AN ANALYSIS OF COCA-COLA ADVERTISING

Coca-Cola has one of the most recognized brands in the world, and that recognition is due in large part to the company's careful marketing and branding efforts. Coca-Cola has more than a century of marketing behind its brand, and despite missteps such as New Coke, the company remains strong and a symbolùgood or badùof American consumerism and marketing. This research considers some of the promotional campaigns that have built the Coca-Cola brand around the world, and uses the Lasswell communication formula as a framework for this analysis.

Lasswell put forth a formal formula for communication that applies to far more than just advertising and promotional issues. Lasswell's model provides a framework by which any communication can be analyzed (Underwood, 2002):

Traditional communication models assume the sender, message, and receiver. The sender encodes the message and the receiver decodes it. In the case of face-to-face communication, the core message is encoded in spoken language, but other factors, including body language, intonation, gestures and even the volume at which the speaker is speaking come into play. The same is true with other types of interpersonal communicationùthe message is encoded, whether orally or verbally, transmitted to the receiver, and the receiver decodes the message. Indeed, it is this encoding process that can lead to misunderstandings in e-mail wh

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gh his seasonal presence today is largely limited to appearing on special cans and bottles. Using Santa Claus in the message conveys a sense of nostalgia for childhood to the message recipient, and also a certain level of wholesomenessùwhat can be more wholesome than Santa Claus. Coca-Cola has long marketed its flagship brand even in the dead of winter when one would expect demand for soda to fall in favor of hot beverages, and its strategy has apparently paid off in that soda now outpaces all other drinks as the beverage of choice in the United States (Squires, 2001). COCA-COLA AND TELEVISION Coca-Cola initially had difficulty adapting to using the new medium of television. The company had developed a successful tradition of using print advertising and promotional items such as clocks and beverage trays in order to put its message before the public, but it stumbled with the advent of television. During the 1950s, the company sponsored entire television showsùas was the custom at the timeùincluding The Adventures of Kit Carson and Coke Time with Eddie Fisher. These sponsorships meant that Coca-Cola received mention on the shows themselves, and so the company benefitted from a popular star such as Eddie Fisher actively promo
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Some common words found in the essay are:
FORMULA Lasswell, Quality Communication, CAMPAIGN Coca-Cola, Clark Supremes, United REAL, WORLD SING, Eddie Fisher, Genghis Khan, Santa Claus, Coca-Cola Zero, retrieved 26, retrieved 26 feb, 26 feb 2006, feb 2006, 26 feb, santa claus, garfield 2006, message receiver, benady 2005, soft drink, lasswell communication, medium television, nd retrieved 26, buy world coke, i'd buy world,
Approximate Word count = 3113
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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