How happy does Coca Cola make you? According to their commercial, Coca Cola can change your mind with just a sip. It will get you in a good mood within the minute. It relates a simple bottle of soda to family using background music as a form of presence from the audience. The commercial uses strong family values. It is an example of the everyday struggle ordinary parents’ deals with. The Coca Cola commercial is persuading their audience to buy their product through pathos and ethos. Although Coca Cola is unhealthy for your body, they are also setting a positive example of family values, and it also presents that Coca Cola is the “go to” when you are having a bad day.

Pathos is used throughout the whole commercial. The background music played is cheery and jazzy to engage the audience. It is played so that the audience it is intended for can watch carefully and be convinced that the product is right for them. The music affects people’s perception of the mood because it helps people feel as if they are there in the moment. The cheery jazz music reflects this because the commercial wants to make you feel happy for the couple, so for people to feel that way they added music that reveals the couple’s emotion.

Another use of pathos is when the couple is excited to have a baby, but as the years go by find out how stressful it is. The parents show they do not have anytime time to themselves and cannot work without being disturbed. When the wife finds out she is pregnant, she does not know how to tell the husband, so she gives him a Coca Cola and tells him the news. The husband jumps up from excitement. The emotions in the commercial engage the viewers in because their acting helps you understand what they are going through. It helps you feel a connection toward them and comprehend their feelings. These examples draw to the conclusion that Coca Cola wants the audience to know that it can help you see things in a positive way because they are proposing it can calm people down in tough situations.

My family is a good example of this. My mom is a big fan of Coca Cola. It became a habitual thing. She drinks it once every weekend because she says it helps her feel calm. I realize it has a dramatic effect. My siblings and I joke about whenever her mood is not so nice she needs  a Coca Cola. She usually drinks it every Saturday morning to get her in a great mood for the rest of the day. Some people might say it is all in the head because there is no proven fact that Coca Cola improves your mood, but it does not matter because that is what Coca Cola is promoting. It is promoting that it can change your mood and makes you feel happy. This commercial is supposed to make you feel comforted by the fact that if you buy their Coca Cola people will be covered for happiness.

In addition to pathos, another example is the importance of family. Family values are used throughout the commercial when the parents get thrilled they are having another child. It illustrates how much the parents are struggling entering the parenthood life but it is not stopping them from being happy. Coca Cola is the “go to” when people are having an awful day. It is what they drink to feel better and calm. In the future when the parents think about the past, they are going to think of that day they found they were pregnant and they will think about the way the wife told the husband the news. The couple will think about how before receiving the news the husband drank a Coca Cola to feel calm and happy about it. This will affect the audience because if they are viewing how families go through rough times they will come to the conclusion that they are not alone and it is possible to get through difficult times. This connects back to the purpose why Coca Cola made this commercial, to show family values and how Coca Cola is the “go to” when having a bad day.

Ethos is also used throughout the commercial. The commercial is for everyone. They did not use any celebrities because this commercial is intended for ordinary people. They explain that many people go through parenthood and if these people who are ordinary can do it then people like them can too. The audience is aimed towards anyone who can relate to the story being told. If a celebrity was used for this commercial it would be different because they would have all kinds of help, as in they are able to afford nannies. Celebrities are able to hire people (financially) to support them with difficulties.

The commercial uses strong family values. It demonstrates how much family matters because even though the parents struggled, they were not disappointed with the news. They were happy to be having another child, but people would expect the opposite. Celebrities not featuring in the commercial shows how much the commercial cares about the viewers because when celebrities are used to promote products people think if a celebrity is using that it means it must work. This is why ordinary people are used in this commercial, so the audience can relate to them. If see a celebrity in a commercial, I usually think it is only for promotion. I think about why they are showing celebrities and what I come to conclude is that they want publicity and the commercial wants the audience to be convinced that if a celebrity is using the product, the product must be good.

However, Coca Cola is still a soda and is very unhealthy. The Coca Cola commercial only shows the good things about it because they want you to buy the product. The commercial does not say the facts about how unhealthy it is because they are afraid of the outcomes, so they manipulate the audience into only seeing what they want the audience to know. Some examples of why Coca Cola is bad for you would be, “The carbonation in Coke causes calcium loss in the bones through a 3 stage process” explains the article by Collective Evolution or how “drinking a can of Coke is equivalent to dumping 10 teaspoons of sugar, which is 100 percent more than the recommended daily intake” (One Can of Coca Cola). If the commercial mentioned this or any other negative fact, they would not sell. The people who made this commercial know how to convince the audience. In the article “With These Words I Can Sell You Anything” by William Lutz, clarifies how with certain words, “weasel words,” people are able to sell anything because all the consumers see or hear is words like new, better, improved, works like magic, and etc. This manipulates consumers because it catches their attention and the consumers automatically think it is a better product. This is used in the commercial even though they did not speak because they are still only showing the audience what they want to see and not all the facts. Although it is unhealthy, the product is still helping people in a positive way because it is helping people feel calm and happy.

Therefore, the Coca Cola commercial is encouraging the audience to buy their product through pathos and ethos. It is showing that ordinary people go through parenthood struggles and drinking Coca Cola can make your life easier, as previously stated Coca Cola is the “go to”

when you are having an awful day. The music and the rollercoaster of emotions being demonstrated is an example of pathos. Ordinary people being used in the commercial and not celebrities is an example of ethos. The commercial is relating a simple bottle of Coca Cola to family. All in all, the Coca cola commercial is presenting their product in a positive way through

promotes the importance of family.

Works Cited

20 Practical Uses FOR Coca Cola- Proof That Coke Does Not Belong In The Human Body.” Collective-Evolution Web. 22 September 2013.

Dr. Marie, Rina “One Can of Coca Cola.” Tech Times. Web. 01 Aug 2015 .

Orenstein, Peggy. “I Tweet, Therefore I Am.” What Matters in America, Ed. Gary Goshgarian.

3rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2012. 40-43. Print.

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