purchasing coke, but also the actor in the advertisement can be seen as selling herself as a product that can also be purchased. The woman in the ad is presented as a very feminine female as she can be seen as very desirable, attractive and vulnerable to the consumers. Consumers can understand through this advertisement that coke and woman can be purchased to satisfy one’s desire and feeling.
This jammed version of the ad is able to depict the stereotypes and hidden meanings of what media presents to society. Females should not be seen as individuals that can be purchased or used. Coca Cola places the woman in the ad as if she is a part of “Tasting the feeling” where a consumer can see her as a individual that can be purchased and obtained when purchasing Coca Cola. With Coca Cola being an international well known brand, their advertisements in the media can play a large role in influencing and shaping the societies that view these ads.