Archive: Dec 2010

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.

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.

AWARD NOMINATION CALL FOR ANECDOTES:

We mentioned earlier this month that sociologists Michael Kimmel and Abby Kinchy are nominating us for the American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award.  The award is given to sociologists who have made “a significant impact on the manner in which sociology is taught at a regional, state, national, or international level.”   Kimmel and Kinchy are seeking short anecdotes or testimonials from sociologists who have found Sociological Images to be useful in the classroom.  We are so pleased at the response so far, and want to make one final, humble solicitation for such anecdotes.  They can be emailed to Abby Kinchy (kincha@rpi.edu) or added right here in the comments.

Thank you all again for making our blog so very rewarding for us both.

LOTS OF FUN NEWS:

The next essay in our ongoing feature in Contexts magazine, Skull Face and the Self-Fulfilling Stereotype, has been published (based on a previous post). If you’d like a copy of the essay, feel free to email us (socimages@contexts.org) and we’ll send it along.  See the list of all of our Contexts essays here.

We are indebted to David Mayeda for writing a review of Sociological Images for Teaching Sociology.  Thank you, Dr. Mayeda, for all your kind words!

We are super excited to report that the Ms. magazine blog has begun partially syndicating our work.  If you’re a reader of their blog, you may have seen us pop up there already.

And we were tickled to hear our post on the worldwide penetration of Facebook used as a source in a Scientific American podcast (we’re in the Totally Bogus quiz at about 21:45).

Finally, this is your monthly reminder that we’re on Twitter and Facebook.  Let us invade your everyday life and be your friend!

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.