1. What insight does Melissa Rubin offer about the Coca-Cola as she analyzes, and what evidence does she provide to support her analysis? Has she persuaded you to accept her conclusions - and if not, why not?
Melissa Rubin examines a Coca-Cola as from the 1950's, which she uses as her evidence to support her insights. In the ad, there is a clear blue sky, perfect white clouds with a Coca-Cola dispenser floating above a crowd of mostly white business and military men, who are all seeming to enjoy life. By the dispenser there is "Sprite Boy" who was a logo for Coca-Cola at the time, and he is gesturing to the dispenser with a bottle of coke by him. Melissa Rubin's insight was that advertising is meant to persuade us, and that the 1950's Coca-Cola advertisement that she focused on was meant to impact the people in that era that if they were to drink Coke, they would be refreshed and live the life of the crowd: happy and prosperous. She pointed out much evidence that this was the intention of the ad, and I do accept her conclusion.
2. How does she incorporate historical context, and what does that information contribute to her analysis?
Like I said above, Melissa Rubin's historical context was a 1950's Coca-Cola ad. This ad portrays a prosperous crowd all enjoying a coke, thus signifying that the coke was to be contributed to their prosperity. She used this to support her conclusion that advertising is meant to persuade us.
3. Rubin's analysis is driven by this question: What can we learn about the culture in which a given ad is created by closely examining how that ad appeals to particular audiences? What other questions might you try to answer by analyzing an ad?
We can learn much about a culture by a particular ad created for it. Most products have this goal: sell their material to the public. So, that product will try to appeal to what the public is at the time, trying to make a profit. Like the Coca-Cola ad Melissa analyzed, Coca-Cola was trying to appeal to the working middle-class men in the 1950's, which was the majority of the population in America at that time. If you look at ads throughout time, you will be able to see who the product is targeting, because they will target whoever is the majority at that time who could buy their materials. You can also see through ads that they also try very hard to portray that their product will make your life better and sweeter, that if only you buy their product then your happiness will be fulfilled. This is another way ads try to persuade us.
4. This Coca-Cola ad reflects the values of its era. Can you think of a contemporary ad that projects the values of the era we live in? How do the two ads compare?
A contemporary ad that projects the values of the era we live in today that I can think of would be standard women perfume ad. Each perfume ad projects that their specific smell will "capture a man" (or whoever you wish to have a romantic relationship with), and that this product will lead to you experiencing a relationship that you would've never had because of their product. How this standard ad projects the values of today is that supposedly women are always in want of a man's (or whoever's) attention, so the company producing the product wants to try to appeal to their "needs" to make a profit. The standard women perfume ad and the 1950's Coca-Cola ad compare in that the companies making the products both want to proclaim that their product is the key to happiness.
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