Summary of Rubin's Analysis

"Advertisements R Us"

     
       "Advertisements R Us" is an analysis written by Melissa Rubin. She wrote this essay for a class she was taking at the Hofstra University about how ads persuade us. In her analysis she focused on a Coca-Cola ad from the 1950's, using this as evidence to her conclusion that advertisements are there to persuade us to buy their products. The Coca-Cola ad she was analyzing was pictured during the 1950's in the city suburbs. The sky was blue with perfect white clouds, and there was a happy crowd of Caucasian business and military men with few women in the background. In the sky there was a Coca-Cola dispenser along with "Sprite Boy", Coca-Cola's logo during the time. Everyone in the crowd below was enjoying a coke and the theme of the ad was "be refreshed". Melissa Rubin used this ad to show that advertisements will focus on the values of the era they are in to be able to persuade us and sell their product. In the 1950's, their values were in business's and the military, and the main population was white men, so the ad targeted that in their advertisement. Also, Rubin points out that the ad tries to portray that their product will give happiness to whoever purchases it, hence the happy crowd in the ad. Through her analysis she gives much evidence that it is indeed true that ads are their to persuade us, all in the name of profit.