Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Bc. Petra Běhounková
Major shifts in shaping Coca-Cola print advertisements
Master‟s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Ludmila Urbanová, CSc.
2012
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………… Author‟s signature
Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor prof. PhDr. Ludmila Urbanová, CSc. who supported me throughout the writing process and provided me with valuable sources. I am especially grateful for her pieces of advice which helped me to improve my work.
Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 2 CORPUS DESCRIPTION ...... 5 3 COCA-COLA ADVERTISING HISTORY ...... 7 4 CLASSIFICATION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVERTISING ...... 10
4.1 CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERTISING ...... 10 4.1.1 Target Audience ...... 10 4.1.2 Geographic area ...... 14 4.1.3 Medium ...... 19 4.1.4 Purpose ...... 24 4.2 OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISING ...... 27 4.2.1 Attention ...... 27 4.2.2 Interest ...... 28 4.2.3 Desire ...... 29 4.2.4 Action ...... 31 4.3 ADVERTISING AS COMMUNICATION PROCESS ...... 33 4.3.1 Participants ...... 33 4.3.2 Message ...... 35 4.3.3 Medium ...... 37 4.3.4 Context ...... 38 5 STANDARD COMPONENTS OF ADVERTISEMENTS ...... 39
5.1 HEADLINE ...... 39 5.2 SUBHEADS ...... 44 5.3 BODY COPY ...... 45 5.4 SIGNATURE LINE ...... 46 5.5 STANDING DETAILS ...... 48 6 VISUALS IN COCA-COLA ADVERTISEMENTS ...... 49
6.1 VISUALS AS ATTENTION CATCHING DEVICE ...... 49 6.2 VISUALS AS FORM OF COMMUNICATION ...... 54 6.2.1 Advertisements with verbal elements only ...... 56 6.2.2 Advertisements with both visual and verbal elements ...... 56 6.2.3 Advertisements with prominent visual elements ...... 61 7 LANGUAGE IN COCA-COLA ADVERTISEMENTS ...... 65
7.1 COCA-COLA AS A THIRST QUENCHER ...... 66 7.2 COCA-COLA AS A REMEDY ...... 68 7.3 COCA-COLA AS REFRESHMENT ...... 70 7.4 COCA-COLA AS A SOCIAL DRINK ...... 75 7.4.1 Coca-Cola as a token of friendliness ...... 76 7.4.2 Coca-Cola as a token of hospitality ...... 77 7.5 COCA-COLA AS A LIFESTYLE ...... 77 8 CONCLUSION ...... 81 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 87 SUMMARY ...... 1 RESUMÉ ...... 3 GLOSSARY OF TERMS ...... 4 LIST OF APPENDICES ...... CHYBA! ZÁLOŽKA NENÍ DEFINOVÁNA.
1 Introduction
We live in a consumer society. We buy goods and services not only because we need them but because we seek pleasure and satisfaction which we expect to find in material things.
These material things also reflect who we are. According to Belk and Pollay (1985), we
“link a sense of self to what we have or what we do” and thus, “since self concept is abstract, having and doing provide tangible evidences of who we are” (section Having,
Doing, and Being, para. 2). Besides consumerism and materialism, another characteristic feature of our period is commodification which Fairclough (1992) defined as “the process whereby social domains and institutions, whose concern is not producing commodities in the narrower economic sense of goods for sale, come nevertheless to be organized and conceptualized in terms of commodity production, distribution and consumption” (p. 207).
Therefore, even knowledge and experience are treated as commodities and offered to consumers.
We as consumers spend our life desiring things which promise us the pleasure and satisfaction we seek. In case we acquire the object of our desire, there are always many more things to substitute it. Thus, we are never really satisfied. In case we cannot acquire it, we envy those who can. Having things promises us enjoyment, admiration, status, self- realization and much more. And that is what we want. We want to be happy in our stereotyped lives, we want to be admired by the people around us and we want to be modern. Our materialistic world guarantees us that we easily can be – we only need to buy.
Nevertheless, the satisfaction from the purchase usually does not last. Frequently, we find our expectations to be higher than the product can actually fulfil, the product gets quickly outdated or we get simply bored with it. In each case we are soon longing again for something new. And what is new is exciting! Producers know that and they offer us wide range of things. Thus, they react to the values that are held in the society. On the other
1 hand, they also want us to buy as much as we can so that they would profit from our purchase. Thus, they promote and reinforce those values as well. They need to motivate us to buy their product and to do that they need to communicate with us, to persuade us, why it is their product which we have to have. That form of communication is known as advertising. Advertising is primarily a business. In order to be successful, it has to be noticed – it has to engage us (i.e. consumers) in the communication. Therefore, it is in public places like billboards on houses or posters in underground but it is also in our homes on television, on radio or in newspapers and magazines. It is in our mail. It is all over the Internet. It is simply everywhere where we look or go. It is undisputedly part of our everyday life. Pollay (1985) commented on the omnipresence of advertising and its effects on culture:
The pervasive and persuasive nature of advertising makes most social scientists quite concerned, especially when they consider the diminishing socialization roles played by other social institutions in affluent societies, institutions like organized religion, education, law and the courts, extended families, traditional cultures and philosophies, etc. While advertising is in the ascendancy, these others seem to fade in importance as influences on the new generations of youth and hence the emergent Culture in many societies. Advertising may be one of the most potent factors eroding traditional cultural character and leading to a transnational consumer culture. (section Introduction, para. 3)
Thus, advertising is a potent force and as is discussed above it does not only reflect our culture and society but it also shapes it. As Foucault (as cited in Fairclough, 1985) pointed out, advertising discourse is as any other discourse constitutive – it contributes to “the production, transformation and reproduction of the object of social life” (p. 41). Therefore, advertising discourse is worth studying and analysing for the great influence it has on us.
We need to understand it in order to understand our selves. If we find an advertisement appealing or disturbing says a lot about us and our values. Thus, as Bovée and Arens (1992) pointed out, besides being a business, advertising is also a social phenomenon (p. 2).
Advertising can be helpful. It can advice and inform. As Vysekalová et al. (2007) pointed out, it teaches us how to orient in the world of consumption; it presents new products and
2 new was of using them (p. 101). Thus, advertising can serve well to us if we understand its manipulative nature and learn how to read it (Vysekalová et al., 2007, p. 8).
Advertising is also creative, innovative and inspirational. It is an area which develops along with modern technologies. It constantly invents new and new techniques how to approach customers, how to catch their attention and how to persuade them to buy. As Bovée and
Arens (1992) said, “advertising is a unique combination of art and science – talented, creative people with specialized knowledge in the communicating art (writing and printing, drama and theatrical production, graphic design, photography, and so on) breathe life into the art of advertising” (p. 128-9). Naturally, advertisers want their advertisements to be seen, to be read and to be reacted to and so they do everything to accomplish that even by breaking the traditional expectations. Some people feel bothered by it or some say they do not pay any attention to it but advertising still works and that is why companies invest so much money into it.
The present thesis aims to analyse the development of advertising discourse, i.e. how advertisements have been used to communicate with consumers. Its goal is to indicate the major shifts in advertising techniques. The analysis is limited to the commercial consumer advertising and is performed on Coca-Cola print advertisements for Coca-Cola advertising with its long history and success offers a valuable insight into the development of advertising techniques in the last century. For the purposes of the analysis is compiled a corpus of 100 Coca-Cola advertisements (see Appendix 10: List of advertisements). How the corpus is compiled and what it contains is described in chapter 2.
Chapter 3 briefly describes the history Coca-Cola advertising. It presents The Coca-Cola
Company and provides information about its values and vision.
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Chapter 4 deals with the general classification and characteristics of advertising. It discusses various types of advertising and its objectives. Also, it describes advertising as a communication process.
Chapter 5 covers standard components of print advertisements, i.e. headlines, subheads, body copies, signature lines and standing details. As headlines, subheads and body copies are important for the analysis, particular attention is paid to them.
The theory covered by these chapters is demonstrated on the corpus of compiled Coca-
Cola advertisements.
The last two chapters focus on the analysis itself. There are two main areas of interest and two proposed hypotheses. Chapter 6 is devoted to the role of visual elements (visuals) in advertisements. It discusses which functions visuals have and in what relationship they are to verbal elements employed. The compiled corpus is analysed as to the proportion of visual to verbal elements in the advertisements. The proposed hypothesis 1 tests the prevalence of visual elements in modern advertising at the expense of verbal elements.
Further, it is analysed how the use of visuals in the advertisements influences the communication of the advertising message and the verbal means employed.
Chapter 7 is devoted to the analysis of verbal elements in the advertising copy. The proposed hypothesis 2 tests the major shifts in target audience in Coca-Cola advertising history. Further, it is analysed how the language means employed in advertisements have changed with these shifts.
To summarise, the purpose of this paper is to perform a qualitative analysis of the compiled advertisements, identify their salient features and describe how these influence the language means employed.
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2 Corpus Description
The corpus spans 126 years of Coca-Cola print advertising (since 1886 to 2012) and is compiled of one hundred advertisements. Ninety-two advertisements promote the original
Coca-Cola, four Diet Coke and four Coke zero. The purpose of this thesis aims to capture the major shifts in shaping Coca-Cola print advertisements by performing a qualitative analysis. Therefore, the main criteria for compiling the corpus are quality and variety.
Particularly important is variety of advertisements in regard to their time of publication and in regard to their content. Each advertisement is marked for the year of publication and arranged chronologically in the corpus since 1886 to 2012. All advertisements are numbered. The oldest advertisement is marked by the number 1 and the following by the ascending numbers up to 100 (i.e. the most recent advertisement has the number 100).
Throughout the thesis, the number serves as a means of reference. Thus, when there is a need to refer to a particular advertisement in the corpus, „Ad x‟ (x being the number from
1 to 100) is used.
All advertisements are retrieved from the Internet which thanks to the effort of Coca-Cola admirers who collect advertisements and materials connected with the brand is a generous source. Nevertheless, it is a source that has its drawbacks. The major drawback is that the original sources are usually not stated. Therefore, neither in this thesis are the primary sources of the compiled advertisements given. Each advertisement in the corpus is accompanied with the URL address (situated bellow the advertisement) indicating its location on the Internet. The lack of information in regard to the original sources also makes it impossible to identify for which market the advertisements were intended (e.g. whether for American, British or other; or whether they were part of a global campaign).
Therefore, it is not taken into account in which country the advertisements were published.
The compiled advertisements are simply limited to English language copies.
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Taken the drawbacks into account, the Internet is used as a source for it would not be possible to compile such a varied corpus without it. In our country (i.e. the Czech
Republic) in particular, it is not possible to access old Coca-Cola advertisements. Hereby, I want to thank all those who collected the Coca-Cola advertisements and shared them on the Internet. Without their effort it would not be possible to perform the analysis proposed in this thesis.
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3 Coca-Cola Advertising History
Nowadays, The Coca-Cola Company is among the leaders of the beverage industry. It
offers consumers all over the world more than 500 brands, including the famous Coca-
Cola, and sells more than 1.7 billion drinks a day (The Coca-Cola Company, 2011).
Nevertheless, The Company went a long way to achieve this success. The beginnings of
Coca-Cola date back to May 8, 1886. It is Dr. John S. Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist,
who produces the syrup for the beverage. The syrup is placed on sale as a soda fountain
drink for five cents a glass. Frank M. Robinson, Dr. Pemberton‟s partner and bookkeeper,
suggests the name Coca-Cola and “thinking the two Cs would look well in advertising,
pens the famous Spencerian script logo” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2011, section 1880s).
Soon afterwards, the first newspaper advertisement appears in „The Atlanta Journal‟ (The
Coca-Cola Company, 2011, section 1880s) promoting Coca-Cola as „delicious‟, „refreshing‟,
„exhilarating‟ and „invigorating‟ (see Ad 1). In its early advertising, Coca-Cola is claimed to
cure nervous affections such as head-ache, neuralgia, hysteria, and melancholy (see Ad 2).
Average sales during the first year are very modest – nine drinks per day (The Coca-Cola
Company, 2011, section 1880s). Dr. Pemberton, not seeing the potential of his creation,
gradually sells portions of his business. The formula and patents are bought by Asa G.
Candler, a great Atlanta businessman. It is he who founds The Coca-Cola Company (in
1892) and brings a real vision to the business. Thanks to his marketing skills the business
grows. Coca-Cola starts to be promoted not only as a medicament but mainly as a
refreshing, thirst-quenching and pure beverage. As its popularity rises, a new concept is
needed to satisfy the demand. The first bottling plant is opened in 1899. Coca-Cola in
bottles enables to serve more products to more customers. The fame of the drink spreads
nationwide and the bottling system later enables its distribution into the world. With the
growing popularity of the drink appear attempts to imitate it. The bottlers persistently try
7 to protect the product and the package. In 1915, a unique contour bottle is designed. The war against imitation is reflected also in advertising. The Coca-Cola bottle starts to appear in advertisements as a distinctive visual (see Ad 21). In the verbal copy, consumers are encouraged to „Demand the genuine by full name‟ for „nicknames encourage substitution‟ (Ad 21). In
1923, Robert Woodruff becomes the Company‟s president. During his long leadership, significant innovations for beverage industry are introduced and properly promoted. For example, it is possible to buy Coca-Cola by the case (see Ad 23), from open-top cooler
(see Ad 37), automatic fountain dispenser (see Ad 45) or in six-bottle carton (see Ad 50).
These innovations make Coca-Cola more accessible for consumers. Nevertheless, the greatest contribution of Woodruff is his vision of Coca-Cola as an international product.
“While Candler had introduced the U.S. to Coca-Cola, Woodruff would spend more than
60 years as Company leader introducing the beverage to the world beyond” (The Coca-
Cola Company, n.d., section 1919-1940 The Woodruff Legacy). In 1928, with the international expansion in mind, the Company initiates partnership with the Olympic
Games. The partnership has lasted until today and throughout the years other significant sports partnerships are made. Another important moment in the Coca-Cola history is the outbreak of World War II. In 1941, Woodruff orders that “every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for 5 cents, wherever he is and whatever it costs the Company” (The
Coca-Cola Company, n.d., section 1941-1959 The War and its Legacy). Therefore, Coca-
Cola is supplied to army forces and with these enters new places. The beverage becomes considered as a social drink, promoting friendliness (see Ad 47) and getting people together. Since the end of the war, Coca-Cola is growing rapidly worldwide towards becoming a global brand. Throughout all the times, the Company has emphasised the importance of advertising and therefore has invested a lot of money into it. The international appeal of Coca-Cola is embodied by a 1971 commercial, where a group of young people from all over the world are gathered on a hilltop in Italy to sing “I‟d Like to
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Buy the World a Coke” (see Ad 67). Coca-Cola is also promoted as a brand connected with fun and good times, providing not only refreshment but also enjoyment to life. Thus,
Coca-Cola becomes more than a drink, it becomes a lifestyle. In 1982, the Company introduces a new product – Diet Coke – which is the first extension of Coca-Cola brand.
Other products follow satisfying the specific needs and desires of consumers all around the world. Last year (i.e., 2011), Coca-Cola celebrated its 125th anniversary. It has made it from a local to global brand, one of the most admired and best known in the world.
Today, Coca-Cola is considered one of the world‟s most powerful brands. It is rated 3rd by
Forbes.com (n.d., The World‟s Most Powerful Brands) right after Apple and Microsoft.
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4 Classification and Characteristics of Advertising
Advertising is a part of the marketing mix. It is a form of promotion as well as, for example, sales promotion or personal selling. This thesis deals with commercial consumer advertising. Therefore, the following characteristics are limited to this type of advertising only.
Advertising can be defined as “the nonpersonal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods and services) or ideas by identified sponsors through various media” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 7). As Bovée and
Arens (1992) further explained, it is called nonpersonal because it is directed to a group or groups of people rather than to individuals (p. 7-8). That is also the reason why advertising is frequently called mass communication. It is used to inform or remind readers about particular products and to persuade them to act. The action desired by sponsors is usually the purchase. Sponsors pay for the advertisements and thus are usually identified in them, for example, by their logo or trademark.
4.1 Classification of Advertising
Advertising can be classified according to various criteria. The present thesis follows the classification of Bovée and Arens (1992) who classified it by four main criteria: target audience, geographic area, medium, and purpose (p. 8).
4.1.1 Target Audience
The basis in advertising is to precisely determine to whom the product is intended and to whom the advertisement should appeal. Then the advertising message could be adapted to the needs or desires specific for this group. Bovée and Arens (1992) pointed out the majority fallacy that there is “a common misconception that to be successful a product or
10 service must appeal to everybody or at least to the majority of people” (p. 155). That is not possible because people differ from each other. They have different needs and different desires and they prefer different ways of satisfying them. To persuade various people to buy the same product would mean to appeal at the same time to various needs and desires.
Such advertisement would be too complex and as a whole vague, therefore, not persuasive and not successful. Advertisers use sophisticated methods. They divide market into segments according to the needs and desires of prospective customers. Then, they are able to aim at particular groups of people (not all of them) and to appeal to the needs and desires specific for them. In the history Coca-Cola advertising, it is possible to identify such a division. The analysis of the corpus proves that Coca-Cola advertisements even though presenting the drink as suitable for everybody (e.g. see Ad 20 pointing out that Coca-Cola is „Everybody‟s Drink‟) target people according to their needs (i.e. they do not target all people at the same time). The advertisements are adapted to present Coca-Cola as a thirst- quencher, a remedy, refreshment, a social drink, and as a lifestyle (see chapter 7 Language in
Coca-Cola advertisements describing linguistic means employed in each category of advertisements). Most advertisements are neutral in regard to age or gender. Nevertheless, some are adapted to appeal to particular age groups or genders. In regard to gender, for example, Ad 8 could be considered as appealing to women rather than men. There are visualized two ladies drinking Coca-Cola accompanied by the body copy: „Take one glass of
Coca Cola when weary with shopping - It imparts energy and vigor‟. The advertisement presents a specific situation (i.e. ladies refreshing themselves from shopping) with which its readers can indentify. The identification would be easier for women since shopping has been considered their domain of interest. The advertisement appeals to their social role of housewives who were responsible for the household. A similar appeal to the social role of women appears in advertisements presenting Coca-Cola as a token of hospitality (see section 7.4.2 Coca-Cola as a token of Hospitality describing linguistics means employed in this
11 category of advertisements). Nevertheless, it has to be taken into consideration that such advertisements usually ran in series which enabled the advertiser to adapt them in order to target a specific group. For example, the advertisements targeting women in their social role of hostesses and housewives who are encouraged to serve Coca-Cola to their friends and family (e.g. Ad 56) do not target their readers as consumers but as those who make the purchase. On the other hand, there are advertisements which target their readers as consumers (e.g. Ad 57) but not as purchasers. For example, Ad 57 visualizes a situation which resembles a fishing trip (considered mostly domain of men). There is a man offering a bottle of Coke to the reader in a very familiar manner like he was his friend. The body copy is: „That‟s so right – especially when activity calls for a pause. Just reach into the handy picnic cooler for a frosty bottle of Coca-Cola. Enjoy its tingling goodness and off you go-to play refreshed.‟ The advertisement appeals to the reader as the consumer promoting new ways of consumption thanks to the „handy picnic cooler‟. Nevertheless, those who fill the picnic cooler for their men are usually women who also make the purchase. Therefore, the advertisements could be considered as completing each other. Similar counterparts could be considered Ad 7 and
Ad 8. While Ad 8 is targeted at women („weary with shopping‟), Ad 7 is targeted at men
(„students and brain workers‟) following the traditional gender roles of the period (both ads were published in 1905).
In regard to age, there are advertisements which are adapted to appeal to a specific group.
For example, Ad 30 focuses on children. There is visualized a boy consuming the drink and the language of the body copy is also adapted for children. It is very personal and it tries to imitate informal spoken language (e.g. the exclamation „Boy, it‟s keen!‟ or „You get your nickel‟s worth...‟). The focus is more on the enjoyment from the drink (e.g. „You can feel the bubbles all the way down, and the taste is great.‟) rather than on presenting its specific properties. Therefore, it appeals to emotions rather than reason.
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Further, there are also advertisements focusing on seniors. For example, Ad 36 appeals to the reader that she/he can enjoy the drink „at any age‟ or Ad 60 which promotes Coca-Cola as a „happy pause for the youth of all ages...‟. In both advertisements are visualized happy seniors to help the reader imagine herself/himself in the situation.
Also, there are advertisements which focus on young generation (e.g. Ad 71 visualizes young people enjoying themselves on the beach) associating Coca-Cola with enjoyment and a happy life.
To summarize, this thesis disagrees with the opinion of Bovée and Arens (1992) concerning the majority fallacy that there is “a common misconception that to be successful a product or service must appeal to everybody or at least to the majority of people” (p. 155). The analysis of Coca-Cola advertisements proves that the drink can appeal to everybody or at least to the majority of people. Instead, a correction is suggested that there is a common misconception that to be successful an advertisement must appeal to everybody or at least to the majority of people. As is described above, Coca-Cola advertisements are targeted at groups of people according to their needs, in some cases also according to their age or gender. An important factor turns out to be the social role of the target audience. Therefore, when the advertiser is adapting the advertising message to the specifics of its target group “it is important to consider not just who the end user is but also who makes the purchasing decision and who influences the purchasing decision”
(Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 260). Other factors determining the target group may be - education, income, occupation, or lifestyle.
4.1.1.1 Diet Coke and Coke zero
In recent years, The Coca-Cola Company introduced on the market new products – Diet
Coke and Coke zero. The present thesis presupposes that these products have been promoted as gender specific – Diet Coke for women and Coke zero for men. Observing
13 the advertisements on Diet coke of the recent years, it is possible to see that these appeal to the interests and desires of women. Diet Coke is associated with fashion (e.g. Ads 93, 97 and 99 presenting Diet Coke in connection with fashion designers as Karl Lagerfeld and
Jean Paul Gaultier or models as Heidi Klum) and healthy lifestyle (e.g. Ad 93 encouraging the reader to care about her heart health). Coke zero, on the other hand, appeals to the interests and desires of men as it is associated with adventure and living life to the fullest
(e.g. Ads 96 and 100 presenting Coke zero in connection with action movie heroes as
James Bond or Zoro). Thus, the presupposition is confirmed. The promotion of Diet Coke and Coke zero represents a new shift in Coca-Cola advertising history as these brand extensions are used to target women and men respectively.
4.1.2 Geographic area
By geography, Bovée and Arens (1992) distinguished four types of advertising: local, regional, national and international (p. 12-14). As it is possible in the advertising history of
Coca-Cola to mark the development of the brand from local to international, the theoretical description is demonstrated on particular Coca-Cola advertisements.
Local advertising is used by businesses whose customers come from one local area. It is also frequently called retail advertising. It focuses on promoting a particular retailer as it tries to persuade the reader to visit her/his store. At the beginning of Coca-Cola advertising, the product is promoted by such retailers. For example, Ad 1 besides describing the qualities of the product also informs that Coca-Cola is „For sale by Willis
Venable and Nunnally & Rawson‟ connecting the brand with a particular retailer. The same mark of local advertising is to be found in Ad 3. There is a body copy which closes with the information that Coca-Cola is „Drawn sparkling ice cold from the fount‟ followed directly by the signature line „EVANS & HOWARD -AT THE- CENTRAL DRUG STORE‟ connecting thus the fount with a particular place.
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Regional advertising refers to advertising of products which are sold in some region but not in the whole country. When products are sold in several regions or the whole country, national advertising is used. National advertising is frequent in the Coca-Cola advertising history. As the brand grows from local to national, it stops being associated with particular retailers but instead it is promoted as available everywhere (e.g. Ad 9: „Wherever you go you will find Coca-Cola - AT ALL FOUNTAINS‟; Ad 11: „Sold everywhere‟). The availability of the drink becomes one of its key sales points (besides its refreshing and delicious quality); its price (5c) as well. Both become inherent parts of Coca-Cola advertisements. The information is reduced to simple „5c Everywhere‟ (e.g. Ads 13-18) and serves as a signature line (for the role of signature lines in advertisements see section 5.4 Signature line). The vague terms (e.g. everywhere, whenever, at all soda founts) allow the advertisements to be published in the same form all over the United States. This helps to build a unified brand image. The unification of brand image allows the advertiser to present the drink as national
(e.g. Ad 12: „The great national drink‟). The word national has positive connotations for
Americans – it connotes love which they have for their country and pride they have for being Americans. The drink thus starts to be associated with such connotations being seen as a truly American product. The promotion of the drink is also in accordance with values which Americans share. For example, the equality of opportunities which is reflected in the drink being suitable for everybody (e.g. Ad 13: „All Classes, Ages and Sexes Drink Coca-Cola‟).
Another great American value which is targeted at in the advertisements is individuality.
For example, in Ad 20 it is stressed that Coca-Cola is „The national beverage – and yours‟ stressing the reader‟s own importance. The reader is not addressed simply as a passive part of some group but her/his individuality is highlighted making her/him an active part of the nation. Another means of national advertising is promoting the product in connection with special occasions, sports event or celebrities which are popular within the nation. Coca-
Cola is connected with baseball, the “national game” (see Ad 12), or a successful marathon
15 bicyclist Bobby Walthour (see Ad 14), or a popular American celebrity Hilda Clark (see Ad
4). The national events and celebrities promoting the product are used to enhance the popularity of the drink and create positive associations. For the role of celebrities in advertisements see chapter 6 Visuals in Coca-Cola advertisements.
Finally, international advertising is directed at foreign markets. The product is introduced into new cultures. Sometimes the new culture may be similar to the culture of the product‟s origin and sometimes it can be completely different. The advertisers going international have to be careful in choosing the means of encoding and delivering the advertising message. As Douglas and Craig (n.d.) pointed out: “Target audiences differ from country to country in terms of how they perceive or interpret symbols or stimuli, respond to humor or emotional appeals, as well as in levels of literacy and languages spoken.” (section 1 Definition of International Advertising) In order to avoid miscommunication or even offending the target group, the advertisers rather choose to employ a local agency to create a local advertisement. Nevertheless, international advertising is employed in cultures which adhere to similar values and which are similar in terms of perception and interpretation. Modern technologies make the international advertising easier. They enable transport of goods and of information. People are interested not only in what is happening in the area in which they live but also in what is happening around the world. Media and the possibility of free travelling enable them to know that.
People are from nature curious about new things. They try new food, new products, and even new lifestyles. International advertising thus is of great influence. It introduces not only products and their benefits for the consumer but also new ways of life. It promotes the culture of the product‟s origin. Coca-Cola being closely associated with American values (see the section national advertising above) promotes them internationally, representing the United States and American culture. It is more than a product, it is a symbol.
Advertising, therefore, may be of great social influence. It does not only introduce a new
16 lifestyle but it also encourages the target audience to acquire it. As Douglas and Craig (n.d.) said: “International advertising also encourages desire for products from other countries, it creates expectations about „the good life‟, and establishes new models of consumption.
Advertising is thus a potent force for change, while selectively reinforcing certain values, life-styles and role models” (section 5. International Advertising as a Social Force). The interconnection of the culture and the product could be exemplified on the reaction of the
Communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia on the growing popularity of Coca-Cola in our countries. Politicians in order to stop the influence of the “imperialistic drink”
(Kofola, para. 3) placed an order to develop a national drink of the same type which would substitute the famous Coca-Cola. Thus, Kofola was created. International advertising influences people but it also unites them. As Bovée and Arens (1992) said:
Certainly, as a communication form, international advertising contributes to the unification of the world. And one benefit is enhanced international understanding as advertisers introduce foreign products, values, and ideas into new markets. As technology and ideologies evolve, international advertising will continue to flourish. (p. 673)
Again, an excellent example is The Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola was introduced on international markets during the Second World War. It was promoted as a drink uniting people, as a token of friendliness. For example, Ad 47 focuses on teaching consumers the new connotation of Coca-Cola – ‟Have a Coca-Cola = You‟re my kind‟. The most popular advertisement in the history of Coca-Cola representing the drink as a bond among people is “I‟d like to buy the world a Coke”. It started as a song for a radio commercial, but its success came with a TV commercial which treated the song as a “First United Chorus of the
World.” (fra30774, 2011, section The story behind the song, para. 9). The song promoted
Coca-Cola in connection with love and harmony all over the world with the drink being presented as a social element uniting the world. The text of the song is following:
I‟d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love, Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves. I‟d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, I‟d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company. It‟s the
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real thing, Coke is what the world wants today. (as cited in fra30774, 2011, section The story behind the song, para. 6)
The radio and TV advertising was completed by print advertisements (see Ad 67) reminding the reader constantly of the song. A unified advertising campaign which is launched internationally as such helps the company to build a positive brand image since it makes no distinction among people. The process of unification of the world may inspire the idea of a global consumer. In favour of this idea is, for example, Levitt who thinks that thanks to “cheap air travel and new telecommunications technology, the world is becoming a common marketplace in which people have the same tastes and desires and want the same products and lifestyles no matter where they live” (as cited in Bovée & Arens, 1992, p.
677). Therefore, world-standardized products could be sold the same way around the world.
Nevertheless, as Bovée and Arens (1992) pointed out, “many advertisers believe Levitt‟s approach is incorrect” because the global consumer does not exit (p. 677). The world is differentiated as well as its inhabitants are. Even Coca-Cola is advertised differently in different countries. It has its global advertising strategy but it is accompanied by advertising campaigns unique to specific markets. The global advertising campaigns are usually aimed at building a positive brand image. Thus, the drink is connected with the world sports events like Olympic Games (see Ad 88) or world famous celebrities – real (e.g. Jean Paul
Gaultier – Ad 99; Karl Lagerfeld – Ad 97; Heidi Klum – Ad 93) or fictional (e.g. James
Bond – Ad 100; Zoro – Ad 96). Local advertising campaigns are more focused on the promotion of the product and establishing the relationship between the consumer and the product. Of great influence on the positive attitude towards the advertisement is the choice of the language. According to Wallace Lambert people tend to find speakers of their own language more likeable (as cited in Joseph, 2004, p. 70). Thus, the advertisements are translated into local languages (see Appendix 1: Coca-Cola in Czech advertising – ad localization for the localization of a Coca-Cola advertisement for the Czech market) or the whole
18 advertising campaign is localized, i.e. adapted to a specific market. An example of such localized campaign is a summer campaign in the Czech Republic in which Coca-Cola and
O2 cooperated in order to increase their sales. The campaign promised 25 crown credit for calls to everyone who buys a bottle of Coca-Cola (see Appendix 2: Coca-Cola in Czech advertising – campaign localization).
4.1.3 Medium
In the context of advertising, medium refers to any paid means that is used to carry the advertisement and present it to the prospective consumer (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p 14).
Most frequently used are print media (newspapers, magazines), broadcast media (television, radio), outdoor media (billboards, posters) and the medium that is quickly expanding today
– the Internet.
The choice of media is important for the advertiser. Every medium has different properties and offers different advantages. Media also differ significantly in their costs. Therefore, advertiser has to choose carefully which media to employ and how to combine them so that the advertising campaign would be most effective. For example, television is a great medium for creating awareness of the product, i.e. letting people know that the product is on the market, and showing them how the product looks like. Nevertheless, as Lowrey (as cited in McQuarrie and Phillips, 2008) pointed out, television is an externally paced medium, i.e. people cannot influence the pace of the advertisement delivery (p.163). Thus, it cannot offer the prospective customer many technological details as the customer would not be able to process them. On the other hand, print advertising is self-paced, therefore, it seems more appropriate to carry such kind of information. For example, a car advertiser when preparing advertising campaign would probably launch TV advertisement first to create awareness about the car and present it in motion. Then, she/he would accompany it with print advertising offering additional technical details for those who become interested
19 in the car. In this case, it would be mainly print advertising which would be persuading the receiver to act, i.e. to purchase. Print advertising also may serve as a reminder of the TV spot. An example from the Coca-Cola advertising may be the spot “I‟d like to buy a world a
Coke” which is described above. The spot is based on a catchy melody. Naturally, print advertising cannot capture and transmit melody, thus, the advertisement (see Ad 67) complemented the spot by reminding the readers about it.
As this thesis focuses on print advertising, the following section discusses advantages and disadvantages of print advertising in comparison with other media.
4.1.3.1 Print Advertising
According to Suggett (n.d.), “if an advertisement is printed on paper, be it newspapers, magazines, newsletters, booklets, flyers, direct mail, or anything else that would be considered a portable printed medium, then it comes under the banner of print advertising” (section Definition, para. 1). Print is one of the most popular media for advertising. It offers an advertiser a number of advantages of which one of the most important is that it is affordable even by small businesses. Another great advantage is that print is a self-paced medium enabling the reader to spend with the advertisement as much time as she/he wishes. It is permanent, therefore, the reader may reread it, get back to it or even show it to someone else anytime she/he wants. Next, it is a medium that allows the advertiser not only to present her/his offer but also to present it in a creative way.
Creativity in modern advertising is a very important factor fulfilling several functions. It is used to catch the attention of the reader as well as to deliver the advertising message in a memorable way. Print advertising also has its specifics in regard to the type of media. In respect of the corpus of this thesis which is compiled of print advertisements from newspapers and mainly magazines the following text discusses specifics of newspaper and magazine advertising.
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Newspapers are local media, enabling advertisers to target a local community. Therefore, they are best suited for local businesses which wish to attract local people to their stores
(see localised Ads 1 and 3). Their great advantage is that they are affordable even by small businesses. Newspapers serve to inform readers about current affairs. That is why people buy them – to be informed. When preparing the advertisement, the advertiser should bear this function of newspapers in mind. Newspapers are selective, they allow the reader to read what she/he wants and skip parts which she/he finds not interesting. The same it is with advertisements – they can be skipped. Therefore, advertisements in newspapers in order not to be skipped should carry some information which would be of value to the reader. For example, in the Coca-Cola advertising, newspaper ads (see Ads 1-3) imitate medical discourse in order to sound professional. The focus is on providing information and thus appealing to reason rather than arising emotions (see section 7.2 Coca-Cola as a remedy for description of linguistic means used in such type of advertising). Another piece of information provided by such advertisements may concern opening of a new store in the area. It would appeal to the reader as a member of the local community who is interested in what is happing in her/his local area. Another example may be information about a specific offer (e.g. introductory price for a new product) which would appeal to the reader as a consumer who is interested in a bargain price. In this way, the reader‟s need for information would be satisfied. Newspapers are mass media, they are read by a wide range of people. They reach various target groups and may function well as awareness creator.
Newspaper are published everyday, therefore, they enable advertiser to change her/his advertisement easily or to adjust it in according to current demand. A disadvantage to newspapers is that they usually offer a poor quality of printed image (see Ads 1-3 which do not contain images, only a verbal copy). Therefore, they are not suited to present visually, for example, a new product for it would be hard to decipher what the image represents.
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Nevertheless, they do not limit the advertiser in typographic creativity. Various fonts or letter sizes can be used to attract reader‟s attention.
To summarize, the major advantages to newspaper advertising are: affordability, ability to target local community, comprehensiveness of readers, and ability to reflect the current demand.
Magazines are not as comprehensive a medium as newspapers. They cover specific topics and have specific readerships. Therefore, magazines allow advertisers to reach better the target group of their products (e.g. car advertisements in car magazines). Magazines are not published daily as newspapers are but in longer regular periods (e.g. once in a month). They are usually read from cover to cover as the reader has enough time to do so. Therefore, advertisements in magazines are exposed to readers repeatedly – anytime the reader returns to the magazine and browse through it, she/he will encounter the advertisement. This makes the reader remember it better. Advertisements in magazines are also more oriented to enhance and sustain the brand image. It is because magazines are bought mainly for pleasure and not for information as newspapers. People buy magazines because they are interested in the area they cover. They read magazines because the reading itself pleases them or it is a pleasant way of spending time while travelling or waiting. For these reasons, the goal of advertisements in magazines is to please its readers and create a positive brand image. As is said in the article Print Advertising Pros and Cons (n.d.):
Magazine printing methods allow for higher resolution images and better color options, which allow you [the advertiser] to build your brand image in a positive way. Just the fact that you [the advertiser] are advertising in a magazine gives your company a certain professional cachet. (para. 3)
Advertising in magazines is more expensive than in newspapers, therefore, placing an advertisement there is also a way to express the prestige of the advertiser. The high quality of printed images is a great advantage to newspaper advertising. Magazine advertisers employ eye-catching visuals in which frequently dominates the product presented in the
22 greatest detail or a celebrity promoting that product. A detailed study of visuals in advertising is covered by chapter 6 Visuals in Coca-Cola advertisements. Visuals allow advertisers to be creative and because a picture is worth a thousand words advertisers take this advantage very seriously and spend a lot of time and money inventing plays with meanings based on visuals.
Nevertheless, advertising in magazines also has its drawbacks. It is usually more expensive than in newspapers and it has to be carefully planned in advance as is explained in the article Print Advertising Pros and Cons (n.d.): “Many magazines come out just once a month, or even every three months, and to meet their deadlines it's often necessary to have ads completed six months before they'll actually appear” (para. 4). Therefore, magazine advertising does not allow advertiser to change or adjust the advertisement according to the current demand.
To summarize, the major advantages to magazine advertising are: ability to reach the target group, repeated advertisement exposure, prestige, and creativity in employing visuals.
Print advertising with its many advantages seems to be a successful way of the product or brand promotion. Nevertheless, advertisers nowadays gradually abandon print advertising and focus rather on digital media which are increasing in popularity. As audience moves, advertisers move as well. Advertising has always kept in touch with modern technologies and has invented ways to use these in their favour. That is how advertising penetrated into our everyday lives, into our homes. Advertising as a nonpersonal form of communication is dependent on media which enable communication. Therefore, when a new medium is invented, advertising is sure to be there and the more popular the medium gets the more advertisers will be interested in it. Thus, as long as print media have their readership, they will be interesting for advertisers. Print is not dead, yet. It is still an effective way to reach target groups and advertisers are well aware of that. Although they invest a lot of money
23 into advertising in digital media which nowadays play a major part in advertising campaigns, print advertising still has its part – may it be only complementary.
4.1.4 Purpose
Classification of advertising by purpose relates to the advertiser‟s general objectives, i.e. what the advertiser wants to achieve by her/his advertisement. There are several purposes which the advertiser can pursue. Bovée and Arens (1992) distinguished the following: product versus nonproduct advertising, commercial versus noncommercial advertising, and action versus awareness advertising (p. 14-15). These distinctions are further described below.
Product advertising focuses on promotion of goods and services. It tries to sell the product by persuading the target group about its qualities and by presenting the benefits it offers. In the centre of attention, therefore, is the product itself. Regarding the corpus of this thesis, this kind of advertising represents the majority of compiled advertisements (i.e.
98 out of 100). Nonproduct advertising, on the other hand, tries to sell ideas (see Ads 79 and 93). When a company chooses to use nonproduct rather than product advertising it promotes primarily its mission and values. This kind of advertising serves well to enhance the brand image. The Coca-Cola Company besides trying to “refresh the world” by its drinks tries to “inspire moments of optimism and happiness...” and “create value and make a difference” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2012, section Our mission). It promotes friendships, togetherness. It tries to unite people and through this make the world a better place as is promoted in the Ad 79: „Let‟s do it for our children. Let‟s show them what a great world this can be when we join hands and live his dream of love and harmony‟. The text is accompanied by a picture of Martin Luther King playing with his daughter. Therefore, the advertisement uses a great figure of American history and refers to his ideas. The advertisement is signed by
The Coca-Cola Company but there is no visual of the drink incorporated in the visual
24 itself. Without the signature it would be impossible to associate the advertisement with the
Coca-Cola brand. This attitude to advertising has become popular. Commercial brands
(such as Coca-Cola) employ this kind of advertising in order to create a positive brand image. They try to be more personal, to get closer to their customers. In this way they can hold their favour. People nowadays are bothered by advertisements pushing them to buy.
They do not like to hear that they are strongly influenced by commercialism, that they embrace material values. Even though people buy things for pleasure, they do not like to hear that they are commercial consumers. Also, many people live quite happily and comfortably surrounded by material things and still they do not like to hear that they are materially oriented. These words have negative connotations. Commercial companies in order to be successful must react to what the market prefers and when the market prefers to buy ideas, they will sell them. In such a case, the product itself and its basic qualities become less important (e.g. Coca-Cola as a drink satisfying the basic human need of thirst).
Instead, new values (e.g. Coca-Cola as a friendly drink) are added to the product.
Consumers welcome such a move because by buying a product with no added value they would be just consumers of a commercial drink (which will give them a negative feeling) but by buying a product with some added value they become consumers who embrace the spiritual values promoted by the drink (which will please them). Therefore, with such a purchase costumers will be satisfied for they will have the feeling that they do something good and the companies will be satisfied for they will profit.
To summarise, even though there might be noble ideas employed in the commercial advertising, it still is a commercial advertising with its basic goal – to sell. In the area of advertising, “the entire focus is on what works, and on what works best” as McQuarrie and
Phillips pointed out (2008, p. 9) and in the end it does not matter whether the goal is achieved through product or nonproduct advertising. Therefore, we as consumers should consider carefully how we respond to such kind of advertising. Favouring the consumption
25 of products with purposely added value will not make a difference (there is no connection between consuming Coca-Cola drink and making the world a better place). We can only make a difference by our own attitude to life and to people around us.
Commercial advertising differs from noncommercial advertising in that it aims to make a profit. Noncommercial advertising “is sponsored by or for a charitable institution or civic group or religious or political organization. Many noncommercial advertisements seek money and are placed in the hope of raising funds. Others hope to change consumer behavior (“Buckle up for safety”)” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 15). This thesis deals only with the commercial advertising, therefore, the specifics of noncommercial advertising are not taken into consideration in the discussions of this paper.
Action advertising and awareness advertising are distinguished in terms of consumer‟s response to the advertisement. Action advertising aims to make the consumer act, i.e. to go and buy the advertised product. Awareness advertising on the other hand aims to inform or remind target groups about the existence of the product on the market. It focuses on presenting the brand in a positive way, creating a positive image. There are several ways of enhancing the brand image. One of them is adding a spiritual value to the product which is discussed above (see the section nonproduct advertising). Another is associating the brand with some popular event. For example, The Coca-Cola Company has a long history of sponsoring major events such as Olympic Games, NBA, American Idol and others. The connection of the brand with such events makes the brand visible because many people are keen spectators of them. It also makes the brand prestigious as much as these events are. It also enables the brand to be associated with the values these events promote. For example,
The Coca-Cola Company (2012) claims to share “the Olympic Values, which embody the discovery of one's abilities, the spirit of competition, the pursuit of excellence, a sense of fair play and the building of a better and more-peaceful world” (para. 3). Sharing and
26 promoting such values helps the Company to create a positive brand image among its consumers and inspire them to purchase. Therefore, the overall goal of awareness advertising is also to persuade the consumer to buy. The difference is that action advertising seeks an immediate consumer response (i.e. the action) which may be urged, for example, by a time-limited offer or coupons attached while awareness advertising seeks to build a positive image of the product which will lead the consumer to the purchase (in the ideal case a repeated purchase). To summarise, the goal of action advertising is the immediate response (usually one time action) while the goal of awareness advertising can be considered long-term (usually repeated purchase based on the positive attitude of the consumer to the brand).
4.2 Objectives of Advertising
The overall goal of advertising is to persuade prospective customers to act, i.e. to buy the product. In order to do so, the advertisement has to accomplish several other objectives.
The most accepted model for the successful advertising is based on the following four principles (“AIDA”) pioneered by Lewis (as cited in Suggett, n.d., section Where Did
AIDA Come From?, para. 1):
1. Attract Attention
2. Arouse Interest
3. Stimulate Desire
4. Get Action
4.2.1 Attention
Advertising is a nonpersonal form of communication. The advertiser is the one who initiates the communication by creating the advertisement in which she/he encodes her/his advertising message. Thus, she/he is the sender. Nevertheless, she/he does not create only
27 the advertising message but a whole new world. Advertisements represent a fictional world, a world arbitrarily created. They enter the real world of their prospective customers and try to draw their attention to the fictional reality they simulate (Čmejrková, 2000, p. 21).
Advertisements have to be created in such a way that they catch the eye of the prospective customers and engage them in the communication. The advertiser, when creating the advertisement, has to bear in mind that prospective customers will not engage in the communication deliberately, they do not seek advertisements on purpose. Conversely, they will most probably try to avoid any advertisements they encounter or at least ignore them.
According to Suggett (n.d.), the best approach to attract the attention of the consumer is called disruption of which he said: “This is a technique that literally jars the consumer into paying attention” (section The First Step of AIDA – Attention, para. 2). He further suggested that disruption can be achieved, for example, by “placing ads in very unexpected situations” which is known nowadays as guerilla marketing, by shocking people (e.g. with sexually provocative imagery) or by personalisation because as he explained: “it is hard to ignore something if it is aimed at you specifically” (section The First Step of AIDA –
Attention). Even though visuals are mostly used to attract attention (for more details see section 6.1 Visuals as attention catching devices), linguistic means can be employed too. These are used in headlines which work both to attract attention and arouse interest in the copy.
Besides the already mentioned personalisation, frequent is also use of provocation, ambiguity, or unconventional spelling (for more details see section 7 Language in Coca-Cola advertisements).
4.2.2 Interest
Once the advertisement is interesting enough that it catches the reader‟s eye, it has to focus on holding her/his interest. It has to motivate the reader to read the advertisement. One of the popular techniques to hold the reader‟s interest is the use of humour in the advertising
28 copy. Delivering the message in an entertaining way enhances the brand image and it also makes receivers to remember it better. Nevertheless, to use humour in advertising may be dangerous because people have different sense of humour and might not find the advertisement amusing. Advertisers risk incomprehensibility or misapprehension. In either way the advertising message will fail to persuade. Therefore, if advertisers decide to use humour in their advertisements they should consider carefully what type of humour is appropriate in regard to the product which is advertised and in regard to the target audience for which it is intended.
Another important factor in holding the interest of readers is the complexity of the advertising copy. If the reader encounters any difficulty in reading the copy she/he will stop doing so. The copy should be readable, easy to grasp. As Leech (1966, p. 28) said: “the basic requirements are a simple, personal, and colloquial style, and a familiar vocabulary”.
Basically, the language of advertising should imitate a spoken language which is of these properties.
Interest is also closely related to memorability. As Leech (1966) said: “To some extent, the ease with which we remember a thing depends on the impact it first made on us” (p. 29).
Thus, the advertisement which is able to arouse interest in the reader is better remembered.
The advertisers therefore focus on means to make their advertisement memorable.
Frequent is the use of repetition, for example, of slogans or key phrases. Leech (1966) further mentioned “aids to memory, such as the phonological regularities of alliteration, metrical rhythm, and rhyme” (p. 29).
4.2.3 Desire
When the reader is willing to read the copy, it is time for the advertisement to stimulate the reader‟s desire in the product. It is time to persuade her/him that the product is right for her/him and that she/he has to have it. To stimulate the desire, the advertisement appeals
29 to the need of its target audience. People have different needs and they also attach different importance to them. An American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs (see Appendix 3) which he believed motivate human behaviour. The hierarchy is based on the idea that “people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs” (Cherry, n.d., para. 1). If the hierarchy is represented as a pyramid there are five levels. The bottom of the pyramid is built by basic – physiological – needs, such as food, water, and sleep. These needs are necessary for survival. Cherry (n.d.) said: “Maslow believed that these needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met”
(section Five Levels of the Hierarchy of Needs). Therefore, when people do not have to worry about satisfying these needs, there is another level that would be of their interest – safety. These needs are also important for survival, but are not as demanding as physiological needs. This level represents the safety of one‟s own and his family as well as the security of her/his employment or property. Another level is built of needs of love/belonging (i.e. social needs) such as friendship, family, or sexual intimacy. The fourth level is built of the needs of esteem, for example, self-esteem, achievement, or respect of others. The last and top level is built by the needs of self-actualization (or growth needs).
“Maslow emphasized the importance of self-actualization, which is a process of growing and developing as a person in order to achieve individual potential.” (Cherry, n.d., para. 3).
Self-actualization includes the needs of morality, creativity, or spontaneity. These needs “do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from a desire to grow as a person” (Cherry, n.d., section Types of Needs, para. 2). On the other hand, the needs of lower levels stem from deprivation (are deficiency needs) and their satisfying “is important in order to avoid unpleasant feelings or consequences” (Cherry, n.d., section Types of Needs, para. 1).
To summarize, in fulfilling their needs, people move from the physiological needs to psychological and social, with the need of self-actualization being the most important.
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Maslow‟s approach was criticised for the lack of evidence for hierarchical order of these needs. Nevertheless, it is not in the scope of this thesis to discuss it. This thesis follows the idea that these needs are of different importance for different people and it tries to prove that the global success of Coca-Cola (i.e. the success in spite of the variation among people and among cultures) lies in the ability to target all these levels of needs and therefore to target various groups of people.
Besides needs, another important source of motivation are emotions (Vysekalová et al,
2007, p. 113). Therefore, when trying to stimulate desire, advertisers do not only appeal to people‟s needs but also to their emotions. The use of positive emotions in advertising follows the theory of motivational hedonism, i.e. “that only pleasure or pain motivates us”
(Moore, 2004, para. 1). In accordance with this theory, people do things which bring them pleasure (i.e. positive feelings) and try to avoid doing things which would cause them pain
(i.e. negative feelings). Advertisers, therefore, try to connect their product with some positive emotion (e.g. Coca-Cola and happiness) so that the consumer would desire the product for the conviction that when she/he buys it, she/he also “buys” the emotion (e.g. see Ad 92 in which the people consuming the drink are smiling indicating that they are happy). As with the needs, people respond to emotional appeals differently. It depends on the character of each individual how she/he would react. For example, as some people may seek adventure, excitement, even danger because it gives them a special thrill (i.e. positive feeling) others may find it scary (i.e. negative feeling). Therefore, advertisers again have to consider carefully which emotions they employ in relation to the target group they intend to address.
4.2.4 Action
The final step to which all the preceding steps lead is action. That means that the consumer is convinced about the qualities of the product and its benefits for her/him to such a
31 degree that she/he buys it. As was discussed above (see section 4.1.4 Purpose describing action and awareness advertising), there are two ways of making the reader act. The first is through action advertising – the reader is urged to act. In this case, linguistic means such as imperative clauses with verbs like buy, take, get directing the reader what to do are used. For example, the Ad 64 encourages the reader to double her/his purchase of Coca-Cola by:
„For extra fun ... take more than one!‟ and „Take an extra cartoon of Coke!‟. Nevertheless, this kind of advertising is not so frequent nowadays as people do not like being told what to do and respond negatively to it. Advertisers use this type of advertising in case of some special offers (e.g. time limited) when they want to emphasise the uniqueness of opportunity.
Consumers react to these advertisements positively as they have a feeling that it is beneficial for them to act as they are told. The second way to make the reader act is by indirect persuasion which is based on building a positive image of the product and the brand. In this case, the reader is not told directly what to do but is persuaded by the qualities of the product (e.g. its uniqueness). For example, see the Ad 73 in which Coca-
Cola cups are arranged so that they resemble the number one. Number one is a symbol for being the best. Therefore, from the visual we can assume that Coca-Cola is the best drink.
The picture is anchored by the exclamation: „Coke is it!‟ which we could consider as confirmation of our assumption that Coke is the best drink and therefore the best choice.
As people are driven by hedonism, assuming that the best things could offer them the greatest pleasure, they might be persuaded by this advertisement and buy Coke even though there is no direct appeal to make the purchase in the copy.
If the action does not happen at all it may be for various reasons. For example, the reader may not find the advertisement appealing (e.g. she/he is not the member of the target group) or the communication may fail (e.g. the advertising message is not understood).
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4.3 Advertising as communication process
Print advertising as any other form of communication is dialogical in nature, it is meant for somebody – as Bakhtin (1986) said: “the speaker talks with an expectation of a response”
(p. 69). Thus, the advertiser also anticipates a reaction. Advertising follows the pattern of an ordinary face-to-face communication (see Appendix 4 Communication process). There are two parts engaged in the communication process - the sender and the receiver. There is a message being sent from one part to another and there is a medium which transmits it.
Both parts share the same context. Nevertheless, advertising communication has its specifics which distinguish it from the ordinary face-to-face communication. The specifics are discussed below.
4.3.1 Participants
At both parts of the communication, a large number of people may be involved. At the part of the sender, there is the advertiser who initiates the communication. Nevertheless, it
“is not a single person, but an abstract assemblage of people: the organisation which commissions and pays for the advertising” (Leech, 1966, p. 33). What is more, the advertiser might not be engaged in the actual composition (i.e. the message encoding) of the advertisement. Instead, an advertising agency may be hired to do it. Therefore, the sender in the advertising discourse is a concept rather than a particular person. It represents a group of people who are involved in the initiation and creation of the advertising message. In Coca-Cola advertising, the sender of the message is not referred to (not even by the personal pronoun we which is normally used in advertising to refer to the advertiser).
Nevertheless, all advertisements are signed in some way (see section 5.4 Signature line) by
The Coca-Cola Company (e.g. see Ad 5) or by individual retailers before The Company was established (e.g. see Ad 2) making it clear who sends the message.
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At the other part of the communication is the receiver - a person who engages in the communication and receives the message. Again, it is not a single person. As advertising is a public (i.e. mass) communication, there are many people who engage in it. Cook (1992) made a distinction between „receivers‟ and „addressees‟ (p. 2). According to him, the
„addressee‟ is “the person for whom it [the advertising message] is intended” while the
„receiver‟ is “anyone who sees the ad” (p. 2). Therefore, as well as the sender the receiver is also a concept representing a group of people.
Leech (1966) pointed out another complication in the advertising communication process since „secondary participants‟ may enter it. As he explained:
The public is addressed by celebrities, „ordinary housewives‟, cartoon characters, even talking animals, who in one way or in another testify to the merits of the product. Secondary participants also enter into discourse with one another: for example, in interviews and dramatised domestic dialogues. There is also a category of third person secondary participants: people who are pictured and talked about in the advertisement, although they do not actually say anything. (p. 34)
Such technique is also used in the Coca-Cola advertising. The communication of secondary participants is delivered both through direct and indirect speech. For example, see Ad 12 in which a direct speech is employed („Napoleon Lajioe, the great Cleveland batsman-manager, says: “I drink Coca-cola regularly and have been doing so for years. It is the best, most refreshing beverage an athlete can drink.”). The speech is introduced by the reporting verb say in the present tense creating the impression that the speech takes place at the moment. That it is a direct speech is indicated by quotation marks. In the same advertisement (i.e. Ad 12) is given an indirect speech („Rube Waddell says he keeps it on the bench for an emergency, and that its REFRESHING!
INVIGORATING! SUSTAINING! qualities have pulled him out of many a tight place.‟). The speech is also introduced by the reporting verb say but it lacks the quotation marks. Also, there are some changes in regard to personal pronouns (he instead of I is used and him instead of me) and the verb (keeps instead of keep).
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The secondary characters are usually famous people. Their appearance in advertisements has several functions. One of them is to make the communication look personal for it is clear who the speaker (i.e. the sender of the message) is and so it is easier for the receiver to engage in it; or, with the prevailing aversion of people towards advertising, it is better to say that it is harder for the receiver to avoid engaging in it. Another is that they make the advertising message more powerful for they provide testimony that the product works as promised. They are also used to enhance the brand image as the reader associates their popularity with the product. For more details on the role of celebrities in advertisements see section 6.1 Visuals as attention catching device.
4.3.2 Message
The message refers to what is communicated to the receiver. What is characteristic of advertising message is that it is prepared in advance, it is prepared carefully, and it has a clear purpose.
The advertising communication is not a spontaneous exchange of meanings as the face-to- face communication is. Therefore, the advertising message is not encoded on the spot but is prepared in advance.
It is prepared with the notion of who the target audience is. As Joseph (2004) said:
“speakers actually design their audience, rather than simply react to an audience that exists as a given” (p. 72). The advertiser, therefore, composes the advertising message in such a way that the target audience would find it appealing and would respond to it. An interesting point made Čmejrková (2000) who said that an advertisement does not appeal to us (i.e. readers) as who we are but as who we would like to be. It offers us characters with which we can identify creating words of our illusionary self-realization (p. 14).
Advertising communication is a one-way process. The receiver cannot reciprocate, she/he cannot ask questions as this form of communication does not allow any immediate
35 progress. If the receiver wishes the communication to continue she/he may seek further information (e.g. some advertisements offer a phone number or web pages for additional information). Nevertheless, the desired form of receiver‟s response is action – that she/he buys the product. Therefore, the advertising copy has only limited space to persuade receivers to act. Its advantage and disadvantage at the same time is that it directs mass audience, i.e. group or groups of people. Whoever sees the advertisement and is interested enough to read it becomes engaged in the communication. Nevertheless, the nonpersonal character of such communication may discourage some people from participating in it.
Therefore, the initiator of the communication, i.e. the advertiser, has to pay particular attention to attention catching devices and persuading techniques when composing the advertisement. She/he also has to bear in mind that the target audience must be able to decode the message. If the message is too complicated, so that the target audience cannot decode it or decodes it wrongly, the communication fails and the desired action, i.e. the purchase, does not happen. Therefore, as Lowrey (in McQuarrie & Phillips, 2008) mentioned, advertisers are recommended to follow the KISS principle (“Keep It Simple,
Stupid”) and keep their advertisements easy to read. To do so they should avoid complicated sentence structures, use active rather than passive voice and vocabulary familiar to the target group (p. 159). On the other hand, as Lowrey further pointed out,
“research has shown that advertising written at higher levels of complexity are better recalled and liked better than are ads written at lower levels of complexity” (2008, p. 159).
She also mentioned that “very high levels of complexity are detrimental to both memory and persuasion measures, but at lower levels of complexity, very simple text can also be detrimental” (2008, p. 160). Therefore, the advertiser, when preparing the advertising copy, should consider two important factors in regard to complexity of advertising message: who is the target group and where the advertisement is placed. The target group is important because people differ in their ability to process. Factors influencing the level of complexity
36 in regard to the target group are age, education level and motivation. With higher level of education the processing abilities tend to increase and the same it is with motivation. When a person is interested in the advertisement and devotes enough time to it, there is a higher probability that she/he would process it successfully. Another important factor is placement of the advertisement. There are differences between media in which advertisements can appear. For example, broadcast media are externally paced which means that the receiver cannot control the pace of message delivery. On the other hand, print media are self-paced and it is up to the receiver how much time she/he decides to devote to the interpretation of the advertisement. The success in processing the advertising message allows the fulfilment of its purpose.
The purpose of advertising, as is discussed above, is to persuade the receiver to buy the product. There is a wide range of techniques of persuasion that can be used. The advertiser has to choose or invent one which would be appropriate for the group to which the advertisement is intended. Nevertheless, it may happen that the choice of technique is wrong. Then the communication may fail because the message is not understood or it is misunderstood.
4.3.3 Medium
The medium is a vehicle that transmits the advertising message. In advertising, the medium does not function only as a means of message delivery. It has a great influence on the way the message is encoded so that it meets the objectives of advertising. The unique properties of individual media allow the advertiser to employ creativity in composing the advertising message and make it especially powerful. Therefore, the choice of media is also of great importance for the advertiser. Medium is described in detail in section 4.1.3 Medium.
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4.3.4 Context
Context represents the setting of the advertising situation. It is important factor in the advertising communication since it enables the receiver to decode the advertising message successfully. People are nowadays familiar with the purpose of advertising. They have enough personal experience with advertisements, so that they know what to expect from them. Therefore, once the receiver identifies the communication as advertising she/he will know that she/he will be communicated advertising message in order to be persuaded to buy the product. The advertising communication is in this respect predictable as any other form of communication. Halliday (1978) explained this:
He [the receiver] has abundant evidence, both from his knowledge of the general (including statistical) properties of linguistic system and from his sensibility to the particular cultural, situational and verbal context; and this enables him to make informed guesses about the meanings that are coming his way. (p. 61)
Thus, context plays an important role in interpreting the advertising message.
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5 Standard Components of Advertisements
Print advertisements are created by combination of visual and verbal elements. Their standard components as distinguished by function and lay-out are (Leech, 1966, p. 59):
Headline
[Illustration(s)]
Body copy
Signature line
Standing details
According to Leech (1966), the preferred order of these components in the advertisement is as listed above but as he pointed out “this scheme is an idealisation, for there is clearly a great deal of latitude in the way an advertisement may be constructed and set out.” (p. 59).
Advertisers naturally exploit the possibility of constructing their advertisements in new ways. As consumers become familiar with the advertising discourse, they usually become reluctant to receive the advertising message as they find it predictable and not interesting.
Thus, advertisers try to be creative, to be novel and to break such predictability. They employ new lay-outs and new functions of the individual elements to catch the attention of the reader and to arouse her/his interest in the product. The individual components serve different functions and so advertisers combine them carefully in order to get the desired response from readers. Characteristics of each component are given below.
5.1 Headline
According to Bovée and Arens (1992): “most readers of advertisements (1) look at the picture, (2) read the headline, and (3) read the body copy, in that order” (p. 328).
Therefore, the headline can be regarded as one of the most indispensable parts of print advertisement. Bovée and Arens (1992) defined the headline as “the words in the leading
39 position of the advertisement - the words that will be read first or that are positioned to draw the most attention” (p. 292). The headline serves several functions. It is used to attract attention of the reader and as such it is presented as the most prominent verbal element. Its prominence is based on the contrast with other text of the copy. Usually, it is set in larger type than other text or it is of different colour. Also, the reader‟s eye might be caught by unconventional spelling. The headline is the first text that is read. Based on the headline, the reader decides whether to read the body copy or not. It has to be persuasive for it takes only several seconds to capture reader‟s attention. The headline also works to select the reader. It basically presents the subject matter of the advertisement and thus those who become interested in the headline are usually the target audience, they might be persuaded by the advertisement to buy the product. For example, in Ad 31 the headline
„Snap out of afternoon drowsy time‟ appeals to people who become tired in the afternoon and have problems with the lack of energy. Such people would probably read the rest of the advertising copy to learn what they can do about it but those who do not have these problems would lose interest in the advertisement and not bother themselves with reading the rest. Thus, another function of headline is to arouse the interest of the reader in the product. As Bovée and Arens (1992) said: “Ideally, headlines should present the complete selling idea” (p. 292). Most people do not read the whole advertising copy. They usually look at the visual, read the headline and subheads but they abandon the rest unless they are really interested in getting more information. Therefore, advertisers should not save the persuasive force for the body copy but they should employ it also in the headline.
“Working off the visual, the headline creates the mood, suggests the image, and ask for the sale, all at once.” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 292). For example, Ad 100 does not employ the body copy at all. The persuasive force lies in the combination of visual elements and the headline. The headline encourages the reader to „Unlock the 007 in you‟. In our culture, it is known that 007 refers to the action hero James Bond. Therefore, the ad appeals to all men
40 who admire James Bond and who dream of being like him. Further, there is a visual element consisting of a figure which looks like the famous agent but it is not him. The figure is anonymous, therefore, it could be anybody. The reader may image himself as the famous agent. The most prominent visual element of the advertisement is the bottle of
Coca-cola zero which is situated in the middle of the ad. It is presented as a means to
„Unlock the 007 in you‟. Therefore, the headline sets the mood (desire to be an action hero), works with the visual (Coke zero as a means) and implies the action (buy Coke zero and be like James Bond).
Bovée and Arens (1992) classified headlines according to persuasive techniques they use.
They introduced five basic categories (p. 295):
1. Benefit headlines
2. News/Information headlines
3. Provocative headlines
4. Question headlines
5. Command headlines
Benefit headlines are such which “make a direct promise to the reader” (Bovée & Arens,
1992, p. 295). For example, in Ad 32 the headline promises „Something that will refresh you‟. It uses the modal verb will in order to assure the reader of the promised effect.
News/Information headline announces some news or provides some information. It is usually product (e.g. Ad 61 presenting new bottle in the headline „New! King size Coke!‟) or company (e.g. Ad 53 informing about the 65th anniversary of the company in the headline
„Through 65 years‟) related. The new/information should be presented in an interesting way.
Therefore, “magic” words such as free, now, amazing, suddenly, announcing, introducing, it‟s here, improved, at last, revolutionary, just arrived, and important development are used (Bovée & Arens,
1992, p. 294). More details may be given in the subhead or body copy. For example, in Ad
53 the headline „Through 65 years‟ is a piece of information referring to the fact that Coca-
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Cola is on the market for 65 years. Nevertheless, the reader understands the full meaning of it when she/he reads the subhead: „Inviting you to the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca-
Cola.‟ Provocative headlines are used to arouse reader‟s curiosity. The curiosity might be satisfied in the body copy or in the visual which offers clarification. For example, the headline in Ad 94 on Coke zero „It‟s possible„ provokes the assumption that sweet drinks have to contain sugar. It presents Coca-Cola zero as a drink that makes the impossible possible – the key idea being pointed out in the subhead „Real taste zero sugar‟. Nevertheless, there is no body copy explaining it further. Instead, there are prominent visual elements - all presenting experiences that are like taken from the life of an action hero – the explosion, the police unit in action, the helicopter, the armoured vehicle and the beautiful naked lady.
The visuals appeal to men who dream about such adventurous life and Coke zero is presented as making it possible. In this context, the headline gets a new dimension.
Question headlines, as well as provocative headlines, direct the reader to the body copy or some other part of the advertisement. They are aimed to arouse reader‟s curiosity. As such they face the same danger as provocative headlines – that the reader will not read further.
She/He may already know the answer or simply be not interested in knowing it. In the compiled corpus, there is no example of such headlines.
The last category covers command headlines. They give orders to readers. Their danger is that they might sound pushing and thus readers might take them negatively. Nevertheless, a good command headline should evoke positive feelings. The reader should acquire an impression that the advertiser rather than commanding her/him advises her/him to do something for her/his own benefit. For example, Ad 64 commands the reader to „take more than one!‟ but at the same time it states the benefit „For extra fun...‟. Thus, the reader gets the impression that the advertiser intends well.
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As was already mentioned, another important function of headline is that it directs attention of the reader to other parts of the advertisement – the visual and body copy.
Some advertisements do not have the body copy and thus the advertising message is conveyed through visual elements. Visual persuasion may be ambiguous as the reader may interpret it in more than one way. Nevertheless, the goal of the advertiser is to deliver the advertising message successfully. Therefore, she/he employs means which guide the reader while she/he is processing the ad. Such means are headlines and subheads. They anchor the visual for they provide context and information necessary to restrict the possible interpretations to the one desired by the advertiser. For example, when a reader looks at
Ad 91, she/he sees a bottle of Coca-Cola and the headline „open happiness‟ which is situated right next to it. After reading the headline, the reader‟s eyes naturally go to the top of the bottle following the directive „open‟ in the headline. When the reader starts to examine what at first sight seems to be a splash of Coke, she/he realizes that the splash has the shape of the interjection „Aaahhh‟. This interjection is used in speech often and it has a number of meanings both positive and negative. It is used to express understanding, as well as pleasure or happiness, but also surprise or even shock. Therefore, seeing it on its own, the reader might be confused about what it means. But the headline „open happiness‟ clearly sets the context and thus the reader understands the interjection „Aaahhh‟ as the expression of pleasure. As it splashes from the bottle of Coke, the reader associates pleasure with the drink for it is presented as its source. Therefore, the final interpretation of the advertisement would be that drinking Coca-Cola pleases the consumer. It makes her/him happy.
Headlines should be memorable and easily recalled. They should create a positive mood and present the product as beneficial to the consumer. They should associate the product with good qualities and contribute to the positive brand image. Coca-Cola advertising frequently uses Coca-Cola trademark and advertising slogans as headlines (see Appendix 6:
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List of headlines). The trademark (Coca-Cola or Coke) appears in the headline in 39 cases either alone (in 22 cases) or in the combination with other text (in 17 cases). Frequent is also the occurrence of the advertising slogan in the headline position (in 24 cases). The distinctive position of the headline filled with the trademark or slogan helps the reader to immediately identify the advertiser and to convey the advertising message fast since the context for interpreting the message is set. Therefore, Coca-Cola advertising could be characterised as putting a great stress on recognisability of their advertisements. The constant repetition of the trademark and advertising slogans makes the reader feel familiar with the brand. It helps The Company to fight against imitation but also to fight against competing products on the market.
5.2 Subheads
Subheads “are misnamed - they can appear above the headline as well as below. They may also appear in the body copy or the text of the advertisement. A subhead that appears above the headline is called a kicker” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 297). Subheads are similar to headlines both visually and functionally. They usually appear in a smaller type size than headlines but are still distinct (e.g. boldness, colour) in comparison with the body copy.
Their purpose is to “transmit key sales points-fast” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 297). As was mentioned above, most people read only the headline and subheads. Therefore, subheads play an important role. They “should be reserved for important facts that may not be so dramatic or memorable as the headline information. Some may even require more space than a headline because they communicate more information and require more words”
(Boveé & Arens, 1992, p. 297). Thus, “subheads should reinforce the headline and advertisement theme” (Boveé & Arens, 1992, p. 298). In Coca-Cola advertising, subheads frequently cooperate with headlines to communicate a specific meaning (see Appendix 7:
List of subheads). As mentioned above, headlines often consist only of the trademark serving
44 to identify the advertiser. Subheads, thus, serve to stress key sales points and transmit the advertising message. The subhead as a kicker is used to communicate with the reader either by converting the headline „Coca-Cola‟ (which identifies the advertiser) into the advertising slogan (e.g. „Drink Coca-Cola‟ in 7 cases) or setting it into a certain situation (e.g. Ad 9:
„Whenever you go you will find Coca-Cola‟ or Ad 11: „After a tiring journey drink Coca-Cola‟). In the last example it is possible to see that there may be more than one subhead in the advertisement each serving a different purpose – the first one („After a tiring journey‟) setting the context and thus creating an imaginary situation and the second one („drink‟) representing the slogan („Drink Coca-Cola‟) and communicating the advertising message fast.
The subhead is employed in communicating the advertising slogan in 29 cases. Subheads thus could also be considered as indispensable parts of Coca-Cola advertising especially in the above described cases when the headline consists of the trademark and is used to identify the advertiser rather than communicate some meaning.
5.3 Body copy
Body copy refers to the text of the advertisement that develops the idea presented in the headline. It is distinct from the headline and subheads visually as it is set in smaller type. It is the part of the advertisements which is optional. It is used to provide detailed information about the product. As Bovée and Arens (1992) said: it “tells the complete sales story” (p. 298). For example, Ad 16 describes Coca-Cola as „an individual among drinks – a beverage that fairly snaps with delicious goodness and refreshing wholesomeness‟. It further says: „Coca-
Cola has more to it than mere wetness and sweetness – it‟s vigorous, full of life. You‟ll enjoy it from the first sip to the last drop and afterwards‟. Another advertisement in its body copy offers reasons why to drink Coca-Cola: „It will cool you – relieve your fatigue and quench your thirst as nothing else can‟
(Ad 15). In modern advertising, the body copy is usually abandoned and the main advertising message is carried by headlines, subheads and visual elements. As shows the
45 analysis, body copies have been not employed in the Coca-Cola advertising since 1965 (see
Appendix 9: Proportion of visual and verbal elements). When it is employed, it provides additional information that is not possible to convey in the headline, subhead(s) and visual(s). For example, in Ad 93 (on Diet Coke), the body copy describes the partnership of the brand with The Heart Truth and its support of women‟s heart health („Diet Coke is proud to partner with The Heart Truth in support of women‟s heart health. We invite you to go to dietcoke.com to learn more about heart health and what you can do to keep your heart strong.‟)
5.4 Signature line
The signature line refers to the “mention of the brand-name, often accompanied by a price-tag, slogan, trade-mark, or picture of the brand pack” (Leech, 1966, p. 59). It is another component of the advertisement which is considered indispensable, especially in the field of commercial consumer advertising. The signature line serves to identify the advertiser and it is a clear indication for the reader that she/he deals with an advertisement.
As the market is full of competing products, it is a priority for advertisers to sign their ads distinctively so that the consumer would not be confused about the brand. As Bovée and
Arens (1992) said:
For the consumer, the brand offers instant recognitions and identification of a sough-for product. But more important, the brand also represents the promise of a consistent, reliable standard of quality, taste, size, durability, or even emotional satisfaction. This adds value to the product for both the consumer and the manufacturer. Brand differentiation must be built on the differences in images, meanings, and associations elicited by products and brands. (p. 181-2)
In the case of Coca-Cola, every single advertisement in the corpus includes the brand name. It occurs in all positions – in headlines (e.g. Ad 1: „Coca-Cola‟), body copies (e.g. Ad
12: „Patron and athletes alike find Coca-Cola as much a part of their enthusiasm as the game itself.
Napoleon Lajioe, the great Cleveland batsman-manager, says: “I drink Coca-cola regularly and have been doing so for years. It is the best, most refreshing beverage an athlete can drink.” Rube Waddell says he
46 keeps it on the bench for an emergency, and that its REFRESHING! INVIGORATING!
SUSTAINING! qualities have pulled him out of many a tight place.‟), even in visuals (e.g. Ad 68 in which the brand name is a distinctive part of the Coca-Cola bottle). Usually, the advertisements are signed by the distinctive red Coca-Cola logo (e.g. Ad 26) consisting of the brand name and advertising slogan. In case of older advertisements when the logo did not exist, the advertisements were signed by The Coca-Cola Company itself (e.g. Ad 5: „The
Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, Ga‟) or by individual retailers before The Company existed (e.g. Ad
2: „J. S. Pemberton; Chemist; Sole Proprietor, Atlanta, Ga.‟). The brand itself is usually repeated within a single advertisement (e.g. see Ad 14 in which the brand name is situated as a headline, then it appears twice in the body copy and finally it occurs in the visual). It is often accompanied by the slogan of the running advertising campaign or sometimes even by the slogan of the previous campaign. As such it provides connection between the old and new campaigns. For example, in Ad 90 the new advertising slogan appears in the headline („A taste of life‟) while the old and thus well-known advertising slogan of the previous campaign is used as a signature line („Real taste zero sugar‟). In total, advertising slogans appear in signature lines in 30 cases. Such repetition of the brand name helps the reader to remember it better and the repetition of the slogans helps her/him to associate the brand with the ideas promoted in the advertisement. Then, in ideal situation, as Bovée and Arens (1992) said:
When consumers see a brand on the shelf, their mental files should instantly register comprehension of that particular brand‟s promise and inspire confidence in what to expect. But this, of course, depends on their level of familiarity with and acceptance of the brand. (p. 181-2)
For the same reasons, The Coca-Cola Company uses repeatedly price-tags (in 21 cases), e.g.
„5c‟, or information where the product could be bought (in 10 cases), e.g. „everywhere‟, as signature lines. In most cases these two are combined (e.g. Ad 4: „At soda fountains 5c‟).
Sometimes (in 12 cases) even key sales points occur as a signature line (e.g. Ad 13: „Cooling
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– Refreshing – Delicious, Thirst-Quenching‟). For an overview of signature lines in Coca-Cola advertising see Appendix 8: List of signature lines.
Another important way of the brand identification is the packaging. The Coca-Cola
Company adhered to the same basic bottle and label designs for years. It even had its uniquely shaped bottle registered. Bovée and Arens (1992) explained the importance of packaging for “it is the unique combination of the trade name, trademark, or trade character – reinforced by the design of the package – that quickly identifies the product‟s brand and differentiates it from competitors” (p. 183). Coca-Cola bottles (or glasses in times when Coca-Cola was sold as a soda fountain drink) are indispensable parts of Coca-
Cola advertising. They may appear as the most prominent visual element in the advertisement (e.g. see Ad 66) or they may be a part of the visual (e.g. people drinking
Coke from the bottle) but in majority cases they are present. Besides identifying the product, these images serve other purposes. For example, they fight against imitation or promote innovation. A more detailed description of the use of product visuals is given in chapter 6: Visuals in Coca-cola advertisements.
5.5 Standing details
Standing details refer to “cut-out coupons, and strictly utilitarian information in small print, usually appearing unchanged on a series of different advertisements – the address of the firm; how to obtain further information; legal footnotes; etc.” (Leech, 1966, p. 59).
Naturally, such details also appear in Coca-Cola advertisements, frequently providing additional information about the product concerning the law and regulations (e.g. Ad 32:
„You can be sure it is pure and wholesome. Coca-Cola is a pure drink of natural products with no artificial flavor or coloring. Complying with pure food laws all over the world.‟). Nevertheless, as they are irrelevant in regard to the aim of this thesis they are neither identified in the corpus nor further analysed.
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6 Visuals in Coca-Cola Advertisements
Modern advertising can hardly be imagined without visual elements. People are used to interpret advertising messages from pictures and headlines and they avoid reading advertisements which contain verbal copies too long. Visuals represent a great potential for advertisers. They serve several functions and in comparison with the written text they have several advantages. For example, they are usually first noticed (in some cases the headline is foregrounded on purpose in order to be read first) and thus serve to attract attention of the reader inspiring her/him to read the verbal copy. They may also serve as means of communication and as Vysekalová et al. (2007) pointed out, they are capable of communicating more information than the verbal copy in less time (p. 150). Their great advantage is that they may serve several functions at the same time and it depends on the advertiser how she/he exploits their potential.
6.1 Visuals as attention catching device
As visuals are first noticed by the reader they work as attention catching device. As such, they have to be notable because they compete for attention not only with other advertisements but also with the general indifference of readers towards advertising. As
Vysekalová et al. (2007) pointed out, it is two seconds on average during which people pay attention to the advertisement (p. 152). Therefore, advertisers try to catch the eye of target groups by presenting them something shocking or unconventional. For example, some advertisers use startling images. Nevertheless, this technique might be dangerous for the reader may associate her/his negative feelings evoked by the advertisement with the product. It is rather used in non-commercial advertising such as anti-smoking campaigns.
In commercial consumer advertising, it is important for advertisers to build a positive brand image. Therefore, they focus on techniques that evoke positive feelings in the reader.
The unconventionality might be created by placing the product in an unusual setting or by
49 unexpected combination of visual elements. The element of surprise works well not only to catch the attention of the reader but also to provoke her/his curiosity and to arouse her/his interest in the advertising copy. Advertisers use this technique when they try to break the rooted assumptions about the product. Through advertising, they might show the consumer new ways of consumption. The Coca-Cola Company used this technique several times in its advertising history. For example, in Ad 22 there is visualized a Coca-Cola drink and a lady. The lady does not drink Coca-Cola as would normally be expected from the beverage advertisement but she is skiing and there is snow all around her. Skiing and snow represents winter. Therefore, the advertisement attempts to break the assumption that
Coca-Cola is a “summer” drink by placing it in the winter setting. The picture is further anchored in the headline „Thirst knows no season‟ which implies that Coca-Cola as a thirst quenching drink might be consumed all year long. This advertisement is, therefore, based on unconventional setting. The same technique is used in Ad 29. There are visualized a man, a woman and a child (probably a family) in warm clothes and with ski. Again, the setting is winter. Nevertheless, this time (as opposed to the previous advertisement) the characters are actually consuming the drink and while doing so they are smiling which implies that they are satisfied. The picture breaks the assumption that only hot beverages such as tee are suited for the winter. The picture is further anchored in the headline „For health and happiness all seasons through‟ which implies that Coca-Cola is a healthy drink (which is especially appealing during winter, i.e. the season when people are susceptible to illnesses) and that it makes the consumer happy (which again might be found especially appealing during winter when days are short and people are susceptible to depression due to the lack of light). Another example of unconventionality in Coca-Cola advertising is Ad
65. As previous advertisements are based on unconventionality of setting, this ad is based on unconventional combination of visual elements. There is a glass of Coca-Cola and at the top of it is a scoop of ice cream. The picture might be interpreted in several ways. For
50 example, Coca-Cola might be considered as a “modern ice cream”. Ice cream is consumed in summer. People buy it for refreshment and for its good taste. These qualities are key sales points of Coca-Cola. Therefore, the advertisement might be interpreted as encouraging consumers to buy Coca-Cola when they want to be refreshed by something good tasting. The picture is anchored in advertising slogan used as a headline „Drink Coca-
Cola‟. It tries to change consuming habits of consumers – those who buy ice cream are encouraged to buy Coca-Cola (it has the same qualities as ice cream). Other interpretation might be based on the idea that both Coke and ice cream are tasty refreshments. Therefore, when you buy ice cream you will be refreshed but when you buy ice cream and a Coke you will be refreshed even more. This idea is developed in the body copy of the advertisement:
„Things go better with Coke after Coke after Coke. With or without, it‟s always refreshing. Because ice-cold
Coca-Cola has the taste you never get tired of.‟ The body copy tries to persuade the reader that with Coca-Cola everything will taste better (even ice cream) but even if drunk on its own it will please its consumer. The body copy therefore restricts the possible interpretations to one. Nevertheless, some people do not read body copies but just headlines and subheads, therefore, the application of both interpretations is possible. The main idea is included in both – Coca-Cola is a drink of refreshment and of great taste. Another example of unconventional combination of visual elements is Ad 72. There is a cup of Coca-Cola as readers know it but what is unusual about it is that the cup has a handle. Again, various interpretations are possible (for example, the cup with a handle might be an innovation) but the range of possibilities is reduced while the reader notices the headline „Tea break.‟
The advertisement implies that Coca-Cola is a drink suitable for rest breaks and follows the tradition of Coca-Cola advertising in which Coke is presented as a drink of refreshment.
Therefore, this advertisement also tries to change the consuming habits of its readers for it suggests drinking Coca-Cola instead of a traditional cup of tea. In this particular advertisement, verbal text anchoring the visual is needed to understand the advertising
51 message properly. As Goddard (1998) said: “readers do not simply read images in isolation from the verbal text that accompanies them; nor do they read the verbal text without reference to accompanying images” (p. 13). Therefore, even if visuals are given more space in the advertisement, the text still plays an important role. Nevertheless, the role of the text may vary. In some advertisements (e.g. those previously analysed except the last one) the meaning is mostly conveyed by the visuals (i.e. the reader is able to interpret the visuals in the desired way) and therefore the text is used to assure the reader of the correct interpretation and to reinforce its meaning (i.e. make it more memorable). In other advertisements (e.g. the last one) the desired interpretation of the visual is dependent on the accompanying text (i.e. the text guides the reader towards the meaning intended by the advertiser).
Besides unconventionality, another popular technique for catching attention of the target group is employing a visual of a famous person. The first celebrity appearing in the Coca-
Cola advertising was music hall performer Hilda Clark (see Ad 4). It was at the turn of the
19th to 20th century and since then many famous people were employed to promote Coca-
Cola (e.g. Martin Luther King – Ad 79; Jeff Gordon – Ad 86; or Heidi Klum – Ad 93).
Celebrities are influential people, they are in the centre of attention. People like to read about them, gossip about them and also to imitate them. They are considered to set new trends. Therefore, visualising them consuming the product has a great impact on consumers. The more popular a celebrity is, the more popular the product may get.
Celebrities also work as testimonials of the qualities of the product. They make the advertising message believable. They have a stronger persuasive force than unknown characters as people have a feeling that they know them (they encounter them frequently, they read about them, they know about their personal life) and so they tend to believe them. There is also a presupposition that celebrities are choosy and demanding. They are rich and so they can afford only the best products. Therefore, when they are associated
52 with some product the product is considered to be of the highest quality. The use of celebrities in advertisements also contributes to building a positive brand image. They make readers more favourably disposed to the advertised product. They may be either attractive visually (e.g. models, actresses/actors, or sportswomen/sportsmen) and so they please the readers by their looks or they may be attractive for their ideas or work (e.g. Ad 79 with
Martin Luther King). Advertising does not limit itself only to real world celebrities. It employs all characters that are popular among people even though some of them might be fictional. For example, in Ad 96 is visualised the famous character of Zorro (in this case acted by Richard Gutierrez) or Ad 100 is based on the popular agent 007 – James Bond.
Probably the most famous fictional character associated with Coca-Cola advertising is
Santa Claus. His image was created in 1931 by artist Haddon Sundblom who depicted him as a kind, jolly man in a red suit (see Appendix 5: Santa Claus in Coca-Cola Advertising). For the following three decades the image repeatedly appeared in Coca-Cola Christmas advertising. The aim of The Company was to remind people that Coca-Cola is not a drink only for warm weather and that it can be drunk in any month of the year. Thus was created the connection of Coca-Cola and a true icon of winter – Santa Claus. The Coca-Cola Santa became popular and so his images helped to shape the interpretation of Santa which has lasted until today.
Celebrities are used in both visual and verbal persuasion. In visuals they are used to catch the attention of readers and to persuade them about the qualities of the product by being visualised consuming it. In the verbal copy they are used to give a testimonial (e.g. by direct speech) or they are referred to as users of the product. For more on the use of celebrities in verbal copy see chapter 7 Language in Coca-Cola advertising.
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6.2 Visuals as form of communication
As was already demonstrated on the analysis of advertisements in the previous chapter, visual elements, besides attention catching devices, are also means of communication. It is the goal of this thesis to analyse how the use of visuals in Coca-Cola advertising influences the communication process. It is assumed that in modern advertising there is a prevalence of visual elements at the expense of verbal elements. Thus, it is analysed of what proportion visuals are to verbal elements employed in the advertisement. In order to do the analysis it was necessary to determine of what components each ad in the corpus consists.
In regard to visuals, it was identified whether the ad contains any visual elements or not. In regard to verbal elements it was determined whether the advertisement contains a body copy or not. In order to do so, it was necessary to assign relevant verbal elements employed in each advertisement to the following categories: headline, subhead(s) and body copy (see Appendix 10: List of advertisements in which the text of each advertisement is transcribed into the mentioned categories).
Based on the results (see Appendix 9: Proportion of visual to verbal elements), three types of advertisements were identified:
1. Ads with verbal elements only (i.e., advertisements which do not contain any
visual elements)
2. Ads with both visual and verbal elements (i.e., advertisements which contain
some visual elements as well as a body copy)
3. Ads with prominent visual elements (i.e., advertisements which contain some
visual elements but no body copy)
As advertisements in the corpus are arranged chronologically (i.e. in order of time of their publication) and cover the period since 1886 until 2012, it is possible to delimit four periods (i.e. 1886-1899, 1900-1949, 1950-1965, 1965-2012) for which is characteristic
54 occurrence of the above specified types of advertisements. For an overview see Table 1 below.
Table 1 Overview of periods
Period Number of ads Type of ads
1886-1899 4 3 verbal only
1900-1949 46 42 visual-verbal
1950-1964 12 7 visual-verbal and 5 prominent visual
1965-2012 38 36 prominent visual
Note: Total number of advertisements analysed = 100
For the period since 1886 to 1899 is characteristic prevalence of advertisements with verbal elements only (3 ads). For the period since 1900 to 1949 is characteristic prevalence of advertisements with both visual and verbal elements (42 ads). For the period since 1950 to
1964 is characteristic frequent occurrence of advertisements with both visual and verbal elements (7 ads) as well as advertisements with prominent visual elements (5 ads). Thus, this period could be characterised as transitional. For the last period since 1965 to 2012 is characteristic prevalence of advertisements with prominent visual elements (36 ads).
Therefore, the outcomes of the analysis confirm the hypothesis that in modern advertising there is a prevalence of visual elements at the expense of verbal elements.
Further it is analysed of what impact the change in the proportion of visual to verbal elements in the advertisements is on the language means employed. The advertisements of the three categories (i.e., ads with verbal elements only, ads with both visual and verbal elements, and ads with prominent visual elements) are thus observed in order to perform a qualitative analysis and describe the most significant characteristics of each category.
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6.2.1 Advertisements with verbal elements only
All three advertisements containing only verbal elements are from the period when Coca-
Cola was new on the market and thus not well-known among people. All headlines consist of the trademark Coca-Cola in a distinctive type. The aim is clear – to make people familiar with the trademark and to make them remember it. The trademark itself has features that make its memorizing easy – it is a compound of two words, Coca and Cola, originally plants of which Coca-Cola is made. The alliteration (i.e. repetition of the same consonant at the beginning of words) on which the trademark is based makes it pleasant to the eye when it is written but also pleasant to the ear when it is pronounced. As there are no product visuals which would make it immediately clear that Coca-Cola is a drink, it has to be verbalized. In all cases the body copy opens with stating this fact. Typical are complex noun phrases with premodification by nouns and adjectives (e.g. The New and Popular Soda Fountain
Drink; This “INTELLECTUAL BEVERAGE” and TEMPERANCE DRINK; This great
Headache Specific and Nerve Tonic). This complexity of premodification is due to the effort of the advertiser to describe and specify the properties of the product in a limited space. To present the product in an attractive way, a wide range of evaluative adjectives is used (e.g. new, popular, wonderful, famous, delicious, exhilarating, refreshing and invigorating). The advertisements consists mostly of complete declarative sentences (with the exception of the first ad which consists of two incomplete sentences, nevertheless, these could be connected by the linking verb be easily deduced from the context). This type of sentences suits the purpose of the advertisements – to convey information about the product.
6.2.2 Advertisements with both visual and verbal elements
Our culture traditionally considered pictures to be reflections of reality and there were periods in the history which put particular stress on the precise depiction of what the author saw (e.g. Renaissance, or Realism). Such tendencies were reinforced by the
56 invention of photography which enabled to visually capture objects of our observation in time. Development of modern technologies then led to the production of high quality pictures which were able to provide even the greatest details of observed reality. Therefore, even in advertising, pictures were treated as representations of reality not capable of conveying meaning on their own and thus not capable of persuasion. Therefore, the advertiser heavily relied on the body copy to convey the advertising message. Usually, body copy as the main persuasive force was separated from the visual which role was merely iconic – it simply pointed out to objects and experiences in the empirical world. It was supposed to evoke affective response, i.e. to please the reader. As they were attributed no complex semantic content they were considered to be absorbed passively – without any processing efforts.
Such attitude towards visuals is confirmed by the observation of the corpus. In this category of advertisements the advertising message is conveyed mainly by the verbal copy.
Visuals are treated as representations of reality – they are used to present the product and its use. They are used to illustrate the advertisement and make it visually attractive so that it would please the reader to read the copy. The main persuasive force lies in the text. It is the verbal copy which communicates the advertising message. The language means used in this category of advertisements are thus identical with those used in the advertisements without any visuals. The text would be fully meaningful even if the visuals were removed (i.e. there would be no major change in meaning).
Such limited approach to visuals is criticized by Linda M. Scott (1994) who argued that
“pictures are not merely analogues to visual perception but symbolic artifacts constructed from the conventions of a particular culture” (p. 252). She compares pictures to words which meaning is based on conventions of a particular culture and which relationship to concrete referents is arbitrary. As such, she said (1994), they are “able to denote things
57 other than objects in empirical reality” (p. 263). Therefore, she advocated that pictures do have a meaning. The meaning requires cognitive processing to be understood. In order to be understood properly, the sender of the message and the receiver must share the same knowledge – they must have learned the same conventions. Therefore, the interpretation of pictures may vary from culture to culture.
The present thesis follows the approach of Linda M. Scott and considers visuals, as well as words, to have denotative, connotative and figurative meaning. It also considers visuals to be capable of communicating meaning either directly or indirectly (e.g. by implication). In this view, the advertisements which treat visuals as representations actually employ their denotative meaning (i.e. their ability to describe objects and experiences of the real word).
Thus, visuals that denote the product communicate to the reader how it looks like. In
Coca-Cola advertisements there are only few that do not include a visual of the beverage.
When it is visualised it does not have to be described verbally – the visual presentation allows more precise description and thus helps the reader to remember it better and to recognise it from competing products or from imitation. Visuals also help to present improvements and innovations which allow new ways of consumption. For example, the invention of Coca-Cola bottle changed the consuming habits of Coca-Cola customers.
Before, the drink was consumed only at soda fountains but when sold in bottles, people were able to buy it at a store (e.g. by a case or in a six pack) and take it home (e.g. see Ad
23). Visuals also introduced Coca-Cola coolers – a great innovation that enabled to buy the drink anywhere and what is more guaranteed its refreshing effect by storing it in a cool place. Visuals also communicated ideal ways of storage (e.g. see Ad 55). Coca-Cola bottles have always been an important part of Coca-Cola advertising. Sometimes they played a major part and were in the centre of attention (were the most prominent visual in the advertisement, e.g. in Ad 83) and sometimes they played a minor part and completed the more prominent visuals (e.g. laughing girls in Ad 80).
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The visuals are also used to denote experience (i.e. the use of the product) which communicates how it could be consumed (e.g. from a bottle), in which situations (e.g. at home, at a soda fountain, at a game) and by whom (e.g. men, women, children).
Nevertheless, in some advertisement there are attempts to exploit the possibilities of visual persuasion more than what is characteristic of the period (i.e. use of denotative meaning) and it is possible to identify that the visuals were deliberately manipulated in order to convey a specific message. For example, in Ad 16, there is visualized an arrow. It is not an ordinary arrow merely pointing to something but it has a shape of number five. Thus, the visual is manipulated in order to communicate the price of the drink. It points to a hand holding a Coca-Cola glass. The hand is visualized in such a way that it seems like it is offering the drink to the reader. In face-to-face conversation, body language, gestures, and facial expressions are important parts of communication. They are capable of expressing meaning which is not verbalized (e.g. in our culture we bob our head to express understanding or agreement) or even change the meaning of what is being said. Hand moving towards you is a symbol of offering/giving. It is very personal. The visualized gesture is further anchored in the headline „For Your Enjoyment‟. Thus, this particular advertisement exploits the potential of visual persuasion much more than the above mentioned advertisements (e.g. presenting the product – how it looks like). It employs means of non-verbal communication to express the advertising message (in this particular example: drink Coca-Cola - it gives you pleasure just for five cents). A similar strategy is employed in Ad 17. There is also a hand holding Coca-Cola – the same gesture which is described above. Nevertheless, the hand with the drink is surrounded by people who are inclined to it. Again, the advertisement exploits means of body language – such body position expresses interest or attraction. Thus, the characters in the visual are attracted to the drink. Another example of manipulation is Ad 31. There is a man yawning – a gesture of tiredness. Below is a hand offering a Coke and a headline anchoring the whole
59 visualisation „Snap out of afternoon drowsy time‟. Clearly, Coke is offered as a remedy for tiredness. The idea is reinforced in the subhead „Refresh yourself – Bounce back to normal.‟
Another example of metaphorical meaning of visuals is Ad 34. There are bottles of Coca-
Cola covered in snow. Thus, it expresses the characteristic of the drink that it is ice-cold. It is further anchored in the headline „Ice-cold everyday in the year‟. Another figurative visualization of Coca-Cola properties is in Ad 39. There is a lady drinking Coca-Cola. She is visualized at seashore with flying clothes. From our experience we know that flying clothes are caused by a breeze. Breeze is usually cooling, refreshing. Thus, the advertisement compares Coca-Cola to it and the visual is a figurative expression (i.e., Coca-Cola cools like a breeze) for the advertising message that Coca-Cola refreshes you.
To summarise, in this category of advertisements the advertising message is delivered by verbal elements. The visuals serve as illustrations to what is said in the body copy. Their purpose is to reinforce the advertising message conveyed by the text and make it more memorable. Even though they are able to communicate some meaning (e.g. to describe the product, its use and consumers) they are not capable of communicating the advertising message on their own (e.g. when you need refreshment drink Coca-Cola). There are some exceptions among these advertisements in which visuals are not treated as mere representations but as means of persuasion. They are imbued with figurative meaning and as such communicate the advertising message. Therefore, it is possible to indicate there the development of visuals from straightforward representations to means of figurative communication. Nevertheless, the visuals are accompanied by a body copy in which the message is spelled out. It indicates the insecurity of the advertisers about the abilities of readers to interpret the advertisement in the desired way. Thus, the body copy is still used for delivering the advertising message in order to prevent misinterpretation and visuals are used to reinforce the message. In this way, readers are taught to see the meaning in the visuals and to interpret it on their own.
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6.2.3 Advertisements with prominent visual elements
In this category of advertisement the images are seen as sophisticated form of visual rhetoric. They are not used as mere reflections of reality but they are carefully crafted in order to arouse in the reader a desired response. As Scott (1994) pointed out: “under a theory of visual rhetoric, we would expect the visual viewpoint, focus, graphics, and layout to be related in a specific way to the message itself, rather than to be independent variables, as is often presumed on consumer research” (p. 255). For example, in Ad 90 the black background of the advertisement reinforces the advertising message. In our culture, black is related to darkness and thus connotes secrecy, mystery, and even evil. It arouses such feelings as uncertainty, thrill, or fear. Its use strengthens the impact of other visual elements in the advertisement – the explosion, the dangerous animal, the motorbike rider, and the lady who seems to be scared and hiding. The visual evokes strong emotions of excitement, adventure, even danger. In the focus is the bottle of Coca-Cola zero since it is situated in the centre of the advertisement. It is the most prominent visual element and as such might be interpreted as the cause of all the “action” in the advertisement. The picture might be understood as conveying that Coke zero ads thrill to life and appeals to people who prefer
(or dream of) living life to the fullest. The picture is anchored in the headline „A taste of life‟, an advertising slogan for Coca-Cola zero of the period, and the subhead „as it should be‟. The headline is metaphorical. The whole campaign (of which the advertisement is part) is based on the idea that Coca-Cola zero has the same taste as Coca-Cola (i.e. the original beverage) but it contains no sugar. Trying to refute the assumptions that the taste is different, the campaign aims to convey the message that it is full – full as life. The subhead („as it should be‟) is ambiguous. It is not clear to which part of the headline it refers - whether to „taste‟ or
„life‟. It may refer to taste and then it would mean that the taste is as it should be (i.e. full as the original taste) or it may refer to life and then it would imply that Coke zero makes your life as it should be (i.e. full and exciting). Thus, the meaning is open, allowing several
61 interpretations. It is up to the reader with which interpretation she/he identifies. Usually, people see in advertisements what they want to as they contextualize the advertising message to their own lives. Therefore, the ambiguity of meaning allows adapt the advertising message to the needs of particular people and thus it makes the target group wider.
Such ambiguous advertisements with a prominent visual are called ‘open advertisements’ as they “provide little guidance toward a specific interpretation” (Gisbergen, Ketelaar,
Beentjes, 2004, p. 114). Their openness is intended by the advertiser. As the authors further explained: “An open text proposes a range of interpretative possibilities and, therefore, allows several choices of how to interpret the text. This means that open texts leave more initiative and freedom for readers to create their own interpretations” (p116). Thus, the readers are not given the advertising message directly by the text but they have to engage in deciphering it from the advertisement (i.e. from the visual or from the interaction between the visual and verbal elements if there are any). Such advertisements also employ more creativity in communicating the advertising message. They frequently use rhetorical figures.
For example, in Ad 73 Coca-Cola cups are arranged in the shape of number one. Number one is a symbol for the best. The headline consists of an exclamation „Coke is it!‟. Thus, the reader understands that Coca-Cola is the best and the headline assures her/him in it but it is not clear in what is Coke the best. The meaning is open. This ad was published in 1982 and until then Coke had been presented in various way (e.g. as a drink that quenches thirst, as a drink that refreshes you, as a drink that brings people together). Thus, it is up to the reader to associate this primacy of the drink to her/his own experience with the drink (e.g. someone may drink Coke for the energy it gives her/him and someone else for its taste).
The verbal elements in these advertisements are reduced – there is no body copy. The advertising message is construed from the interaction of the visual and verbal elements (i.e.
62 headline and subhead(s)). Usually, one part, either visual or verbal, is ambiguous and the other restricts its meaning but it does not limit it to one interpretation only. The meaning is usually open for the reader to interpret it as she/he likes. Nowadays, some advertisers even employ no verbal elements at all (i.e. not even the headline). Ketelaar et al. (2004) attributed such a trend in modern advertising to the dominance of the visual media. He said:
Consumers who have grown up with visual media may be expected to make sense of visuals without the help of verbal copy. In addition, the trend toward openness might be explained on the basis that some advertisers expect open ads to be more effective. One argument is that less-open ads, in which the message is spelled out, may cause irritation among the present generation of Ad-wise consumers who might feel that their intelligence is being underestimated. (p. 115)
They further discussed positive and negative effects of openness. It serves to “retain attention”, to stimulate “recall of (elements in) the ad” and to “positively affect the attitude toward the ad” (p. 124-5). It influences the reader positively for it breaks the traditional expectations that readers have of advertising. The message is not pushed at her/him but the reader is left to interpret it by herself/himself. Thus, she/he also remembers it better. A plausible interpretation functions as a reward and its freedom as appreciation of the reader as an intelligent individual. Nevertheless, the difficulty of interpretation may have the opposite result – it may lead to the decrease in attention. According to Ketelaar et al.
(2004): “consumers are likely to avoid investing cognitive effort in ads; yet another claim is that openness does not yield any effect on attention, because consumers are not motivated to devote attention to persuasive messages in general” (p. 126). They further argued that
“when openness decreases consumers‟ willingness to invest mental effort, they are less likely to create any interpretation” (p. 126). Such arguments were confirmed by the study carried by Ketelaar, Gisbergen and Bosman (2004) on advertisements which contained no guiding text (i.e. not even headlines or subheads) towards a specific message. The study showed that “consumers prefer ads to be direct and easily digestible and do not respond
63 very well to advertisements whose messages take time and energy to unravel”. Therefore,
Ketelaar et. al (2004) concluded that “consumers do not seem to like open ads unless these open ads are so easy to interpret that they can hardly be described as open any more”.
Nevertheless, the authors admitted limitation to the study they carried out since they manipulated their test ads to create open and closed conditions. They stress that the effectiveness of open ads deserves further study. Another study was conducted by
Ketelaar, Evers, Arends and Gisbergen (2012) on how consumers interpret and value open and closed advertisements for strong and weak brands. The study was international and it showed that “under certain conditions open advertisements were valued higher than closed advertisements” (p. 1). They argued that “a strong brand can, after all, guide a consumer to the message by association” (p. 1), an effect they described as „brand anchoring‟. The study revealed that:
Open advertisements are just as well interpreted as closed advertisements (provided that they are not too difficult and fit in well with the brand). The advantage of an open advertisement is that it is less likely to evoke an aversion in the consumer as the message is not being pushed at them. Consumers experience pleasure at being able to figure out the message for themselves, which gives them a feeling of satisfaction. (p. 2)
Another advantage of open advertisements that the authors of the study mentioned is that it “offer[s] many opportunities to advertise internationally because the language barrier is efficiently (quickly and cheaply) bypassed” (p. 3), but at the same time they stress that it applies only to strong brands. They further explained: “A weak brand provides too little guidance towards the desired message and in an open advertisement that would entail a too high risk of incomprehension or an undesirable message coming across” (p. 3). Therefore, a strong brand as Coca-Cola can risk the use of open advertisements for there is a higher probability that consumers would understand its message and appreciate its effort towards creativity and of not pushing the message at them.
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7 Language in Coca-Cola Advertisements
The goal of this thesis is to identify the major shifts in Coca-Cola advertising history. It is assumed that the long-lasting success of Coca-Cola is due to the skill of its advertiser(s) to adapt to the needs of the market. As Pollay (1985) said: “advertising makes certain value dimensions salient and suggests the instrumentality of product consumption toward realization of those values” (section How Values Are Manifest in Advertising, para. 1).
Thus, it is analyzed how Coca-Cola has been promoted. The analysis lies in the identification of the target groups and linguistic means employed to make the advertisements appealing to these target groups. In order to delimit the target groups which the advertisements address, Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs is applied. There are five basic categories of needs as Maslow defined them:
1. Physiological
2. Safety
3. Love/Belonging
4. Esteem
5. Self-actualization
Each advertisement is assigned to the category of needs to which it appeals according to
the way in which the product is promoted as identified in the corpus. For example, Ad 1
which presents Coca-Cola as a drink of specific properties sold in pharmacies is
considered to appeal to the consumer‟s health and thus is assigned to the need of safety.
The product is promoted as a remedy. Advertisements which appeal to more than one
need at the same time are assigned to the need which occupies higher position in the
hierarchy (see Appendix 3: Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs). The table below serves as an
overview of how many advertisements are assigned to each category (see Table 2). Type of
advertisement refers to the way in which the drink is promoted. There are five such types
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of advertisements. To the physiological needs appeal advertisements promoting Coca-Cola
as a thirst quencher. In case of the need of safety there are two subcategories (i.e. health
and well-being) for there are two ways of the drink‟s promotion in regard to this need.
The drink is promoted either as a remedy appealing to the consumer‟s health or as
refreshment appealing to the consumer‟s well-being. Since the needs of love/belonging
and esteem are closely interconnected, they are treated as one category of needs. To these
needs appeal advertisements which promote Coca-Cola as a social drink. The last category
of needs consists of self-actualization to which appeal advertisements presenting Coke as a
lifestyle. Each type of advertisement and the linguistic means used to promote Coca-Cola
in these ways are described below in detail.
Table 1 Overview of categories
Category of needs Type of ad Number of ads
Physiological Thirst-quencher 1
Safety (health) Remedy 4
Safety (well-being) Refreshment 47
Love/belonging Social drink 17 Esteem
Self-actualization A lifestyle 31
Note: Total number of advertisements analysed = 100
7.1 Coca-Cola as a thirst quencher
Coca-Cola as a non-alcoholic drink satisfies one of the most basic human needs which
Maslow classified as physiological – the need of thirst. As thirst is common to all people,
Coca-Cola may target them all. Nevertheless, as there are many other drinks which have the same potential, it has been the goal of Coca-Cola advertisers to present the drink as better than the others and to offer consumers something more. As a result, the drink is
66 assigned with additional qualities that should persuade specific groups of people to buy it.
As Pollay (1985) stressed:
Values are incorporated into advertising in every way possible, for the attachment of "value" to an inert product or intangible service is the very core of persuasion. It is the business of advertising to convert products into "goods," that is, objects with enhanced perceived values. (section How Values Are Manifest in Advertising, para. 1)
For that reason, most of the Coca-Cola advertising appeals to other needs than physiological. While it is mentioned in many advertisements that Coca-Cola satisfies or quenches the thirst like nothing else, there is just one advertisement in the whole corpus which appeals solely to this physiological need (Ad 22). Nevertheless, it is not a typical product advertisement. It aims to change consuming habits of Coca-Cola drinkers and to rebut an assumption that Coca-Cola is a summer drink.
At this time, many people thought of Coca-Cola as a drink only for warm weather. The Coca-Cola Company began a campaign to remind people that Coca-Cola was a great choice in any month. This began with the 1922 slogan "Thirst Knows No Season," and continued with a campaign connecting a true icon of winter -- Santa Claus -- with the beverage. (The Coca-Cola Company, 2012, para. 7)
Series of such advertisements was issued as a reaction to decrease in sales during winter period. The goal of the advertiser is to attract the attention of the target group, thus, it cannot be limited to stating the obvious (i.e., that Coca-Cola quenches thirst) but it has to employ means to make the advertisement interesting. It employs means of visual persuasion and presents the drink in a setting unconventional for the period – the winter
(for a detailed description see section 6.1 Visuals as attention catching device above). As the message is mostly delivered through visuals, the verbal elements are reduced and used to reinforce its meaning. The headline „Thirst knows no season‟ implies that the drink could be consumed all year long. The verbal elements are also employed in a creative way so that they make the advertising message more memorable. Thus, the use of personification: thirst is imbued with the human ability „to know‟. It is used figuratively. Thirst represents
67 all people as it is something that all people share (i.e. all people get thirsty). Therefore, the target group covers all human beings without restrictions on age or gender. The headline is a statement consisting of a simple declarative sentence. The present simple tense is used which indicates the permanent validity of the statement and its implication. The visual of Coca-Cola glass carries the trademark and the advertising slogan „Drink‟. The slogan used in imperative closes the whole communication as it indirectly encourages the reader to buy the drink. To summarize, the interaction of the visual and verbal elements aims to associate Coca-Cola with thirst and to teach the reader to buy it anytime she/he gets thirsty.
7.2 Coca-Cola as a remedy
Coca-Cola was created by a pharmacist and for its specific properties introduced on the market as a medicine. The first advertisements are aimed at specific groups of people - people who suffer from some nervous affections (e.g. headache) or exhaustion.
Nevertheless, the restriction set on target audience is irrespective of age or gender. The suitability of the drink for all people is manifested figuratively in Ad 2 which says: „The peculiar flavor of COCA-COLA delights every palate‟. The „palate‟ is a figure of speech (i.e. synecdoche) that represents a person. In combination with indefinite pronoun every, the expression thus means everyone (i.e. The peculiar flavor of COCA-COLA delights everyone.).
Thus, the drink is offered to everyone who needs such a medicine.
The key sales points of the first advertisements are medicinal qualities of Coca-Cola. The advertisements provide information about the drink (of what is consists and what effects it has). They are very impersonal in communicating the advertising message. The language can be characterized as sophisticated with predominantly finite verb phrases and complex noun phrases. Typical is the use of sophisticated words (e.g. temperance, exhaustion, exhilarating, invigorating, instance) and specific terms (e.g. Coca plant, Cola nuts,
68 neuralgia, hysteria, melancholy). The description of what the drink contains explains why it is called Coca-Cola. Such knowledge makes the reader to associate the drink directly with its medicinal qualities. It also helps her/him to remember the trademark better. Characteristic is also complex pre- and post-modification (e.g. in Ad 2: „the valuable TONIC and
NERVE STIMULANT properties of the Coca plant and Cola (or Kola) nuts‟), only few nouns stand on their own. Typical is also syndetic coordination of noun phrases by a conjunction and (e.g. in Ad 1: „the wonderful Coca plant and the famous Cola nuts‟; in Ad 2: „This
“INTELLECTUAL BEVERAGE” and TEMPERANCE DRINK‟; in Ad 3: „This great
Headache Specific and Nerve Tonic‟). The complexity is due to the effort of the advertiser to condense as much information as possible into a limited space of newspaper advertising. It also serves to imitate a medical language. Dominant is use of present tense forms.
Present simple is used for the description of the product (e.g. Ad 2: „This
“INTELLECTUAL BEVERAGE” and TEMPERANCE DRINK contains ...‟). Present perfect is used to provide a testimony of its effects (e.g. Ad 3: „This great Headache Specific and Nerve Tonic has cured fifty cases of sick headache.‟). Another technique for providing credibility is the use of numbers. The reader gets the impression that the effects of the drink are proven even though the testimony provided is vague (e.g. in Ad 3: the use of indefinite pronoun some in „as some of our best citizens can testify‟). The above described features of verbal elements indicate a tendency of advertisers to sound professional and they can be summarized as appealing to reason. The whole communication is based on providing information about the product. Nevertheless, the aim of the advertiser is not only to provide description of the product but to persuade the reader to act (i.e. to buy the product). Thus, there are linguistic means used to present the product in a positive way making the reader desire it. There are a lot of evaluative adjectives (e.g. new, popular, wonderful, famous, delicious, exhilarating, refreshing and invigorating) that are used to shape the reader‟s idea about the product. More than one adjective may be used to evaluate the noun
69 making the product more attractive. Such adjectives appear in either syndetic (e.g. Ad 1:
„The New and Popular Soda Fountain Drink‟) or asyndetic coordination (e.g. Ad 2: „a delicious, exhilarating, refreshing and invigorating Beverage‟). To make a dramatic effect and to make the reader think that the drink offers more to her/him than would be expected, correlative conjunction not only...but is used (e.g. Ad 2: „...makes not only a delicious, exhilarating, refreshing and invigorating Beverage, (dispensed from the soda fountain or in other carbonated beverages), but a valuable Brain Tonic, and a cure for all nervous affections‟). The similar dramatic effect has the use of adverb never (e.g. in Ad 3: „never failed in a single instance‟) leaving no place for hesitation about the effects of the drink.
7.3 Coca-Cola as refreshment
When the brand got into the hands of a true businessman Asa G. Candler, the advertising concept of Coca-Cola changed. In these advertisements Coca-Cola is not presented as a medicine anymore but as a drink that contributes to its consumer‟s well-being. Its refreshing quality, delicious taste and high quality are highlighted as key sales points of the drink. The target audience changes. The drink which used to be restricted to people who suffered from some nervous affections or exhaustion is presented as suitable for everybody and available everywhere. Thus, Coca-Cola is made a truly commercial product. The advertising changes too. It still presents the product and provides description of its qualities and effects, employing means of language suitable for description (e.g. wide range of adjectives) but it focuses more on means to change the opinion and will of the reader and to make her/him act. It starts to communicate to the reader in a personal way, imitating face-to-face communication and thus making the persuasion more powerful. The authority of the reader as individual who makes the decision of purchase increases.
Language means employed to make the reader change her/his opinion and will in the
70 advertiser‟s desired way are described in the following subsections: building positive brand image, deixis, imperatives, and elements of spoken language.
7.3.1 Building positive brand image
As in the advertisements of the previous category linguistic means making the reader desire the product are used. Thus, in this category of advertisements it is also possible to encounter a wide range of evaluative adjectives making Coca-Cola not just a beverage but a „delightful beverage‟, offering the reader not only coolness, goodness, and wholesomeness but „delicious coolness‟, „tingling goodness‟, and „refreshing wholesomeness‟. Frequent is also use of superlatives (e.g. Ad 5: „absolutely pure‟; Ad 6: „the favorite drink‟; Ad 17: „the one best beverage‟;
Ad 44: „completely refreshed ... completely satisfied‟). The characteristics of the drink usually appear in syndetic (e.g. Ad 16: „a beverage that fairly snaps with delicious goodness and refreshing wholesomeness‟) or asyndetic (e.g. Ad 18: „Delicious – Refreshing – Wholesome‟) coordination.
The correlative conjunction not just...but (e.g. Ad 18: „not just wet and sweet, but vigorously satisfying‟) could be used to make a dramatic effect. The drink is presented as the best and to stress the fact, negative words are used (e.g. Ad 19: „There‟s nothing like it‟; Ad 19: „it quenches the thirst as nothing else will‟; Ad 21: „Coca-Cola is a perfect answer to thirst that no imitation can satisfy‟; Ad 37: „Thirst asks nothing more‟; Ad 46: „It never fails to please...and to refresh‟).
Throughout the advertisements it is possible to encounter the same adjectives (e.g. delicious, refreshing, wholesome, pure) and the same phrases (e.g. ice-cold Coca-Cola; pure refreshment) making the reader to create the same vision of Coca-Cola over and over again. This continuity helps the reader to associate Coca-Cola with certain qualities (e.g. refreshing, thirst- quenching, cooling) that are reinforced by repetition. It also helps to create a unified brand image.
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7.3.2 Deixis
Deixis is reference by means of an expression which interpretation is relative to the context of the utterance. The context might be situational or textual. The textual usage of deixis in advertising is frequent. Demonstrative pronouns this, that or third person pronoun it are used to refer to things either previously mentioned in the text (i.e. anaphoric reference, e.g. Ad 18: „Coca-Cola – It is delightfully cooling and refreshing‟) or to things that will be further mentioned in the text (i.e. cataphoric reference). Nevertheless, in this category of advertisements, deixis is employed in a new way – to contextualize a situation. It is used to create the illusion of intimacy and thus make the persuasion more powerful. “Traditionally, deixis has been defined as the encoding through language of spatial or temporal contexts”
(Pardillos, 1995, p. 57). In order to be understood by the receiver as it was intended by the sender, the receiver and the sender must share the same context. Thus, as Pardillos points out “deixis in normally associated with dialog” (p. 57) in which both the speaker and the hearer participate at the same time and the same place. Advertising thus employs deixis in order to imitate such intimate situation which dialog is – it illusively joins the advertiser and the receiver. Nevertheless, the deixis does not refer to the real spatio-temporal context in which the reader actually reads the advertisement but it refers to illusionary spatio-temporal context which is created by the advertisement and to which the reader is drawn.
7.3.2.1 Place deixis
Place deictics are used to present the product (e.g. Here‟s refreshment for tired brain and body –
Ad 5; Here‟s an individual among drinks – Ad 16; Here‟s to Your Good Health and Pleasure – Ad
17) creating the impression of false proximity - that the product is immediately available to the reader.
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7.3.2.2 Person deixis
Person deixis is used to include the reader in the communication by imitating the dialogic situation. When the reader feels included in the communication she/he gets the impression of uniqueness – that the communication even though anonymous is aimed just at her/him and thus that the product itself is just for her/him. Also, there is a higher chance that the advertising message would be communicated in full for it is harder to disengage from communication that is personal. Direct address of the reader is manifested in the use of second person pronoun you. It helps the reader to identify herself/himself with a certain situation from which arises a need that she/he needs to satisfy (e.g. Ad 24: „When wholesome outdoor play makes you thirsty‟; Ad 31: „You yawn. You‟re tired... And you lag in your work.‟; Ad 44:
„When you feel thirst coming on‟). It is also used to stress the effects of the drink on the reader
(e.g. Ad 15: „It will cool you – relieve your fatigue and quench your thirst‟; Ad 16: „You‟ll enjoy it‟; Ad
45: „... that refreshing little stop that keeps you going‟). Especially powerful is the combination of second person pronoun with modal verb will. It is used to assure the reader that what is claimed it true leaving no place for hesitation (e.g. Ad 46: „You‟ll like “Coca-Cola” „; Ad 36:
„You‟ll be glad you did‟; Ad 32: „“Something that will refresh you”„).
7.3.3 Imperatives
Another technique for employing reader directly in the communication (i.e. imitated dialogue) is the use of imperatives. Imperative clauses appear frequently in advertising, they have several functions. They may be used to appeal to reader to engage herself/himself in reading the advertisement (e.g. Ad 14: „Read What He Says‟) but mostly they are used to encourage reader to some action that is associated with the consumption of the drink (e.g. Ad 45: „Try it‟; Ad 44: „Bring in your thirst and go away without it‟; Ad 42: „Make your place in the sun a cool one.‟; Ad 41: „Go to the fair. See things...do things...enjoy yourself.‟; Ad 36:
„Pause at a fountain for this pure refreshment.‟). It is also used to give instructions how or when
73 the drink should be consumed (e.g. Ad 7: „Take one glass Coca-Cola at eight to keep the brain clear and mind active until eleven.‟; Ad 8: „Take one glass of Coca Cola when weary with shopping‟).
7.3.4 Elements of spoken language
To the illusionary intimacy of the situation also contributes the decrease in complexity and formality of language. In certain advertisements, it is also possible to identify effort of the advertiser to imitate informal spoken language, making the advertisements a mixture of spoken and written language. The information is delivered in comprehensive way to be easily grasped by everybody. Most of the sentences constructing body copy are short simple sentences. There may appear structural ellipsis (e.g. in Ad 11 the omission of it in subject position and of linking verb be: „It satisfies the thirst; pleases the palate. Relieves fatigue quickly and naturally. Puts vim and go into tired brain and bodies. Delicious – cooling – refreshing.‟).
There appear contracted forms (e.g. Ad 5: here‟s; Ad 16: it‟s and you‟ll; Ad 17: „til and they‟ve). Frequent is the use of dashes indicating pauses in imitated dialog (e.g. Ad 5: „Here‟s refreshment for tired brain and body – sparkling with delicious coolness – thirst quenching and absolutely pure-„) and repetition (e.g. Ad 34: „Coca-Cola is cold, - ice-cold.‟; „Coca-Cola is refreshing, - so refreshing‟.; Ad 36: „is still there ... always there‟; Ad 37: „Coca-Cola is pure refreshment, pure as sunlight.‟; Ad 44: „completely refreshed ... completely satisfied.‟). Both are used to highlight certain words. There are also efforts to make the advertising language interesting, thus the use of figurative language (e.g. personification of thirst in Ad 42: „thirst asks nothing more‟; or simile in Ad 17: „cools like a breeze‟). Nevertheless, all these attempts for creativity are minor.
Another feature typical for spoken language is shortening of words. Such a tendency occurred in the Coca-Cola advertising too and it concerned the trademark itself. People started to use the abbreviated version of the trademark „Coke‟ instead of its full form Coca-
Cola. The Company in order to protect the trademark and avoid imitations registered the abbreviation in 1945. Naturally, the abbreviation started to appear in advertisements to
74 accommodate Coca-Cola consumers by presenting the drink in a friendly, familiar way. At first the full trademark was accompanied with an explanation of its shorted version (see Ad
46: „I‟m “Coca-Cola” known, too, as “Coke”. Everybody like to shorten words. Abbreviation is a natural law of language. You hear “Coke”...the friendly abbreviation for the trade-mark “Coca-Cola”...on every hand.‟) making it clear that „Coke‟ does not refer to any imitation but to the original drink itself. Later (e.g. Ad 48), the explanation was not necessary and the abbreviation appeared in the advertisements along the original trademark. The use of the shorted form also indicates the shift in the concept of Coca-Cola. As the full form served to indicate of what the drink is made and thus associated it with its medicinal qualities, the abbreviation was devoid of it. That reflects that the drink became a commercial product suitable for wide audience.
7.4 Coca-Cola as a social drink
This category covers two types of advertisements – those which appeal to the reader‟s need of belonging and those which appeal to the reader‟s need of esteem. They both present
Coca-Cola as a social drink – a drink which unites people either as members of some group
(e.g. nation) or as participants of some social interaction (e.g. making new friends). For the description of Coca-Cola as a national drink and a global drink see section 4.1.2 Geographical area.
The aim of the advertiser is to make the reader associate the product with new situations.
The advertisements presenting the product as refreshment focused on the reader as individual making her/him to associate the drink with her/his private moments of relaxation. The goal of such advertisements was to stress what the drink could offer to the reader to contribute to her/his well-being. Thus, the advertisements were full of description of properties of the drink and its effects. The advertisements presenting the drink as a token of friendliness or hospitality focus on the reader as a social being making
75 her/him to associate the drink with moments which she/he shares with her/his friends or family. The goal of such advertisements is to stress that the drink could contribute to the development or strengthening of reader‟s social relationships. Thus, the advertisements do not provide such detailed description of the product‟s qualities but rather explain how the drink unites people.
7.4.1 Coca-Cola as a token of friendliness
The language describing the properties of the drink is limited to the minimum. The only distinguishing characteristic of the drink that remained from the ample description of the advertisements of the previous category is the use of evaluative adjective ice-cold. Rather than on qualities, the language focuses more on the description of its social effects. The language is mostly impersonal, it is not employed to instruct the reader but to explain why the drink helps build social relationships. The text consists mostly of statements. These are complete sentences in declarative structure and indicative mood. In Ad 33, there is the headline „The pause that brings friends together‟ which is a transformation of the famous advertising slogan „the pause that refreshes‟. It introduces the new potential of the drink – the potential to unite people. The reasons why the drink has this potential is given in the subhead („Everybody welcomes ice-cold Coca-Cola‟) and explained further in the body copy. The explanation is given by the subordinate clause using the conjunction because (e.g. Ad 33:
„...because it makes a pause the pause that refreshes.‟) and the clause introduced by the structure there is (e.g. Ad 33: „There‟s wholesome buoyancy in its life and sparkle...lighter spirits...more get-up-and- go.‟) describing what the drink has to offer. Thus, people like Coca-Cola for it refreshes them and puts them in good temper. People in good mood are generally more inclined towards social interaction. Therefore, wherever Coca-Cola is consumed (e.g. soda fountains, parking places, at home) it strengthens the relationships of people who consume the drink
76 together. The advertisements thus aim at making new connotations of Coca-Cola: the pause that brings people together, the sociable pause, the friendliness.
7.4.2 Coca-Cola as a token of hospitality
Coca-Cola as a symbol of hospitality was used especially to address women for their social role of hostesses. The advertisements appealed to their need of being appreciated in their role, to win the esteem of those to whom they served (e.g. family, friends). The advertisements served as advisers for good housewives. Thus, they were very personal, addressing the reader directly by the second person pronoun you (e.g. Ad 50: „Coca-Cola in your refrigerator‟; Ad 55: „Your circle of friends‟; Ad 56: „When you have Coca-Cola, enough Coca-
Cola, on hand you please everyone„). Frequent is also use of imperative for giving instructions
(e.g. Ad 54: „Serve Coke‟; Ad 55: „Keep Coke in the coolest spot in your refrigerator and serve ice- cold ...right in the bottle.‟; Ad 56: „And remember to serve Coke ice-cold, right in the bottle.‟). The advertisements also provide reasons why the reader should serve Coke. These appear usually in coordination (e.g. Ad 50: „Coca-Cola is so easy to take home...so convenient to serve.‟; Ad
54: „Coke is easy to serve...easy on the budget...and so welcome.‟). The language also serves to assure the reader that serving Coke will win her the appreciation of others. For that the present tense is used (e.g. Ad 56: „you please everyone‟) or modal verb will (e.g. Ad 55: „Your circle of friends will welcome it.‟). Thus, these advertisements try to make the reader associate the drink with hospitality.
7.5 Coca-Cola as a lifestyle
Advertisements of this category promote Coca-Cola as a drink that can improve quality of its consumer‟s life. The focus is on fulfilling the need of self-actualization which represents the highest order in Maslow‟s pyramid. Self-actualization is very individual, it varies from person to person. Therefore, it is hard to target. The key sales points of this category of
77 advertisements are general concepts as fun, enjoyment, happiness, pleasure, spontaneity, or creativity. These aim at what people in general want (e.g. all people want to be happy, they want to enjoy their lives). Nevertheless, they are not imbued with any concrete meaning. In the advertisements, it is not stated what in particular will make the reader happy, pleased, etc. It is up to her/him to personalize it according to her/his needs. The advertisements are full of abstract words (e.g. fun, life, surprise, feeling, happiness) and words with vague meaning (e.g. something, things) which allow the reader to associate these terms with anything she/he wants. For example, in Ad 65 the headline is „Things go better with Coke‟. The vague meaning of the word things allows the reader to imbue the word with a concrete meaning (e.g. shopping, playing football, or watching TV). It allows her/him to personalize the message through associating with what she/he usually does. Typical is also word play.
The language is manipulated in such a way to offer several interpretations at the same time or to simply amuse the reader. Frequent is use of ambiguity, both lexical and syntactic.
Lexical ambiguity is caused by the presence of a polysemous word (i.e. word with two or more meanings). For example, the headline („Always cool‟) of the Ad 84 is ambiguous because of the presence of the word cool. The adjective may either refer to the temperature of the drink (i.e. it is cold), or in informal language, it may indicate that it is excellent. Again, more possible interpretations allow the reader to employ her/his imagination. Syntactic ambiguity occurs when a sentence or a sequence of words has more possible meanings.
For example, the headline („A taste of life as it should be‟) in Ad 90 is ambiguous (for explanation see section 4.6.2.3 Advertisements with prominent visual). The word play is also used to please the reader or to amuse her/him. There is employed rhyming. For example, in Ad
64 there is a rhyme („For extra fun... take more than one!‟) which is based on sound correspondence of the words fun and one. The Ad 95 tries to please the reader through alliteration, repeating the consonant l („It gives you a little lift. Like platforms.‟ – „If you love it light‟). In Ad 65, there is employed repetition of the phrase Coke after Coke („Things go better
78 with Coke after Coke after Coke‟). Frequent is use of figurative language. For example, in Ad
100, the reader is encouraged to „Unlock the 007 in you‟. Or, the Ad 86 informs the reader that it is „time to refuel‟ imitating the language of car racing drivers. Ad 82, on the other hand, alludes to the language of baseball players, encouraging the reader to „catch one at the game‟.
The language thus is metaphorical and it appeals to the reader‟s emotions by associating the product with her/his favourite sports (e.g. baseball, racing cars) or celebrities/fictional characters (e.g. James Bond, Jeff Gordon). All these creative means makes the language more interesting for the reader and thus the advertising message more memorable. The language is also mostly personal. Frequent is use of imperative structures (e.g. Ad 64:
„Take an extra carton of Coke!‟; Ad 75: „Enjoy!‟; Ad 85: „Grab a sure thing‟; Ad 92: „feel it‟; Ad 96:
„Dare to start with zero‟) encouraging the reader to take some action, to get involved and the use of the third person pronoun you and its possessive form (e.g. Ad 77: „When Coca-Cola
Is A Part Of Your Life... You Can‟t Beat The Feeling!‟; Ad 78: „Red White & You‟; Ad 95: „It gives you a little lift.‟; Ad 100: „Unlock the 007 in you‟). Nevertheless, there is possible to indicate a shift in the use of personal language. In the previous category of advertisements the language is instructive (see section XY Coca-Cola as a token of hospitality) – it orders the reader what to do (e.g. Ad 54: „Serve Coke...‟; or Ad 55: „Keep Coke in the coolest spot in your refrigerator and serve ice-cold ...right in the bottle.‟). In Goffman‟s (1967) terms, it threatens her/his negative face. Negative face represents “the desire not to be impeded or put upon, to have the freedom to act as one chooses” (Thomas, 1995, p. 169). Thus, such advertising starts to be perceived negatively. The modern advertising therefore employs new methods of communicating with the reader in an intimate manner. It still uses personal language but it uses it differently. The language becomes playful and as such mitigates the impact of imperatives on the reader. Thus, the reader does not feel directed and pushed but rather she/he feels amused and encouraged to try the product.
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The advertisements continue in the tradition which has been built since 1886 – that Coca-
Cola is a drink that refreshes you. Nevertheless, it is not in the centre of attention – it is not a key sales point anymore. Thus, it is not verbalized and communicated directly but metaphorically through visuals. For example, that Coca-Cola is a refreshing drink is communicated in Ad 66. There are visualized two bottles of Coca-Cola surrounded by ice cubes. The bottles are frosty and the ice-cubes are not melting which indicates that the drink is really cold. The communication thus is figurative – it is based on a simile that
Coca-Cola is cold as ice. Describing the drink as ice-cold implies that it will refresh its consumer. Thus, the visual of the bottles presents the drink as refreshment. Similar strategy is used in other advertisements. Thus, the visuals depict Coca-Cola cups filled with ice- cubes (e.g. Ad 70), or Coca-Cola bottles/glasses that are frosty or dewy (e.g. Ad 74). Coca-
Cola is not compared only to ice-cubes but other objects that are immediately associated with refreshment are used, for example, ice-cream (Ad 65) or swimming pool (Ad 80).
What is more, the drink is depicted not only as refreshment for body but also as refreshment for spirits being thus compared to a smile, a surprise or a song (see Ad 68). As the description of the drink moved to the domain of visuals, there is no need for lengthy body copies. Therefore, linguistic means in such advertisements are reduced – limited to headlines and subheads.
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8 Conclusion
The present thesis analyses the development of Coca-Cola advertising discourse, i.e. how advertisements have been used to communicate with consumers. Its goal is to indicate the major shifts in advertising techniques employed in the period since 1886 to 2012. For the purposes of the thesis is compiled a corpus of 100 advertisements. The compiled advertisements serve to demonstrate general characteristics of advertising (see chapter 4
Classification and characteristics of advertising) and are also used for the general description of components of which an advertisement consists (see chapter 5 Standard components of advertisements). Two areas are of a particular interest – these are visual and verbal elements.
With visual elements (visuals) in advertisements deals chapter 6 Visuals in Coca-Cola advertisements. It discusses which functions visuals have (see chapter 6.1 Visuals as attention catching device) and in what relationship they are to verbal elements employed (see chapter
6.2 Visuals as form of communication). The compiled corpus is analysed as to of what proportion visuals are to verbal elements in the advertisements. The proposed hypothesis tests the prevalence of visual elements in the modern advertising at the expense of verbal elements. The hypothesis is confirmed as it is discovered that visuals in modern advertising have a dominant role. Approximately since the half of the 20th century there has been a decrease in textual elements employed in Coca-Cola advertising. The body copy which is the major means of persuasion in the first half of the century (employed in 45 advertisements from 50 in the period since 1886 to 1949) gradually disappears. Modern
Coca-Cola advertising mostly restricts itself to prominent visuals (employed in 41 advertisements from 50 in the period since 1950 to 2012) which are anchored in headlines and subheads. This tendency could be explained by the lack of willingness on the part of readers to spend their time reading long advertisements. That corresponds with the opinion of Kauerová and Mihoková (2008) who said that there is a growing aversion of people
81 towards traditional advertisements since people feel supersaturated by them and thus try to avoid them (p. 16). They further argued that that is the reason why in modern advertising advertisers stress creativity for they want to produce interesting advertisements which their readers would remember (p. 16). Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the development towards the dominance of visual elements reflects our fast life. Further, it is analysed how the growing use of visuals in advertisements influences the communication of the advertising message and verbal means employed (see chapter 6.2 Visuals as a form of communication). While at the beginning of the Coca-Cola advertising the advertising message is spelled out, in modern advertising it has to be construed from the interaction of visual and verbal elements. What is more, some advertisers nowadays experiment with open advertisements, i.e. advertisements based on visuals with no guiding verbal elements at all.
Studies show that readers are yet not ready for such communication as they are unwilling to make the effort and interpret these advertisements. Nevertheless, that might change since strong brands as Coca-Cola have the ability to teach their consumers how to read them. In the history of Coca-Cola advertising, it is possible to indicate a transitional period (from
1950 to 1965) in which consumers were taught how to read visuals in interaction with verbal elements. Therefore, as it has been proven that open advertisements offer some advantages to strong global brands it could be expected that these brands will gradually employ open advertisement in their advertising campaigns.
With the role of verbal elements in the advertising copy deals chapter 7 Language in Coca-
Cola advertisements. The proposed hypothesis tests the major shifts in target audience of
Coca-Cola advertisements. This hypothesis is also confirmed. Applying Maslow‟s pyramid of needs on the compiled advertisements, it is discovered that Coca-Cola has been promoted as a thirst-quencher, a remedy, refreshment, a social drink and as a lifestyle.
Thus, it has been used to target various needs and desires. Further, it is analysed how the
82 language means employed in the advertisements have changed with these shifts. Each category is described in detail.
Coca-Cola as a thirst-quencher (see chapter 7.1 Coca-Cola as a thirst quencher) appeals to the physiological need of thirst. It is represented in the corpus by only one advertisement.
Nevertheless, even this one is rare for it is typical of advertising to add some value to the product in order to offer the consumer something more that a competing product. The low competing value of the drink is balanced by employing creativity in communicating the advertising message (e.g. personification of thirst). Thus, the advertisement and the drink are made interesting for the reader. The goal of the advertisement is to change consumer‟s habits (i.e. to teach the consumer to drink Coca-Cola all year long).
Coca-Cola as a remedy (see chapter 7.2 Coca-Cola as a remedy) appeals to the need of safety
(i.e. health of body and mind). It is promoted in a very formal way. The language is sophisticated, complex and impersonal. It imitates professional language. The advertisements target a specific group of people – people in need of such a medicine.
Coca-Cola as refreshment (see chapter 7.3 Coca-Cola as refreshment) also appeals to the need of safety but not in regard to health in its direct sense but more in regard to well-being in connection with a higher quality of life. Thus, it is presented in a less formal way. The language becomes simple, easier to grasp. In some cases even elements of informal speech are employed. The communication becomes personal, the reader is directly targeted. Thus, the advertisements target a much larger audience.
Coca-Cola as a social drink (see chapter 7.4 Coca-Cola as a social drink) appeals to needs of love/belonging and esteem. It is presented as a drink that unites people either as members of some group (e.g. nation) or as participants of some social interaction (e.g. making new friends). Such advertisements focus on the reader as a social being and try to persuade her/him that the drink contributes to the development or strengthening of her/his
83 relationships. Advertisements which present the drink as a token of friendliness (see chapter 7.4.1 Coca-Cola as a token of friendliness) focus on the description of the drink‟s social effects and on teaching the readers new associations in connection with the drink. Thus, the language is impersonal. On the other hand, advertisements presenting the drink as a token of hospitality (see chapter 7.4.2 Coca-Cola as a token of hospitality) are mostly personal.
The change in the language reflects the change of the advertiser‟s role. While in advertisements on Coca-Cola as a token of friendliness the advertiser is in the role of a presenter and a teacher being thus distant from the reader, in advertisements on Coke as a token of hospitality the advertiser acts as an adviser who wants to help the reader to win appreciation and esteem. Thus, the advertiser shows intimacy with the reader.
Coca-Cola as a lifestyle (see chapter 7.5 Coca-Cola as a lifestyle) appeals to the need of self- actualization - the need of the highest order according to Maslow. The drink is promoted as a means of improving the quality of its consumer‟s life. Self-actualization is very individual concept. For every one it represents something else. The language of such advertisements is personal but with a vague meaning. The reader is free to interpret the meaning as she/he likes and to adapt the advertising message to her/his own needs. The language appeals to emotions. It is playful trying to please and amuse the reader.
The description reveals that there are three major shifts in communicating the advertising message in regard to the language means employed. The first shift is from formal to informal language. The second shift is from indirect to direct address of the reader and the third shift is from appealing to reason to appealing to emotions.
The decrease in formality is manifested in advertisements becoming more personal, more intimate with readers. Fairclough (1985) explained such tendency with “the apparent shift in power away from producers to consumers which has been associated with consumerism and the new hegemonies it entails” (p. 33). Thus, for the beginning of Coca-Cola
84 advertising it is typical that advertisers communicate with readers in a distant and impersonal way. The focus is on the presentation of the product and its qualities. Later, the focus is more on establishing the relationship with readers. The advertiser and the reader become equals and the communication between them personal. It imitates face-to-face conversation like the reader is the only one to whom the communication is intended. The established intimacy allows the advertiser to instruct the reader, to direct her/him to do something. Nevertheless, such behaviour of the advertiser makes the reader feel pushed, it threatens her/his negative face. Thus, such advertising starts to be perceived negatively.
Advertisers have to develop a new strategy. Modern advertising, therefore, stresses the authority of the reader. The reader is engaged in interpreting the advertising message and she/he is free to adapt it to her/his needs. In this way, her/his intellect is appreciated. The communication is still personal, using direct address and imperatives, but the language means employed focus more on pleasing the reader or amusing her/him. Thus, the language is not perceived negatively as instructive and pushing but rather encouraging. The reader‟s face is saved.
With the shift in formality corresponds the second shift in appeal from reason to emotions.
Formal advertisements offer detailed description of the product and its effects presenting reasons for the reader to buy it. The persuasion is thus rational. Informal advertisements, on the other hand, try to make the reader associate the product with positive emotions. It tries to persuade the reader that using the product will make her/him feel good. Thus, it appeals to emotions.
The Company proves to be very flexible in communication with readers. It presents the same product in new ways targeting new and new audiences. Its advertisements appeal to various needs and desires making Coca-Cola a drink for everyone. The Company has also incessantly worked on building a relationship between the product and the consumer.
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Thus, consumers have become emotionally attached to it and when an innovated formula was introduced (New Coke) in 1985 they demanded the old drink back. Its popularity rose.
The original drink was renamed Coca-Cola Classic and returned to the market in grand manner. With the oncoming 100th anniversary of the brand some considered this move a marketing ploy of the century. Nevertheless, Coca-Cola attained attention and the
Company celebrated its success. It is clear that Coca-Cola has become more than a drink. It has become a symbol. It represents the tradition and values with which American people identify. It unites people. It stresses their individuality. It represents lifestyle focused on happiness and real moments in life. It represents the American dream as the brand built its global success from nothing. It represents the hope that everything is possible. Thus, it is nowadays one of the most popular and powerful brands in the world and as the Company
(2011) said on its 125th anniversary last year: “we are just getting started”.
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9 Bibliography
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“metaphor”. In Dictionary.com. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metaphor?s=t “nonverbal communication”. In Dictionary.com. Retrieved from: http://www.reference.com/browse/nonverbal+communication?s=t “personal selling”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/personal- selling?q=personal+selling “personification”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/personification?s=ts “producer”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/producer_2 “product”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/product_1?q=product “promotion”: In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business- english/promotion?q=promotion “purchase”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/purchase_2 “readership”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business- english/readership?q=readership “sales promotion”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/sales- promotion?q=sales+promotion “slogan”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/slogan?q=slogan “sponsor”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/sponsor_2 “synecdoche”. In Dictionary.com. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/synecdoche “target audience”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/target- audience?q=target+audience “the marketing mix”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/the-marketing- mix?q=marketing+mix “word play”. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/word+play?s=t AllBusiness.com (n.d.). Print Advertising Pros and Cons. Retrieved from: http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/advertising-print-advertising/2590- 1.html#axzz22qPZhXMK Belk, R. W., Pollay, R. W. (1985). Materialism and magazine advertising during the twentieth century. Advances in Consumer Research, 12. Pages: 394-398. Retrieved
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Suggett, P. (n.d.). Print Advertising. Retrieved from: http://advertising.about.com/od/advertisingglossary/g/Print-Advertising.htm The Coca-Cola Company (2012, January 1). Coca-Cola Sponsorships: London 2012 Olympic Games. Retrieved from: http://www.coca- colacompany.com/stories/coca-cola-sponsorships-london-2012-olympic-games The Coca-Cola Company (2012, January 1). Coke Lore: The History of the Modern Day Santa Claus. Retrieved from: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke- lore-santa-claus The Coca-Cola Company (2012, January 1). Mission, Vision & Values. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values The Coca-Cola Company (n.d.). The Coca-Cola Company Heritage Timeline: 1919-1940 Woodruff Legacy. Retrieved from: http://heritage.coca-cola.com The Coca-Cola Company (n.d.). The Coca-Cola Company Heritage Timeline: 1941-1959 The War and its Legacy. Retrieved from: http://heritage.coca-cola.com
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Summary
The present thesis deals with the development of commercial advertising discourse. Its goal is to analyze how Coca-Cola advertisements are used to communicate with consumers and to indicate the major shifts in advertising techniques during the period since 1886 to 2012.
For the purposes of this thesis is compiled a corpus of 100 advertisements. How the corpus is compiled and what it contains is described in chapter 2 (Corpus description). The history of Coca-Cola is briefly described in chapter 3 (Coca-Cola Advertising History). Chapter
4 (Classification and characteristics of advertising) deals with the classification of advertising and its objectives. This chapter also contains a section which describes advertising communication process. Chapter 5 (Standard Components of advertisements) deals with a description of individual components of which advertisements are composed (i.e. headline, subheads, body copy, signature line and standing details). Theory covered in the first part of the thesis is demonstrated on examples from compiled advertisements.
The practical part focuses on the role of visual (chapter 6 Visuals in Coca-Cola advertisements) and verbal (chapter 7 Language in Coca-Cola advertisements) elements in Coca-Cola advertisements. There are two hypotheses. The first tests the prevalence of visual elements in modern Coca-Cola advertising. The second analyses the major shifts in target audience of Coca-Cola advertisements. Both hypotheses are confirmed. It is discovered that modern advertising consists of dominant visuals which communicate the advertising message while verbal elements anchor it. The development in target audience reflects the development of
Coca-Cola from a remedy, over refreshment and a social drink to a lifestyle. The analysis reveals that there are three major shifts in the development of advertising discourse. The first shift is from formal to informal language. The second shift is from indirect to direct communication and the third shift is from appealing to reason to appealing to emotions.
The flexibility in communication and constant development in promotion of Coca-Cola are considered reasons of the brand‟s global success.
Resumé
Tato práce se zabývá vývojem komerčního reklamního diskurzu. Jejím cílem je zanalyzovat, jakým způsobem reklama na Coca-Colu komunikuje s potenciálními zákazníky, a určit nejvýznamnější posuny v použitých reklamních technikách v období od roku 1886 do roku
2012. Pro záměry této práce je shromážděn korpus 100 reklam. Jak je tento korpus shromážděn a co obsahuje je popsáno v kapitole 2 (Popis korpusu). Historie Coca-Coly je krátce popsána v kapitole 3 (Reklamní historie Coca-Coly). Kapitola 4 (Klasifikace a charakteristika reklamy) se zabývá člením reklamy a jejími cíli. V této kapitole je také sekce věnovaná popisu reklamního komunikačního procesu. Kapitola 5 (Komponenty reklamy) se zabývá popisem jednotlivých částí, ze kterých se reklama skládá (tj. titulek, podtitulek, hlavní stať, podpis a stálé detaily). Teorie, jíž se zabývá první polovina práce, je demonstrována na příkladech ze shromážděných reklam.
Praktická část práce se zaměřuje na roli prvků vizuálních (kapitola 6 Prvky vizuální v reklamě na Coca-Colu) a verbálních (kapitola 7 Jazyk v reklamě na Coca-Colu) v reklamě na Coca-Colu.
Jsou ověřovány dvě hypotézy. Hypotéza první ověřuje převahu vizuálních prvků v současné reklamě. Hypotéza druhá zkoumá posuny v cílových skupinách, na které se reklama na Coca-Colu zaměřuje. Obě hypotézy jsou potvrzeny. Je zjištěno, že současná reklama klade důraz na prvky vizuální, které komunikují reklamní sdělení rychle, zatímco prvky verbální toto sdělení ukotvují. Vývoj v zaměření cílových skupin odráží vývoj Coca-
Coly od léku přes občerstvení a společenský nápoj až po životní styl. Analýza reklam odhaluje tři výrazné posuny v reklamním diskurzu. Prvním je posun od formální komunikace k neformální. Druhým je posun od nepřímé komunikace k přímé a třetím je posun od působení na rozum k působení na emoce. Flexibilita v komunikaci a neustálý vývoj v propagaci Coca-Coly jsou považovány za důvody celosvětového úspěchu této značky.
Glossary of terms
If there is no reference in regard to the source of the definition, the term is defined by the author of the present thesis. Expressions in bold refer to the terms defined. abbreviation: “a short form of a word or phrase” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) abstract noun: “refers to a thing which does not exist as a material object” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) action advertising: “seek an immediate, direct action from the reader” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 15) addressee: “the person for whom it [the advertising message] is intended” (Cook, 1992, p.2) advertisement: “a picture, sign, etc. that is used to make a product or service known and persuade people to buy it” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) advertiser: “a company, person, or organization that advertises a product or service” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) advertising medium: “any paid means used to present an advertisement to its target audience” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 14) advertising: “the nonpersonal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods and services) or ideas by identified sponsors through various media” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 7). alliteration: “the use, especially in poetry, of the same sound or sounds, especially consonants, at the beginning of several words that are close together” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) alliteration: repetition of the same consonant at the beginning of words anaphora: “a grammatical term for the use of a pronoun or other linguistic unit to refer back to another word or phrase” (Nordquist, n.d., section Definition) awareness advertising: “attempts to build the image of a product or familiarity with the name and package” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 15) body copy: the text of the advertisement that develops the idea presented in the headline. It is distinct from headline and subheads visually as it is set in smaller type. It is the part which employment is optional. It is used to provide detailed information about the product. brand image: “a set of features and ideas that customers connect in their minds with a particular product or brand” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) brand: “a type of product made by a particular company” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) brand: “the combination of name, words symbols, or design that identifies the product and its source and differentiates it from competitive products” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 180) cataphora: “the use of a pronoun or other linguistic unit to refer ahead to another word in a sentence (i.e., the referent)” (Nordquist, n.d., section Definition)
closed advertisements: an advertisements that provides guidance toward a specific interpretation commercial (for profit) advertising: “promotes goods, services, or ideas for a business with the expectation of making a profit” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 15) commodification: “the process whereby social domains and institutions, whose concern is not producing commodities in the narrower economic sense of goods for sale, come nevertheless to be organized and conceptualized in terms of commodity production, distribution and consumption” (Fairclough, 1992, p. 207) communication: “a process of exchanging verbal and non verbal messages” (Management Study Guide, n.d., para. 1) concrete noun: “refers to a real, physical object” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) connotation/connotative or associated meaning: “the emotional implications and associations that a word may carry, in contrast to its denotative meanings” (Richard Nordquist, n.d., section Definition) consumer: a person who uses goods or services consumerism: “the state of an advanced industrial society in which a lot of goods are bought and sold” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) context: “communication is affected by the context in which it takes place. This context may be physical, social, chronological or cultural. Every communication proceeds with context. The sender chooses the message to communicate within a context.” (Management Study Guide, n.d., section Context) customer/purchaser: a person who buys goods or services deixis: reference by means of an expression which interpretation is relative to the context of the utterance demand: “a need for goods or services that customers want to buy or use” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) denotation: “the direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings (connotations)” (Richard Nordquist, n.d., section Definition) externally paced media: “the viewer/listener does not control the pace of message delivery” (Lowrey in McQuarrie and Phillips, 2008, p. 163) figurative meaning: “the metaphorical, idiomatic, or ironic sense of a word or expression, in contrast to its literal meaning” (Richard Nordquist, n.d., section Definition) figure of speech: a type of figurative language (e.g. metaphor, synecdoche) global customer: refers to the Levitt‟s idea of people having the same tastes and desires and wanting the same products and lifestyles no matter where they live (in Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 677) guerilla marketing: “any form of marketing that is original, unusual, and not expensive” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) headline: “the words in the leading position of the advertisement - the words that will be read first or that are positioned to draw the most attention” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 292)
hedonism: “living and behaving in ways that mean you get as much pleasure out of life as possible, according to the belief that the most important thing in life is to enjoy yourself” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) international advertising: advertising directed at foreign markets lexical ambiguity: caused by the presence of a polysemous word local advertising: advertising directed at a particular local area localization: “the process of making a product or service more suitable for a particular country, area, etc.” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) logo: “a design or symbol displayed on a company's products, vehicles, signs, etc. that expresses the company's character and purpose and makes it easy for customers to recognize and remember the company” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) majority fallacy: “a common misconception that to be successful a product or service must appeal to everybody or at least to the majority of people” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 155) market: “a group of current and prospective customers” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 127) mass communication: “something such as television or the internet that means that a message, story, etc. can be communicated to a large number of people at the same time” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) materialism: “the belief that having money and possessions is the most important thing in life” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) medium: “a means used to exchange / transmit the message” (Management Study Guide, n.d., section Medium). message: “a key idea that the sender wants to communicate” (Management Study Guide, n.d., section Message). metaphor: “a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance” (Dictionary.com, n.d.) national advertising: advertising directed at several regions of one country or the whole country noncommercial (nonprofit) advertising: “sponsored by or for a charitable institution, civic group, or religious or political organization” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 15) nonproduct advertising: “sells ideas” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 14) nonverbal communication: “the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture; body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact; object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture; symbols and infographics.” (Dictionary.com) open advertisements: “provide little guidance toward a specific interpretation” (Gisbergen, Ketelaar, Beentjes, 2004, p. 114) personal selling: “the activity of speaking to people, either directly or on the phone, to try and persuade them to buy something” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) personification: “the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online)
polysemous word: word with two or more meanings producer: “a company, country or person that provides goods, especially those which are produced by an industrial process or grown or obtained through farming, usually in large amounts” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) product advertising: “promotes goods and services” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 14) product: “something that is made to be sold, usually something that is produced by an industrial process or, less commonly, something that is grown or obtained through farming” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) promotion: “an advertisement, event, or other activity used to advertise a product or service, or the use of these advertisements, events, etc.” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) purchase: “the act of buying something” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) readership: “the number or type of people who regularly read a particular newspaper, magazine, or website” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) receiver: anyone who receives the advertising message (does not have to be addressee) regional advertising: advertising directed at some region but not at the whole country sales promotion: “an activity or series of activities done to increase sales of a particular product, for example by reducing its price or advertising it” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) self-actualization: “a process of growing and developing as a person in order to achieve individual potential.” (Cherry, n.d., para. 3) self-paced media: media in which the receiver can control the pace of message delivery sender / encoder: “a person who sends the message. A sender makes use of symbols (words or graphic or visual aids) to convey the message and produce the required response. Sender may be an individual or a group or an organization.” (Management Study Guide, n.d., section Sender / Encoder) signature line: “mention of the brand-name, often accompanied by a price-tag, slogan, trade-mark, or picture of the brand pack” (Leech, 1966, p. 59) slogan: “a short easily remembered phrase, especially one used to advertise an idea or a product” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) sponsor: “a company or organization that provides money for a television or radio programme, website, sports event, or other activity in exchange for advertising” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) standing details: “cut-out coupons, and strictly utilitarian information in small print, usually appearing unchanged on a series of different advertisements – the address of the firm; how to obtain further information; legal footnotes; etc.” (Leech, 1966, p. 59) subhead: “can appear above the headline as well as below ... may also appear in the body copy or the text of the advertisement. A subhead that appears above the headline is called a kicker” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 297) synecdoche: “a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special” (Dictionary.com, n.d.) syntactic ambiguity: a sentence or a sequence of words has more possible meanings
target audience/group: “the particular group of people to which an advertisement, a product, a website or a television or radio programme is directed” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) the marketing mix: “the combination of actions a company uses when selling a product or service. These are often described as the four Ps (= product, price, place, and promotion)” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online) trademark: “any word, name, symbol, or device or any combination thereof adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his goods and distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others” (Bovée & Arens, 1992, p. 21-63) verbal communication: the process of communication through sending and receiving worded messages word play: “a play on words; pun” (Cambridge Dictionaries Online)