Visual Imagery in a Coca-Cola Advertisement

Coca-Cola is a timeless soda beverage that is enjoyed by everyone around the world. While advertising, Coca-Cola focuses on how their beverage brings people together through happy memories and the overall effects of enjoying an ice cold drink. In this early 1900’s Coca-Cola advertisement, a couple is sitting in a boat enjoying a bottle of Coca-Cola. The subject is clearly the bottle of Coca-Cola and how refreshing and delicious it is to drink. The speaker of the advertisement is the couple sitting in the boat drinking the bottle of delicious Coca-Cola. In this advertisement, the audience can be easily seen as for families, couples or kids. It can also be more specifically targeted towards vacationers, people going to the beach or out boating, sailors or fishermen. To consumers, Coca-Cola is a symbol of good times and enjoying the drink can help make new memories.

The creators of the advertisement appeal emotionally to their audiences by having their actors smile and seem happy. The photographer did a great job at capturing the essence of what it feels when drinking a crisp Coca-Cola drink, through making sure the actor smiled while drinking the soda. Photographing the couple while smiling and drinking a Coca-Cola helps create an emotional connection between drinking a Coca-Cola and going out boating. Looking at the text at the top of the advertisement, “BE REALLY REFRESHED … WITH ICE COLD COKE!” the all caps, although may seem like screaming, it was mainly used to emphasize the words. Using an exclamation mark at the end of the text at the top of the ad, it exclaims what is being said instead of just monotonically saying it with a period. Including bright colors of the ad and how it is daytime in the ad appeals to the audience’s emotions by making the ad seem cheerful and bright.

Through the use of photography, the speaker shows the audience how Coca-Cola is the best refreshment anytime and anywhere you are. An ice cold Coca-Cola can be enjoyed at the beach, out boating on the lake, on the ocean, anywhere imaginable and will always create great memories. The speaker also shows how refreshed you will be during and after having an ice cold Coca-Cola on your break or vacation. The refreshing feeling of a cool Coca-Cola is just like a cool sea breeze on a hot summer day.

The speaker of the advertisement uses emotion through the smile of the actors showing that they truly like the drink. Also the fact that Coca-Cola is a huge major brand, puts trust into the consumer who, seeing this ad might buy a drink. The overall tone of the advertisement is happy and cheerful because of how the actors are depicted in the photograph. The bright colors and how it is daytime in the ad also adds to the overall happy tone of the advertisement. The speaker uses words like bright, lively, cold, crisp, and cheerful to describe the drink which gives the perception to the consumer that they will feel these emotions while they drink it. The speaker also says that drinking Coca-Cola will “deeply satisf[y] the cheerful lift that’s bright and lively” this can describe how the bubbles from the carbonated drink will lift you up literally through your emotions and figuratively because you might feel lighter. The creator of the advertisement says “[e]njoy Coca-Cola for the pause that refreshes” where in this case the pause that the speaker is referring to is the break that you would take to really enjoy a bottle of Coca-Cola. This break can be related to the break the couple is taking out on their boat to enjoy a bottle of Coca-Cola during a bright sunny day.

This early 1900’s Coca-Cola advertisement is a perfect example of what Coca-Cola stands for, a beverage that makes the connection between events and making memories. It is through this, that consumers of Coca-Cola will remember these happy memories whenever they enjoy a cold Coca-Cola. The use of photography and text make this advertisement intriguing to the eye and help persuade people to buy a Coca-Cola the next time they see one at a store or vending machine. When feeling down, consumers will instantly think of this advertisement and will instantly crave a Coca-Cola to make themselves feel better.