Coca Cola Australia Ads Soft

Coca Cola Australia Ads

Soft drink branding began very early in the world of the globalized markets and in fact marks one of the most fundamental ways in which the world sees the source, nation, in this case the U.S. Export of Coca Cola to Australia began with a bottling plant opening in the nation in 1938 and it has been a dominant global brand every since. (Olson 1996) Coca Cola has been the number one contender in the marketing mix of the region for a very long time and in many ways is responsible for the first modern source and cultural marketing campaigns in the world.

The franchise systems of the beverage market allow individual bottlers exclusive rights of sales and production in each region and Australia is no exception. Additionally, the franchise system effects marketing in that some ads are international, and if deemed acceptable to Australia they are run there, but the subsidiary brands specific to Australia also create their own advertising and marketing that is tailored to the Australian market and consumer. (Pepsico 2006) The Coca Cola company was one of the first players in the market to tailor its advertising to specific cultures and seek out ads that reflected the cultural identity of the region to better sell to consumers there and to speak in a visual and literal language they would understand and relate to. Over the years Coca Coal has produced culture specific and artful ads pulling on the cultural ties of the nation both real and perceived. Yet, it is also clear that Coca Cola has chosen a very specific target audience as this target audience is the one that repeatedly proves to be the most dominant in sales. In general and historically, the ads have run along the pretext of most soft drink brands, seeking the shared demographic of 19- to 25-year-old males with interests in the beach, outdoor activities and pretty women. In an example that clearly defines the soft drink market Pepsico's (2006) marketing brand target characteristics are quoted as follows and reflect almost exactly the marketing target of all soft drink brands in Australia, but specifically the Coca Cola product lines:

PEPSI 16-24 years Bullseye: Male. 19 years Pepsi is an outgoing 19-year-old whose social life and leisure activities revolve around their peer group. A leader not a follower recognised for their attitude, group endorsed individually and being on the leading edge. This person is an individual, but not to the extent of been seen as anti-social. They challenge the convention because they have a spirited and progressive attitude PEPSI LIGHT Female 25-39 years Female. 25 years Pepsi Light is a 25-year-old female. She actively pursues a healthy lifestyle with a focus on eating and drinking well. She wants a fun, exciting lifestyle. Pepsi Light accompanies this lifestyle PEPSI MAX Male 25-35 years Male: 29 years Pepsi Max is an active 29-year-old male. He is reluctant to give up the things he loves in life, or to fully embrace diet, on the grounds of taste and image compromise. He is still young at heart and needs to have fun to get that release from his day-to-day monotony but he is quite relaxed about (and in control of) how he deals with this.

Coca Cola's marketing runs concurrent with Pepsi with only the brand names of the soft drinks changing to Coca Cola, Coke Zero and several corresponding high hitting power drinks. In general the demographic of these two brands is nearly exact as they specifically compete for the same demographic and historically they have responded to advertising needs in the same manner. Coca Cola relies on enduring cultural expressions such as the history of the nation and the beach and outdoor scenes yet it has also begun to emphasize the highly urbanized nature of the demographic and sought out high paid, high profile spokespeople from the sports and entertainment industries to act in ads for their products. So, examples from the 1970s 80s and 90s featuring Coca Cola give the viewer the impression that product marketers had the initial goal of tailoring ads to cultural trends from the beginning, yet it is also clear that the company did not go out of its way to develop an ad base that reflects the multiculturalism of the nation but instead targeted a very specific audience, white mostly middle class and youthful individuals with at least some expendable income and an interest in the beach and party culture of the nation. This 1977 Coca Cola ad offers the viewer clips and snippets reflecting the white culture of Australia, couples meeting and enjoying the urban party life of Australia and the outdoors and beach culture of Australia:

(Youtube user angusjmp 2006)

The 1977 ad gives the viewer the impression that even if you are not white, middle to upper class and able and willing to enjoy the leisure life of Australia seeking to do so is an aspect of culture. The ad, juxtaposes and threads couples through dancing in a late night urban club and swimming at some rural beach. The work stresses the love connection, professing that sex and direct interpersonal communication are the core of human existence. There is a sense that everyone should at least want to be a part of this lifestyle and that drinking coca cola will help one do that.

This 1988 example again offers the viewer a stereotyped representation of the nation of Australia, still decidedly white in nature a scantily clad couple lounge around in a bush cabin that is surrounded by one of Australia's famous restorative bush fires. The heat is all consuming and from every view inside the house all one can see is fire and sweaty flesh. The man jumps in a cool bath but nothing will take the edge off the heat, until the couple and a new companion open cokes and move out to the porch, where the view reflects back on the house which is only surrounded by a few feet of fire and is now clear from the front. The trio then sip cokes and enjoys the cool night air:

(Youtube user angusjmp 2006)

While this 1990 commercial for Coca Cola can boast a slightly more multicultural feel the players in the ad are still decidedly white, with no exception and though the culture is expressed it is that of the middle to upper class white culture. The scenes shown are clips from modern and then older video recordings as well as new commercials, some of which are independent as commercials that have recently run on television:

(WookieCookie 2006)

"Coca Cola ad from 1990 transferred off Beta tape. I remember this ad when I was 9 years old and it was aired around December 1990 and January 1991, which is the peak summer period in Australia. The ad features various old films from the 60s to the 80s and a mix of 60s surfy wave rock music particularly Beach Boys "I Get Around" and using the jingle "Coca Cola can't beat the real thing." (typicalaussiebloke 2006) This ad is probably the most reflective of all the coca cola ads with regard to the representation of culture, as the ad features film clips from many regional cultural events, fairs, dances and even tourist scenes and over time, but again the target audience is white middle to upper class with expendable income and leisure time.

The next ad again plays off the core market target of the company. Again in 1991, Coca Cola came out with an ad that demonstrates young attractive white Aussie men skysurfing to a Coca Cola cooler outside of a rural bushman store that juxtaposes the modern urban bloke with the rural Australian myth, i.e. that most Australians live in the bush, where as in reality Australia is one of the most urbanized cultures in the world. The ad, responding to culture demonstrates the white colonial settlement that does exist in the bush, and shows very little if any reflection of indigenous members of the Australian culture. It does however show the countryside, which is more than a lot of ads do.

(angusjmp2006)

Coca Cola also focused early on high profile celeb endorsements:

(Conniptions886 2009)

This 1960s ad features the famed Executives, a Beatles like rock band of Aussie fame get into the spirit of Coca Cola by singing and dancing in this ad and even unexpectedly frolicking in the surf to do so. These rather conservative suit wearing celebs are shown playing in the surf to promote the beach culture of the nation. Yet, again this ad and most others speak to the white middle to upper class youth demographic.

The next ad, from the 1980s is a recurrence of the 1960s celeb ad but it features more modern celebrities and more modern scenes, and decidedly les clothing:

(Conniptions886 2009)

This 1980s commercial features some more current celebs and music from the Aussie rock band Dragon playing in the background while beautiful young white people surf and play at the beach. (Conniptions886 2009). Again the ad stresses the outdoor beach culture among those who have the means and leisure to enjoy it.

Coca Cola ads have not seemed to change that much over time. They have sacrificed expressing multiculturalism, without popular exception to build a following for their target market. One comparison ad done by Pepsi and much more reflective of diversity, and especially the diversity of the urban culture is the ad affectionately known as "Chain reaction." In general Pepsi seems to have somewhat let go of the beach culture and decided to focus on the massive urban youth culture. This is not to say that Pepsi has become the label of multicultural expression, as they still clearly target the white youth audience:

(Youtube user DuncansTV2008)

The Pepsi chain reaction video is a great example of the change of focus of one brand to the urban culture of the youth of Australia. Below a parent in Australia describes the sequence of the ad: "Three teenage boys stand by a Pepsi drink dispenser. A bottle pops out but evades capture, escaping on to the street. The would-be owner of the Pepsi dives after it, running into the path of a truck. The truck swerves to avoid him and hits a lamp post. The back door of the truck swings open to release red jelly (jello down under) on to the street, sweeping two professional young women into a jelly wrestling match. The lamp post falls to the ground and knocks over a fire hydrant. A torrent of water drenches a troupe of dancers/cheerleaders emerging from their studio. A garage door opens to reveal a live band, The Pictures, singing "Something I don't know." At this point a procession of hot rod cars on trailers surrounded by scantily clad dancers comes around the corner - and is diverted by the fallen lamp post to walk right past the wide-eyed teenage lads." (Duncan 2004) Clearly Pepsi seems to understand that the culture of the youth demographic and especially what they call their "bullseye" demographic has changed. Everyone is not simply a beach bum surfer. They live in the cities and live the city experience.

Another fantastic example of this trend, that has seemed to evade Coca Cola is this recent Pepsi ad where a famous Aussi celeb is riding an elevator with a bloke, talking on his cell phone. In the ad the celeb from Home and Away "New Pepsi Light tv commercial from Australia featuring an ex-home and away chick - she looks so hot now!" The joke is that the girl does not realize that the guy is talking on his cell, asking another girl out. She thinks he is talking to her and begins to respond, while the guy points to his Bluetooth. The joke ends by the girl stepping off the elevator into a group of friends who admiringly watch the sexy guy walk away, asking her if she rode the elevator with that. To which she responds, "yeah, and can you believe he asked me out?" (jakeseven7 2006) This is clearly a trend change, where Pepsi again acknowledges that youth are focused on urban issues, are fully technology and success oriented and like to laugh at the silly issues that arise because of it. "They have always been an urban people, or at least since the late colonial period (1880s), and have always had a socially stratified society by wealth and class very similar to England and America for much of its history." (Mosler 2002, 4)

Yet, another example with the celebrity endorsement trend and the urban/international focus is this funny ad starring the famed footballer David Beckam, run during the 2006 worldcup. In the ad Beckam leaves the arena while the announcer stresses the fact that he is simply having a bad day and is greeted in the hallway by a young "fan?" The young Aussie boy is holding a Pepsi and Beckam asks for a drink. The young boy hands the star his Pepsi and then stares in disbelief as Beckam takes a big swig of his prized drink. Beckam hands the soda back and begins to walk away. When the boy stops him and asks for his shirt. Beckam smiles, thinking the boy has finally become star struck, turns around and hands him his shirt. The boy takes the shirt wipes off the lip of his can and hands the shirt back to Beckam who then walks away dejected as the announcer in the arena reiterates, "this is just not Beckam's day."(Meik28 2006)

Pepsi seems to have adopted the celebrity endorsement as both high glamour international stars and national celebrities endorse their product in almost all of their modern ad works and often in humorous ways. In this example Pepsi successfully demonstrated a marriage between the surf/beach culture and the celebrity endorsement urban/international vibe among Australian Youth. (gelobee 2006) The ad demonstrates a creative mix of unknown surfers and famous footballers, some of whom are not white, a departure from the all white faces in most ads, during a series of creative ad making on Pepsi's part where the footballers are surfing and playing ball at the same time. Showing up the surf/beach culture with their amazing football moves.

While Pepsi has relied on Australian and international celebrity endorsements for their modern ads Coca Cola seems to have taken an entirely different track in Australia with highly stylized and even animated features like this one where the music of the famous White Stripes are featured in a surreal cloning video. "Official Coca Cola Commercial from Australia and the United Kingdom featuring [American band] The White Stripes, "Love Is The Truth" (written by Jack White). © 2006 The Coca Cola Company."