Ads And Coca Cola example essay topic

Coca Cola was created by Pharmacist Dr. John Smyth Pemberton. He developed the formula for the famous soft drink in his backyard on May 8, 1886. Dr. Pemberton's bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, came up with the idea for the unique cursive logo that has been the trade mark ever since. On May 29, 1886 the very first ad appeared in the Atlanta Journal: Coca-Cola. Delicious! Refreshing!

Exhilarating! Invigorating! The New and Popular Soda Fountain Drink, containing the properties of the wonderful Coca plant and the famous Cola nuts. For sale by Willis Venable and Nunn ally & Rawson. Dr. Pemberton died shortly after this ad and sales plummeted.

Robinson didn't want the business to fail and decided advertising was at fault- "people did not know what they were missing". After the Coca Cola trademark had been patented, Asa G. Candler, an Atlanta businessman, purchased the rights to the product and formed the corporation, "The Coca-Cola Company". He began the push on Coca-Cola advertising by giving thousands of tickets away for free glasses of Coca- Cola, and advertising on outdoor posters, calendars, soda fountain urns, and wall murals and making Coke available everywhere. The invention of bottling in 1894 increased availability of the soft drink. The company hired William D'Arcy in 1906 to head up advertising and he believed that advertising should show that Coca-Cola is a part of happy times in everyday life. This type of advertising was used for decades.

One of the first newspaper ads showed a picture of Ty Cobb, a baseball star up at bat and said: Something's bound to happen-nerves a tingle-head whizzing. Crack!! Good boy Ty!! Safe!! And then you shout yourself hoarse.

When it's all over you " re hot, thirsty and limp. A cold, snappy drink of Coca-Cola will put you back in the game- relieve the thirst and cool you off. D'Arcy found this baseball ad to be a success because everyone loves baseball. He felt as though it affected the reader's senses which made him or her feel thirsty for a Coca-Cola. Other ads that appealed to the consumer's sense of pleasure in associations with Coke included an ideal American girl drinking Coke, business men drinking Coke aboard an American Pullman train car and young people enjoying Coke out on a boat ride. In 1929 Coca-Cola's most famous slogan, "The Pause That Refreshes" appeared in the Saturday Evening Post.

Shortly after the above slogan, the Great Depression hit America and the Stock Market crashed. However, Coca-Cola continued to stay with the ads that showed 'happy scenes of everyday life. ' These ads helped people escape the realities of the depression and gave them hope that life would return to normal. Examples included a woman taking a break from gardening to refresh herself with a Coke, boys and girls in soda fountain ads and Artist Haddon Soundon's famous image of Santa Claus with a Coke on billboards. The people responded to these ads and Coca-Cola stayed profitable even during the depression.

World War II had a major effect on Coca-Cola's advertising decisions in the next few years. Their war time policy was "We will see that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents wherever he is and whatever it costs". The company wanted Coke to be a boost for morale and to promote patriotism. The ads replaced the boys and girls at the soda fountain with smiling soldiers. Another ad in 1943 urged people to buy war bonds and war stamps and still another showed two women allies enjoying the "pause that refreshes". Coca-Cola wanted to show that they were part of the American war effort.

The famous red Coca-Cola disk gave the image of the American way of life before the war and during the war. The interactive advertising strategies and techniques before and during the war made success possible and made Coca-Cola an American icon today. This success for Coca-Cola did not come without some competition, problems and cost. In the mid thirties a serious competitor was new to the market with surprising success. Pepsi was offering twelve ounces of soda instead of Coca-Cola's six ounces for the same nickel price. Pepsi had the first advertising jingle on the radio which people called the station to request.

Then, during World War I the rationing of sugar almost devastated the company. In World War II Coca-Cola wanted to convince the government that Coke was essential to the war efforts. During World War II Coke had to borrow $5.5 million for bottling operations in foreign countries. The risk paid off as the GIs made a "life long attachment" to Coca-Cola. The invention of Television brought into the home the unique connection that Coke had with families. On Thanksgiving Day in 1950 the Coca-Cola Companies first Television ad appeared in conjunction with a TV special featuring Edgar Berger and Charlie McCarthy.

Shortly after this came the sponsorship of Walt Disney's TV premiere on Christmas Day of the same year. After fifty years D'Arcy closed its account with Coca-Cola and responsibilities for advertising was transferred to McCann-Erickson. They used everything that TV offered such as animation, stop motion and live action ads and coined the nationally known slogan "Things Go Better With Coke". The first color ad was called the "Refrigerator-Man" and other famous TV ads were the "Hilltop" commercial, "Mean Joe Green", and the "Northern Lights" which used the famous polar bear. In 2000 Coca-Cola launched an ambitious new international campaign using the slogan "Coca-Cola. Enjoy".

After ninety nine years Coke had become such a part of American life, that when the company tried to introduce "new Coke" the public protested so strongly that the company had to bring back the original renamed "Coca-Cola classic". Coca-Cola and its "Red, White and You" theme and its pleasant associations with people's everyday happy family life made it a classic symbol of America. "Unmistakably Coca-Cola. Unmistakably American.".