Introduction
Advertisements serve to sensitize the public on the existence of a product as a business marketing strategy. There are varied ways in which an advert can be presented so that the meaning is swerved and does not even appear to be real. The aim of this essay is to logically analyze advertising campaigns from the Coca Cola Company and a milk advertising campaign on milk.
Coca cola
One of the campaigns for coca cola is the “coca cola//reo, what it was reinvented for” by Jon Jantz. This advertisement shows why coca cola was invented. The advert pointed out that it was invented as a dessert after a meal. He further says that every family despite his, like the idea of using coca cola as a dessert. This is an advert and for it to stand out it is obvious that the advertising company will definitely exaggerate a little bit. The truth of the matter is that coca cola was not invented as a dessert after a meal. It was actually invented in the nineteenth century as a patent drug that was used to treat some illnesses as headaches, addiction of morphine and impotence. However, if we think about it, coca cola is a drink that is commonly consumed all over the world and it would not be surprising if many families used this drink as a dessert after a meal. It is actually consumed by over two hundred countries in the world and this makes the consumption of the drink more.
The “open happiness” campaign
The slogan for this campaign was the best that the coca cola company ever had. It is deemed as a continuation of the previous campaign of “the coke side of life”. The advert shows a man who pushes a large box into a park and when he tries opening it, it transforms into a music organ that contains small creatures inside. After fitting a bottle of coke to the machine and hits the keyboard, one bottle falls into a creature’s mouth that prompts all other creatures to sing “yeah yeah yeah” and la la la as a small crowd of young people gathers. It reminded the consumers that coke is always refreshing, always at hand, always delicious, always a perfect compliment to food , has always been there, it will always be there and that it is a better choice than any other drink such as Pepsi. Although some of these facts may be true, some are definitely absurd. It is usually a matter of a decision from an individual of the drink to prefer over another. Coke can also be a favorite drink for every single individual in over two hundred countries where it is sold. A person can prefer another drink to coca cola due to personal reasons such as the belief that coca cola once contained a milligram of cocaine in every glass of the drink.
Although currently it is not being used, some people still think that there is a small quantity of cocaine and because of this, they will therefore have their reservations in using the drink. The adverts that are aired by the media are charming, cohesive, seductive and consistent to anyone who likes the drink. “Happiness factory 3” is another animated illustration that is fanciful and that helps show where coke comes from. “Avatar” also shows ordinary people transforming into their video game or online avatars, producing a “beauty and the beast” instance between the monster or the total baby and the man as they all try to reach for the same coke. Another such advert for coca cola is that of “swelter stopper” where two very tall giants terrorize a city until they share a coca cola drink that makes them become all calm.
The audience that is targeted by this campaign is mostly the young generation that is very conversant with television games and movies. The young generation happens to be the majority who attends festivities and birthday parties hence will tend to be into soft drinks more than the adults. It is also preferable because it contains no alcohol and it can be used for a complete family setting. What the campaign tries to portray is that coca cola makes everything wonderful which is true to some sense. When people take coca cola in festivities, everyone tends to be happy. Why is coke used in most celebrations? The reason is that it is readily available and has no age limit and therefore parents will not tend to restrict their children from consuming the drink. This campaign however uses symbolism in certain instances in the advertisements. One such advert is the one for the monsters that destroy a city and when they come across a coca cola, they go calm and stop their destruction. Coca cola in this instance has been used as a symbol of peace that stops the two monsters from destroying the city.
Some campaigns and the advertisements sometimes can be too unreal and can even make people not know which product to buy as every advert deems its product the best. It is therefore a person’s business to know their preferred item otherwise; they may end up buying everything or a poor quality item. On the other hand, as a marketing strategy, companies have to post many advertisements in the internet and over other networks so that their products can be known to improve on the sales. There comes a problem when some companies give misleading information to the consumers of the goodness of the product. As much as the companies want to market their products, they should actually make sure that the information that is given to the customers is updated and lacks flaws.
MILK
The “got milk?” campaign is considered one of the most popular ad campaigns in the twentieth century and has been there for almost ten years. This advertising campaign was geared towards reducing the decelerating demand of milk in the United States. It had been low for approximately two decades in comparison to other companies such as coca cola and Pepsi beverage companies. The milk noise had to be heard above all other “noise” so that every one could be made aware of the milk and milk products. This is what pushed the California Milk Processor Board and its ad agency Goodby, Silverstein and Partners to develop the “got milk?” Campaign. This campaign was geared towards sensitizing the consumers of how inconvenient it was to eat such products as brownies, cereals, chip cookies, and chocolate. The campaign increased the consumption of milk by consumers. After a year of the campaign, the milk consumption increased from seventy two percent to seventy-eight percent.
In order for California Milk Processor Board to sensitize the public on milk, they decided to target the regular users of milk who used milk for many days like several days in a week or more. This influenced many regular consumers to take milk, approximately seventy percent of California population. Those people who could not take milk for health reasons obviously could not be convinced to take the milk by the campaign. Milk is a product that is mostly used as an accompaniment to some other food or product. It therefore mostly targets the family and parents mostly since they are the ones who are in charge of ensuring that such kinds of products do not run out in the home. Research studies were done by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to help them in the campaign plans. They therefore placed small cameras in the refrigerators of the agency that stored milk to see the reaction of consumers once they found milk lacking. Another very important research was where the company picked a small group of people and made them go without milk for a whole week. After the week, they were brought to the company so that they could tell of how difficult it was to stay without milk. Most of them admitted that milk was a crucial aspect of the family. This information was later used in the advertisements.
The obvious milk campaign of milk adding calcium and vitamins in the body made consumers bored and was not taken seriously. They therefore introduced a new advert that would shake consumers out of the “malaise”. The mind share that was in milk had to be changed since it was observed by California Milk Processor Board that most people thought about milk when they were at home and once they were out did not.
This type of mentality had to be changed and that is why they created a new image for milk. This was achieved by creating adverts that paired milk to the food products that were taken with. Each advert highlighted one of milk’s perfect compliments like chocolate chip cookies, jelly sandwiches, peanut butter and cereals. Milk was therefore the key to enjoying these products, and according to most consumers, the thought of the products without milk to them was gross. As a marketing strategy, milk won over the other beverages like Snapple and coca cola.
Each television advertisement built tension that was crucial for the deprivation strategy of promoting the consumption of milk. The adverts began with a show of the foods compliment like jelly sandwich and peanut butter to establish the desire to have the food. The protagonist takes a bite of the compliment and after chewing, reaches for a glass of milk and unfortunately, there is no milk in the container. The character searches for a single drop of milk but there is none, and then a voice recorder that is anguished pronounces, “Got milk?” The advert was not only funny but also relevant and passed across the intended message. This advert logically is not effective. What the advert serves is to impact fear on the consumers that the milk will end. It should be made in such a way that any one watching it will not feel frightened but motivated to buy the milk more and more. The rhetorical meaning of the advert is that if the consumer does not hurry to buy the milk he will find the shelves empty. Reasonably, if that happens, the customer will look for milk from other milk companies. The campaign could not have gone far without such brands as Oreos, nesquik and cheerios.
The adverts targeted children in the morning as well as afternoons while the adults were targeted in the late night and at prime times. Billboards were also located near the supermarkets so that anyone entering the supermarket could know about milk and go shop for it. These commercials are actually effective in making people aware of milk and sensitizing people of the availability in different stores. Although the adverts exaggerate the meaning, they pass the message to their consumers at the end of the day.
Conclusion
The above two adverts are similar in a number of ways: they use symbolism in their adverts to make the advert more interesting and to help capture the consumers of both milk and coca cola. They also do capture the young generation since small children and the young people consume most cereals that need milk to accompany it. Both companies have the consumer’s interests at heart when they are doing the advertisements. The two companies have a catching slogan for the campaign. The slogan for coca cola about bringing happiness is somehow true given that most people used the drink when they are celebrating or when in jovial mood. The campaign for milk has a slogan “got milk?” makes sure that people have milk in their homes, and this leads to making more sales for the company. This advert to my opinion is not very good and it should target on making people like the product and not instill fear to them. Other television and outdoor billboards, cross promotions, licensing and publicity is what has led to the advert flourishing and not the slogan alone.