Coco-Cola Vintage Ad
Elizabeth Hamilton
Professor Smith
Devry University
March 28, 2014

Coco-Cola Vintage Ad Throughout its history Coco-Cola has always managed to use advertising as a powerful tool to create that special atmosphere in the minds of consumers that differentiates Coco-Cola from just some generic cola. In the past it was also extremely effective in advertising its product gaining a lot of market share and getting to the top of the market in terms of sales. The essay analyzes a vintage advertisement according to the rhetorical appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos and notes that Coco-Cola effectively uses appeals to authority, logic and emotions to make Coke a lifestyle, not just a drink. The vintage ad analyzed in the essay is a print ad that features the title Coco-Cola and the following text “Is a delightful palatable healthful beverage. It relives fatigue and is indispensable for business and professional men, students, wheelmen, athletes. It relieves mental and physical exhaustion. Is the favorite drink for ladies when thirsty, weary, despondent… Sold in bottles and at soda fountains for 5 cents. Newest refreshing drink in the world”. Clearly, the ad has many claims that nowadays would be consider illegal, inappropriate and simply false, yet back in the days, it was an example of what marketing was about : selling it at all cost even if it meant lying to the consumers. Although, to be fair, many other things, like heroine, morphine, cocaine and LSD were considered healthy and palatable and recommended by doctors, therefore, marketing Coco-Cola as a healthful is not such a big evil in relative terms. Even though, nowadays, people are used to ads that attempt to engage consumer’s emotions and offer new experience, this ad from the past greatly appeals to logic. Yes, the claims are false and customers are deceived, but the ad markets Coke as