Rhetorical Analysis Essay Sample: Advertisement In Print Media

The consistent development of technology and innovation in recent times has significantly changed the landscape of print media. Businesses are persistently in the search for better designs in advertisements that can effectively communicate and appeal to the unconscious attention of the target audience. The government and other non-governmental urgencies have also used public service advertisements with a view to coercing the general public into some line of thought or promoting a particular service or product. These may include governments persuasion of the public to avoid bad vices like drug abuses or promotion of healthy eating habits.

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However, there have always been great challenges in print advertisements and public service announcements since catching the attention of the public always proves to be futile. This has necessitated the need for new innovations and designs in print media in order to catch the target audiences attention (Berger 22). The surest way of catching peoples attention is by first appealing to their unconscious emotions.

A text book case in this evolution of print media world would be the recent Share a Coke advertisement by the CoCa-Cola company. The advert had recently mutated into an international craze owing to the creativity and innovation accorded to it. It comprised of an advertisement strategy whereby the company traded off its logo on the bottles for most popular names around the country. Such generic names like Brian, flanked with the message Share a Coke encouraged consumers to share a coke with family and friends. It was dubbed the most successful marketing strategy in Coca-Colas history.

Different attributes stand-out as those that made this advert very successful. The advertisement was interactive. In a world filled with interactive technology, a good advert should be as interactive as possible in order to convey the intended message to the target audience (Stafford and Faber 31). This advertisement gave the consumers something personal to interact with. Seeing ones name on a Coke bottle would automatically appeal to our unconscious emotions. Furthermore, seeing a relatives name on a coke bottle too would also push us into buying them that drink as a gift. What this advert did was to force people into buying the drink based not on a need to basis but by playing with their unconscious emotions.

Another attribute of this advertisement was that it was innovative in every sense of the word. It was an out-of-the box idea and the fact that it was a first appealed to the publics eye. One great attribute of a great advertisement is something that will give people something to talk about. This advertisement exactly did that with its cleverness and innovativeness.

The use of words was also instrumental in the success of the advert (Smith 17). The choice of words Share a Coke as the main slogan of the campaign prompted the consumers to an action. The words were concise and straight to the point. The phrase is also catchy and thus stuck. The fact that the advert prompts the consumers to share a coke rather than buying it for themselves is a great deviation from the norm where most advertisements usually target the first person. This deviation from the norm also helped catch the attention of the public. The short phrase as a slogan did not also bore the consumers since most consumers are usually bored by long ambiguous phrases in advertisement. They simply ignore it long phrases.

The advertisements use of color red is also significant in expounding its success. Color red is one of the primary colors. Studies shows that the color is one of the most thought provoking colors and it comes in handy when one wants to catch attention of people. It is a warm color along with orange and yellow besides being one of the most used color in advertisement campaigns. The public attention will therefore be unconsciously drawn to the adverts.

Another great attribute of the Coke campaign is how it successfully targeted its audiences attention though subconsciously. The greatest consumer base of the Coke beverage is the youths. Mostly the millennials. The advert mainly targeted this demographic despite not making it too obvious. For instance, the Share a Coke phrase was made into a trend in social media accounts whereby the users would share their moments with the rest of the world. The youth are the majority users of social media. They are also the greatest trendsetters and thus catching their attention would subsequently mean the campaign would be successful. The use of popular youth slangs on the Coke bottles such as Bae Turn Up was also employed in order to appeal to the youth, more specifically the millennials. There was also use of popular phrases and punchlines from hip hop songs such that All I Do Is Win.

Conclusively, it can be said that print media advertisements have really mutated in the recent times. There is lots of competition and only the most creative and witty survive. The use of words and visuals that will appeal to the subconscious emotions of the target audience is very vital (Kaptan and Acharya 13).

Works Cited

Berger, Arthur Asa. Media Analysis Techniques. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2005. Print.

Kaptan, Sanjay and Akhilesh Acharya. Advertisement In Print Media. Jaipur: Book Enclave, 2000. Print.

Smith, Ken. Handbook Of Visual Communication. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum, 2005. Print.

Stafford, Marla R and Ronald J Faber. Advertising, Promotion, And New Media. Armonk, NY.: M.E. Sharpe, 2005. Print.

The Coke Advert

Source: "Share a Coke FAQs". Coca-Cola Great Britain. Retrieved 12 August 2013.