When companies advertise their products in largely segregated markets, they can tell different, even opposing stories to different groups of people with confidence that the messages will reach their intended audience, and not the unintended one. In an earlier post, for example, we showed how Basil Hayden Bourbon, Miller Lite, and Crown Royal were advertised differently in separated markets.
I was reminded of this phenomenon when DPK, as well as Sean M. of Santa Fe College, submitted this ad for Coca Cola in China. The ad ran during the 2008 Olympics. In fact, the Coca Cola company has partnered with the Olympics for over 80 years, so the fact that they advertised there isn’t surprising; they spent $75 million dollars advertising in China that year.
The slogan, “Red Around the World,” clearly references the color of Coca Cola marketing, but it is also the color China uses to represent itself, as well as the color associated with communism. Meanwhile, the visual of the ad invokes communist propaganda. Coca Cola appears to be solidly on China’s side in this ad, even leading the charge towards a Chinese communist take-over of the world (if I may be a bit dramatic).
This is in stark contrast to the long-standing effort by Coca Cola to market itself as a distinctly American drink.
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I am supposing here that the ability to target their marketing to the Chinese (even during the Olympics?) offered Coca Cola some protection from a backlash against the company from both the left and the right (based on the argument that Coca Cola is pro-China/pro-communism/anti-human rights).
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 16
Ben — December 2, 2010
This is very similar to the Absolut Vokda ad in Mexico (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2008/04/mexico-reconque.html) that shows Mexico's boarders before the Mexican-American War with the tagline "In an Absolut World". This ad was notable both for the outrage it caused in the US, and the complete lack of misogyny.
Examples like this point to the difficulty in regional ad campaigns that target specific, local beliefs and values, that might conflict with those in other markets.
T — December 2, 2010
The "Red Around the World" poster is a pretty sweet image. I'm really digging the aesthetic.
As far as the China bit... I'm sort of indifferent. Chinese Capitalist "Communism" is absurd. Everyone in the central government knows it. Everyone with half a brain knows its. Human rights violations are indeed a serious problem in China -- but a multinational corporation participating in the Chinese capitalist enterprise is a separate issue. Simply trading within the country doesn't mean you endorse everything about the country.
Take a relatively benign issue like trade tariffs and quotas. Just because Corp X, Y and Z persist on conducting business in the European Union or Paraguay or Egypt doesn't mean they endorse or support that country's trade tariff policies.
Jon — December 2, 2010
Is that not Mao Zedong proudly holding aloft the bottle of Coca-Cola, the official soft drink of the revolutionary masses?
Ed Heath — December 2, 2010
I can't tell if that is Mao or not.
Actually, I wonder if there is more than one level of communication going on here. I am going to assume that Coca Cola was already available in China, and probably consumed mostly by a wealthy upper class (probably particularly their kids) and an aspiring urban middle class, both of who want to emulate the wealthy lifestyle of the US.
So an ad like this starts as being puzzling. Is it intended to reach rural consumers who may be still/more attached to the idea of communism? My other reaction was was to think that, in the US sometimes a low cost beer can suddenly become "hip" to drink (I forget the beer that was mentioned months ago here). Could this poster be meant to appeal to young Chinese as a sort of hipster ironic statement?
If indeed $75 million was spent on advertising, might there have been some focus groups? We know that some companies (I think particularly alcoholic beverage companies) use "viral" and word of mouth marketing in bars and such to sell their products. Perhaps this poster resonated with some key demographics, either in a positive fashion, or in some weird subversive sort of way.
That would be the best poster ever to own.
Leif — December 2, 2010
While China did have a "Red Around the World" campaign for the 2008 Olympics, I see no evidence that they actually used this poster or used the image of Mao.
Elena — December 3, 2010
What looks to be the original poster art, evidently using Mao's Little Red Book instead of the Coke bottle. Honestly, they could at least have drawn a pastiche for the ad instead of photoshopping an existing poster :/
Jacob — December 3, 2010
I think it's more frightening is my thought that many viewers are fully aware of what goes on and are at a stage where they don't care.
I'd imagining that many anglospheric westerners looking at the images through capitalism would either think of coca-cola as apolitical by virtue of it's ambiguity, and that this is just the nature of free market capitalism, people will sell however they like and we should just brush it aside and think "hey they don't mean it, it's not their job to mean it"... at worst I imagine many would even celebrate the manipulation of a communist market by an American company. "Take that China!".
I really think we're that far gone... however I'd like to see what the american audience of the era depicted in those retro coca-cola ads would think of the 2008 one!
Leif — December 3, 2010
Again, this looks like an artist détournement turned into a hoax.
steph — December 6, 2010
It's not a real ad: http://www.imagekind.com/Coke-Red-Around-The-World_art?IMID=f7688a1d-4882-4026-a316-d63eaa2a2058
The only places I've seen this kind of aesthetic in China was in tourist markets aimed at foreigners. Opinions among my college-age students seemed pretty ambivalent about Mao--he did terrible things but was a "good leader," etc.--and it would seem to be a really stupid idea for a foreign company to use him as an advertising motif.
Plus, it's in traditional characters, and they use simplified on the mainland. The Chinese phrase doesn't make any sense to me (though my Chinese is pretty mediocre), and a google search for that phrase brings back... nothing.
I've been reading this blog for a while and enjoying it quite a bit, but have been disappointed lately in the quality/veracity of materials posted.
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