#ethnics2

Focus

I chose this TIME magazine cover depicting the Earth being hand-fed and cradled by Coca Cola.

Published on May 15, 1950

Coca cola is globalizing & replacing traditional drinks: Chinese serve coke instead of tea, Italians replaced champagne with it.

Myths: brazilians say it increases sexual prowess & makes people more bold

Luxury drink for the wealthy: businessmen, bankers, aristocrats, etc.

Relates back to the American Dream: success & prosperity

Why the drink is so attractive to consumers

Dissection of the picture:

A happy and carefree Earth → peace and prosperity in the world →  happy people

Earth seems to be enjoying the drink

Earth is the baby and its mother is Coca Cola

Earth is being cradled and hand-fed by Coca-Cola

Depicts Coca Cola as a very caring and nurturing mother

Coca cola is depicted as milk → nutritious → aids in growth & development

Implications of the motherly role: always being there for their child, mother knows best, birthgiver and savior

In some perspectives (like mine), the Coca Cola’s smile seems a bit deceiving and its actions seems forceful; has a manipulative feel to it

The caption at the bottom of the magazine says, “WORLD & FRIEND” implying that the friend is coca-cola

Meaning that coca-cola has good intentions and wants what’s best for the world

A friend of the world means that it is a global drink; it is peaceful with every country in the world and does not discriminate against others; (an advertisement strategy → to appeal to everyone as it did with the concept of the American Dream)

Sources

Object of Circulations

Reference Pic 1

Reference Pic 2

Family-friendly drink; White “American” family with both parents; A friendly, Black server; family is well-dressed → wealthy, upper-class; on a train: have the money & luxury to travel and take family trips

Depicts the American Dream: graduation/Education, a nice house, everyone is happy and smiling, even grandma’s serving coke/enjoyed by all ages; grandpa & grandma: growing old happily, healthily, and financially stable

Subtle mentions of the word “friend” or “friendly”

National Binds

Whiteness: coca cola depicts what it means to be American

White people are used as examples and set the standard for “whiteness”

A social construction: upper or middle-class, white skin, polite, proper, well-mannered, father: fends for the family but also spends time with his family; mother: takes care of the family and is nurturing

American Dream: success in terms of education; the way the models are dressed: ties, well-groomed hair, wearing accessories, happy and enjoying life, not struggling, model reading books or playing cards: luxury of time

Property: Clean, white, picketed house with a patio

Colonialism:

Coca-cola originated in the US but the picture doesn’t just depict the US but the whole world

Coca-Cola= US; Earth = World

The US is the mother that knows best and the rest of the world should do/follow as the US says/does if they want to be successful

The world is content (happy earth) with doing as their told by the US

Intersectionality

Coca-cola defined what it meant to be “American”, it wasn’t just the color of your skin, but your social class, economic class, and the mannerisms associated with itSex: Either male or female

Girls wore dresses, but were conservative Boys wore ties and were neatly groomed Sexual orientation: promoted heterosexuality since it always depicted a family with a mother and father The object chosen does not display these intersectional concepts, but the two American advertisements used for reference doThis shows that the advertisements are targeted at specific concepts depending on its audienceIn America, coca cola promotes the “American way of life”The object chosen does not explicitly characterize the Earth or Coca-Cola as one sex or the other