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Kaylan Huff
George M. Sean
English 1010D 03
30 September 2015
Soda Pop Advertisements
Many companies advertise through commercials on television, billboards, magazines,
newspapers, radio, and even online. Everyday people are not knowingly being bombarded with
advertisements. Each advertisement uses multiple strategies to persuade the reader into buy their
product or service. More than half the time an advertisement is more than just the companys
logo slapped on a page in a magazine. Companies behind their advertisements have truly thought
in and outside of the box on what feelings, words, pictures, colors, and people they want to show
the world. Over time the world discovered the importance behind advertisement and how to
become experts at selling their products.
Advertisements such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola,
Mountain Dew, and Sprite have all used
celebrity endorsement, weasel words, slogans,
and decorative themes to persuade readers into
buying their products.
The young actress, Sofia Vergara, is used
to advertise the new skinny can in a Diet
Pepsi product. She portrays a young, slender
woman just as the Diet Pepsi can also is. The
first thing that comes to mind when seeing this

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advertisement is how much the company used the color blue. Sofia is wearing a blue hat and
dress, the word new is emphasized in blue writing, and the background setting is also the color
blue. Other noticeable features on this advertisement are the bright red lipstick she is wearing
which matches the red in the Pepsi logo, and the color white has a glow on her hat as well as the
reflection of the can. These features are all based around the color of the Pepsi product to point
out what they are advertising. This advertisement also focuses on the new can the product is in
which is ironic because the product itself isnt bettered in anyway, as a matter of fact the Pepsi
can is just skinnier. In the article With These Words I Can Sell You Anything, William Lutz
points out the injustice of putting the word new in an advertisement.

Some products have been around for a long time, yet every once in
a while you discover that they are being advertised as new. Well,
an advertiser can call a product new if there has been a material
functional change in the product (65).

The last strategy used in this advertisement was celebrity endorsement. The advertisement wants
the reader to believe that if they drink Diet Pepsi they will be young, beautiful, and skinny just as
Sofia Vergara shows.
Another soda pop advertisement found online was the New MDX Mountain Dew energy
drink. This advertisement demonstrates a use of weasel words as well as different parts of the
picture to grab the readers attention. The first thing that catches the eye is the lime green color
used on the background picture and the words placed at the top and bottom left of the ad. When
using the same color scheme as the product being sold it shows the person reading the

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advertisement this is a Mountain Dew product. As a coincidence, this advertisement uses the
same colors of the product just as the Pepsi advertisement had done as
well. The new MDX Mountain Dew product claims to give great
energy as well as great taste. Focusing the reader to the energy part of
the product they

use the word Nocturnal at the bottom left corner of the page, they

have an owl and a

moon for the background picture to go along with the word

Nocturnal, and it also states at the top At 4 A.M. every golf
course is Public. This advertisements target audience is most
likely for individuals the age of 18 and up wanting to stay up late. They

also refer to golfing in the advertisement which most men a little bit more mature enjoy. On the
bottom left corner of the ad in smaller writing it does use the word introducing which is a
weasel word, words that persuade the reader into buying the product. Overall this advertisement
gives off a great feeling that this product will help give
energy to stay up all night or day.
The next advertisement is selling the new Diet
Sprite Zero. The picture shown is a bottle with soda
splashing up to the top of the page. Over the bottle is the
words Diet Sprite Zero in watery font similar to the soda
being poured out of the bottle. The background is white,
and the colors of the original Sprite are faded around the
words Diet Sprite Zero and in the word introducing.
One of the main features in the advertisement is the slogan Nothing is Lighter Than Zero.
Companies use slogans for many reasons behind advertising. Slogans, if catchy, will stay in the

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readers head making them think about the product more, they will persuade the reader into
buying the product, and they also explain the product being advertised. It states at the bottom
Diet Sprite Zero has 0 carbs, 0 caffeine, and 0 sugars. The sprite slogan Nothing is Lighter Than
Zero, is used to portray how much better this product is than other soda pops. Even though there
are other substances in this product that are not healthy they only advertise the part they want the
reader to see. Stated in the article The Hard Sell: Advertising in America, Bill Bryson clarifies
how effective slogans can be even though they can be falsely stated.

The great thing about a slogan was it didnt have to be accurate to

be effective. Heinz never actually had 57 varieties of anything.
The catch phrase arose simply because H.J. Heinz, the companys
founder, decided he liked the sound of the number (124).

The advertisement for Coca-Cola uses a decretive Christmas theme to grab the attention
of multiple readers. In the middle of the advertisement a glass of ice cold Coca-Cola is placed
with a red ribbon and a mistletoe around it. The words at the bottom of the advertisement also
connect to the Christmas feeling the company gives off by explaining why Coca-Cola can
brighten the holidays spirit.

When the necktie-handkerchief-fruitcake buying starts to get to

you, put a holiday smile on your face with the real refreshing taste
in a glass of Coke. For 84 years Coca-Cola has brightened the

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holiday season better than any other soft drink. Thats one reason
they call it the real thing.

Coca-Cola advertises to many audiences, but this ad in particular is calling out all older
audiences that need a break from the stressful holiday. Christmas may be a thrilling holiday for
children, but for the older generation there is a

lot

of tiring work to be done. The ad wants the

readers to think of the refreshing taste of a
drink after a long day of the holidays. This
advertisement uses a holiday to portray their
product in a positive way as well as a clever
catch phrase to go along with it.
Behind many great advertisements lies

riddle of words that persuades the reader into

buying the product known as weasel words.
Companies like Pepsi, Sprite, Mountain Dew, and Coca-Cola selling their products have the right
to add false slogans, celebrity appearances, weasel words, a special theme, and anything else to
help lure their readers into their advertisements. One way that helps people understand the main
purpose behind the ad is by using critical thinking. Before giving into an advertisement and
thinking Hey, this is really cool! I need to buy this! stop and think about how this product will
be needed in ones life. Most of the time advertisements have a way of making people think they
need the product in order to look, feel, or be the way they want to be. People need to realize that
silly advertisements that draw attention to the eye will not always be needed in their lives.

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Works Cited

Sofia Vergara. Diet Pepsi Advertisement. Digital Image. Google Images. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.

MDX. Mountain Dew Advertisement. Digital Image. Google Images. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.

Diet Sprite Zero. Sprite Advertisement. Digital Image. Google Images. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.

Its is the real thing. Coke. Coca-Cola Advertisement. Digital Image. Google Images. Web. 1
Oct. 2015.

Bryson, Bill. The Hard Sell: Advertising in America. Reading Pop Culture. A Portable
Anthology. Ed. Jeff Ousborne. Boston. Bedford St. Martins, 2013. 120-35. Print.

Lutz, William. With These Words I Can Sell You Anything. Reading Pop Culture. A Portable
Anthology. Ed. Jeff Ousborne. Boston. Bedford St. Martins, 2013. 62-70. Print.