Going Mainstream With Partnerships: The 1960s-1990
Slogans from this Era include:
1963 - Things Go Better with Coke
1969 - It's the Real Thing
1971 - I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke
1975 - Look Up America
1976 - Coke Adds Life
1979 - Have a Coke and a Smile
1982 - Coke Is It!
1985 - We've Got a Taste for You (for both Coca-Cola & Coca-Cola classic)
1985 - America's Real Choice (for both Coca-Cola & Coca-Cola classic)
1986 - Red, White & You (for Coca-Cola classic)
1986 - Catch the Wave (for Coca-Cola)
1987 - When Coca-Cola is a Part of Your Life, You Can't Beat the Feeling
1988 - You Can't Beat the Feeling
1989 - Official Soft Drink of Summer
1963 - Things Go Better with Coke
1969 - It's the Real Thing
1971 - I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke
1975 - Look Up America
1976 - Coke Adds Life
1979 - Have a Coke and a Smile
1982 - Coke Is It!
1985 - We've Got a Taste for You (for both Coca-Cola & Coca-Cola classic)
1985 - America's Real Choice (for both Coca-Cola & Coca-Cola classic)
1986 - Red, White & You (for Coca-Cola classic)
1986 - Catch the Wave (for Coca-Cola)
1987 - When Coca-Cola is a Part of Your Life, You Can't Beat the Feeling
1988 - You Can't Beat the Feeling
1989 - Official Soft Drink of Summer
Television advertising began to become the more popular choice of advertising during this era of Coca-Cola marketing. However, print ads were still popular and were circulated quite a bit. During this era, Coca-Cola started to focus on reaching out to multiple groups of people, and promoting happy ideals. Partnerships began to be established, and the Coke brand began to branch out and try new things (like Sprite being created in 1960 and Diet Coke in 1982). It was during this era that two of the most popular television ads surfaced in the 1970s, and there was a marketing mistake made with the 1985 "New Coke."
The 1960s brought many changes in the world like the Vietnam War and the time period of "Free Love." Changes in the world encouraged Coke to change it's advertising, to be more realistic and appealing to the changing world. The ad on the right illustrates of Coke "being to the rescue" like a lifeguard does. It still uses the color scheme of red and white, but is also entirely photographed.
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Within this era, Coca-Cola began to implement new packaging designs, like the aluminum can. The aluminium can, as expressed in this ad, makes Coke easier to store, share, and enjoy. The 1960s made use of more photo ads, and this realistic photo of opening a can of Coke could be appealing to those in that era. The labeling on the can includes both trademarks of Coke and Coca-Cola, to illustrate that the are one and the same.
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The slogan in 1969 for Coca Cola was "things go better with Coke" and these two ads were some that helped advertise that slogan. The image on left is another example of how photographic advertising was becoming more popular, as the camera technology got better. The ad on the right illustrates how Coke can make anything better, even getting your hair done with friends. Both ads are similar in the composition of the photo, with the two bottles being front and center. It also illustrates how Coke and Coca-Cola are one and the same. Regardless of which trademark you call it, it is the same, cold cola.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Coca Cola collaborated with a fast food that was growing in popularity: McDonalds. 1969's slogan was all about getting the "real thing" when getting Coke, and these ads with McDonalds help promote that idea. Coca-Cola could be ordered at McDonalds (and still is today), and these ads help promote both companies. What is interesting is that both ads illustrate using Coca-Cola slogans, not McDonalds slogans. At the time, Coca-Cola was a bigger product and company than McDonalds, so using Coca-Cola could help draw in consumers to McDonalds as well. Photography was getting stronger and used more often, and marketing campaigns for food and beverage used photos a lot, especially to promote the idea that the Coke was "real."
One the most iconic ads in Coca-Cola history comes from a Hilltop in Italy in 1971. This ad became one of the most played ads on television, with its catchy jingle and diverse cast. It was created at a time when Coca-Cola was looking to change it's slogan "it's the real thing" to "I would like to buy the world a Coke." It connected many different regions in the world into one song, and illustrated how Coke can be used to gather people from all different walks of life together. The video's use of transitions and panning techniques help the viewer get close to the actors. It also has a warm quality to it, due to it's lighting techniques, that keep the mood upbeat and happy, like the song, and what Coke can create. The ad still focuses on the product, which can be seen with panning shots of labeled Coke bottles, but it also establishes the company as a global icon, and building friendship. The ad was so popular that people in the USA would even call local radio stations to play the song, since they couldn't demand to hear on their televisions.
Further evidence that the Hilltop Ad is iconic can be seen in the 2015 finale to the TV series "Mad Men." While the fictional Don Draper did not actually create the iconic ad, the idea that he fictionally came up with it while finding his own peace and tranquility carries the same tone in the ad itself. Also note how the people he is surrounded by while on top of the cliff share some similar looks to the models and singers in the Coke ad. The Coke ad is also the final image that is seen in the TV series, which is a powerful statement for Mad Men, and for Coca-Cola. |
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Coca-Cola continues to have a partnership with sports advertising in this 1971 magazine ad. The Paul Newman special aired in 1971 on CBS, and Coke was a partner with CBS for the airing of it. Coke was also a partner with Paul Newman himself, giving him money to wear the Coca-Cola brand on his raceway driving uniform (it can be seen on the left-hand side of the jacket in white).
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Another of Coca-Cola's famous television ads was created in 1979 and featured then professional football player "Mean" Joe Greene. In the ad, a child offers a Coke to the injured Greene, who takes it and drinks it, and after finishing the bottle says the famous line "Hey Kid, Catch" and tosses his jersey to the child, then walking away with a smile on his face. It added to the idea that "Coke adds Life" which was the slogan before this ad, and also brought in the new wave of advertising "Have a Coke and Smile." Greene does just that in this TV ad, which won multiple awards and is considered to be one of the best TV ads of all time. It took three days to film this advertisement, and Greene himself had to consume about 16 Cokes in different takes. This TV ad tells a story from beginning to end, which is one of the reasons why it is so popular. It is a story that surrounds Coke, and illustrates how a Coke can make any person's day.
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In 1985, the Coca-Cola company tried to go in a new direction with Coke, and introduced "New Coke" which had a different taste that even "helped it go down more quickly" as stated in the ad below. However, the public really disliked New Coke. It was so bad for sales that the company had to bring back the old formula, which the introduced as "Coca-Cola Classic." Now, there were two different kinds of Coca-Cola, and therefore, two different campaigns. The first ad above shows how the company had to advertise two different drinks at once, with the "classic" being traditional and slow, while the "new coke" was quicker,cooler, and more upbeat- you could order it by the case! The second TV spot includes the music group "New Edition," with a more cheerful jingle and attitude, to try and get more people to buy it. The last clip above shows a different advertisement style, by comparing "New Coke" to it's competition: Pepsi. The simple ad advocates that people prefer the taste of New Coke over Pepsi, possibly that in hopes of saying it to the masses, it might come true.
The slogan in 1986 for Coca-Cola was "Red, White, and You" and the ad on the left is a perfect example of the idea it was trying to sell. "Red, White, and You" plays off the rhythm of "Red, White, and Blue" which are USA's national colors. In the photograph, the 1980's American dream is illustrated: dog by your side, nice big car, and being happy. This photo ad also appeals to consumers who are part of the working class, or have "blue collared" careers, as the model in the photo is wearing blue jeans and a blue collared shirt. Most of the colors used in the ad as a whole are red, white, and blue, which further promotes the American idea of Coke's advertising.
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Coca-Cola continues to make their products more marketable and consumable to it's customers, and this era was no exception. The image on the left is the one of the first aluminum cans introduced in 1960. It is important to note how a graphic of the bottle can also be seen on the can, as if to illustrate to consumers that it is still the same product, just in a different shape. The second image was one of the first produced when the Coca-Cola company got the bottle itself trademarked in 1977. The contour bottle has made a lot of leaps to become what it was in that day, and it became easy to identify the product of Coke with the shape of the bottle alone. By that time, almost 99% of Americans could see a Coke bottle without it's label, and know it was a Coke product. The trademark helped make sure that no other cola could copy Coke's design and consumers.