Pajama Parties. What's Not to Like?

Many advertisements for consumer goods aim at making us insecure about our attractiveness or social acceptability, and then offer a remedy for this feeling in the form of a product. This is a common strategy for selling mouthwash, toothpaste, chewing gum, clothing, and even automobiles.

Living in a city drenched in ads, I believe we have been bombarded by so many variations of this formula, we have developed a certain skepticism towards it. This creates a very high level psychological noise that advertisers have to penetrate in order to get their desired message across. Here, I use an ad for Coca Cola to examine how this formula is executed and its outcomes.

To persuade its target audience, young adult males aged 18-28 to drink Coke Zero, the advertisers use the headline "Zero sugar, real Coke taste. Now, everything is possible."

Implying that making a drink taste like real coke with zero sugar seemed impossible. But now that they've achieved it, it seems everything else is possible.

The ethos of the ad uses girls that match the typical prototype of everything most guys look for on face value in females. Slim, young, attractive faces, giggly, flawless skin, healthy and sexy. This connects with the primal desires of their target audience, and keeps their eyeballs on the screen. The protagonist on the other hand looks good but not unrealistically gorgeous. This allows the target audience to relate better to the scenario and narrative put forth and ultimately lets them put themselves in his shoes.

Using pathos, the the ad generates feelings of happiness. Using imagery of the fun of a pillow fight, the feathers around to amplify the innocent bliss surrounding the situation, and the ecstatic expressions of the ladies evokes positive emotions from the audience. The music chosen has a fun but mischievous vibe to it. Also, when our protagonist enters the room, it fades out like an Old Western, referencing Cowboys who have heroic traits assigned to their prototype. These heroic traits are transferred onto our protagonist and the male target audience.

Logically, Coke Zero tastes like real coke, with zero sugar, so guys can stay trim. This also means they can drink and enjoy it more without the guilt trips and need to exercise.

While rehashing the formula and going head on against the psychological noise barrier would be suicidal, Coca Cola attempts to bypass it with sexual references and weak humor.

Whether we accept the narrative or not, the slight association that's subconsciously formed affects the collective representation of reality of young adult male tribes, pushing not only sales of the beverage, but also their expectations in women into stratospheric heights. The ad also rides on and puts forth other feminist social phenomenon like the increasing objectification of women, and the unrealistic benchmark for beauty only possible through heavy make up and plastic surgery (Both becoming increasingly accepted into social norms).

However, even with a weak attempt, with enough of these ads bombarding the masses and associating Coke Zero to social desirability and acceptance, the next time we're in a cafe not knowing what to get, and the girls at the opposite table are giggly and bubbly, chances are we're not going to say Pepsi.

Opening quote cited from: http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/jgarret/3waypers.htm