REPRESENTATION OF COCA COLA AS AMERICAN …

Benita Amalina — Representation of Coca Cola as American Multicultural Icon in the TV Advertisement America is Beautiful

REPRESENTATION OF COCA COLA AS AMERICAN MULTICULTURAL ICON INTHE TV ADVERTISEMENT AMERICA IS BEAUTIFUL

Benita [email protected]

Abstract

On February 2, 2014, Coca Cola released a new television advertisement titled “America is Beautiful”during Super Bowl event. The advertisement shows American multicultural families having a good timetogether. What makes this advertisement different from the previous ones, is the usage of a patriotic songAmerica is Beautiful as the musical background. This research examines how Coca Cola as a brandrepresents the multicultural America through this advertisement. The result shows that it is affected by thehistorical values and the fact that the CEO of Coca Cola blatantly advertise multicultural America byencouraging and supporting the immigrants.

Keywords: Advertisement, popular culture, multiculturalism, immigrants

INTRODUCTION

Advertisement is one of the priority marketingstrategy to promote certain products, as it hasbeen an effective commodity to reach out to newconsumers. In United States, the emergence ofadvertisement started out in the eighteenthcentury when the American people were stilldependent to British consumer products—porcelain, furniture, musical instruments—inwhich it usually showed persuasive appealsaccompanied with dry descriptions on a paper.1

After they gained independence and theeconomic power rised along with the evolvingtechnology, the forms of advertisement alsodeveloped into many types of audio-visual.Audio visual communications, in terms oftelevision broadcast advertisement is one of themost effective and powerful medium to spreadand promote a product, and also to campaignsomething.

1 Daniel Pope, “Making Sense ofAdvertisements”, History Matters: The U.S.Survey on the Web

Coca-Cola, as the biggest beverage company inthe world from United States, has also beenoptimizing the use of advertisements to promoteits product. With a handful of professionals intheir marketing team, Coca-Cola made asignificant change within their advertisementwith not only promoting its product, but alsodelivering ‘implied’ message. Coca-Cola hasbeen the most popular icon of soda beverages,and it has been producing numerous campaignswithin their marketing strategy with ‘catchy’slogans, including ‘America’s Real Choice’,‘Open Happiness’, or ‘Life Begins Here’. As acommercial company, their main objective is toobtain profits as much as possible and suchslogans are created to reach out broader marketand possible new consumers. However, suchcampaigns did affect the society, as Coca-Colahas become the ‘icon of togetherness’ and it’sprevalent to find the product on the tablewhenever a gathering occurred. Coca-Cola isn’tmerely a beverage product, it grew as a cultureand a lifestyle, in which most people would buyand follow the trend created by the productwithout question.

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mailto:[email protected]

RUBIKON Volume 1 / Number 2September 2014

As the popularity of the product grows bigger—with international offices in more than 200countries—Coca-Cola also transcends into notjust a beverage product, but also an Americanicon. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola released a newtelevision titled “America is Beautiful”, whichfeatured Americans with multi-ethnic figures. Aspreviously being famous of creatingadvertisement that ‘challenges racialboundaries’, this time Coca-Cola seems to takeit to a whole new level by showing that thisproduct belongs to the country that celebratespeople of the world. In another word, theproduct Coca-Cola here is seen as representingan ‘American icon’. This paper examines abouthow Coca-Cola implies a lot of meanings withinits newest television advertisement; especiallythe multicultural America.

METHODOLOGY

Representation is an essential part of the processby which meaning is produced and exchangedbetween members of culture (Hall, 1997, p. 15).One of the most common ways to representcertain concept is by describing or depicting itwithin a portrayal or imagination, which will bethe main theme of this paper. The meaning that’sfundamentally underlying the main conceptcarries certain value that is constructed by theproducers or makers of the concept to begrasped by their targets of objects. The processis structurally explained by Saussure, in whichhe divided the language of representation intosignifier and signified.

Signifier, the first element of the sign, refers towhat we actually see—it’s the actual product.This signifier will imply a certain concept oridea within our heads, which defines and givesmeaning to it, called the signified. Althoughthese might seem to be two separate entities,they exist only as components of the sign whichis the central fact of language (Culler, 1976, p.

19). Saussure also argues that signs are“members of a system and are defined inrelation to the other members of that system”—for example, it is hard to define the meaning of‘father’ except in relation to, and in terms of itsdifference from other kinship terms, like‘mother’, ‘daughter’, ‘son’, and so on (Hall,1997, p. 31). However, the relation betweensignifier and signified are arbitrary as it isn’tpermanently fixed and it can historically change.The change can be seen within an evolvement ofcertain culture, which has certain historicalmoment causing the culture to have differentpoint of view compared to another. According toSaussure:

Language sets up an arbitrary relationbetween signifiers of its own choosingon the one hand, and signifieds of itsown choosing on the other. Not onlydoes each language produce a differentset of signifiers, articulating anddividing the continuum of sound (orwriting or drawing or photography) in adistinctive way; each language producesa different set of signifieds, it has adistinctive and thus arbitrary way oforganizing the world into concepts andcategories. (Culler, 1976, p. 23)

The change of the relation of signifier andsignified makes it possible for audience (orviewer or reader) to interpret different meaningsand not exactly what has been given by theproducer. This is also included within thehistorical process of interpretation of a certainproduct, and this is where audience takesimportant part to prove that “signs which havenot been intelligibly received and interpreted arenot, in any useful sense, ‘meaningful’” (Hall,1997, p. 33). To communicate the certainmeaning itself, Saussure divides language intotwo parts; the underlying rule-governedstructure of language, which enables us toproduce well-formed sentences, the langue; and

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particular acts of speaking or writing or drawing[…] produced by the actual speaker or drawercalled the parole (Culler, 1976, p. 29).According to Saussure’s structure schema, “eachauthored statement only becomes possiblebecause the ‘author’ shares with other language-users the common rules and codes of thelanguage system – the langue – which allowsthem to communicate with each othermeaningfully (Hall, 1997, p. 34).

For this paper, the signifier and the signified willbe derived from the television advertisement“America is Beautiful”, in which Coca-Cola,isn’t merely a beverage product but also conveysanother signified meaning or concept; anAmerican icon. The term icon here means three-dimensional objects which are visible, concreteembodiments of the myths, beliefs, and valueswhich form a culture’s mindset—in short, icon isthe tangible shape to invisible ideas (Nachbar &Lause, 1992, pp. 170-171). This icon has threemain characteristics; a) they are all objects, b)express important popular beliefs and values,and c) convey “magical” powers upon theirdefining group (Nachbar & Lause, 1992, p.172). Furthermore, Nachbar & Lause also dividethe icons into six main categories; a) purepersonal icons, b) functional personal icons, c)pure local icons, d) functional local icons, e)pure cultural icons, and f) functional culturalicons. This paper will focus more on the lastcategory, functional cultural icons, as they have

[…] an exceedingly complex process(and the movement is not unilateral) butwhat is important is that we recognizethat icons in created environments canhelp us in understanding the meaningand appeal of both the story form ofwhich they are a part and of the icon’sreal-life counterpart. Functional culturalicons from television […] have gainedsuch formal acceptance as importantbarometers of cultural myths, beliefs,

values, and tastes […] (Nachbar &Lause, 1992, p. 175)

AMERICAN ICONS IN POPULAR CULTURE

In particular, this paper will examine a specificcultural icon called ‘American icon’, which isnot just merely an icon, but an icon withunderlying American values. Nachbar & Lauseexplains that the essential element of Americanbeliefs and values are that of “significantconflict or complexity which runs throughoutthe history and evolution of the Americancultural mindset” (Nachbar & Lause, 1992, p.176). Furthermore, Nachbar & Lause examinesthe contradiction within the underlying ideals ofindividual freedom and democracy.

One way to study an American icon,therefore, is to examine the object todetermine how it may express this vitalconflict between the competing ideals ofindividual freedom and democracy.(Nachbar & Lause, 1992, p. 177)

There’s a significant disconnection betweenthese two ideas, in which the individual freedomalways attributed to the independent movement,power, and identity; while democracy oftenleads to collective responsibility, stability,citizenship, and majority rule (1992, p. 176).These ideas are what reflected within the so-called American products or American icons;they are democratic because they are massproduced and made equally available for all, andthey are also the expression of individualfreedom as well, because they are marketed assigns of individual identities. One of theexample mentioned in the book is the productionof cars.

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In the course of examining cars as anicon balancing individual freedom anddemocracy, for example, it is quitelikely that we will also see that oneaspect of that freedom is defined in theAmerican values associated withmobility and discovery, and one aspectof that democracy is expressed in theway cars often bind families togetherand help maintain vital elements of ruralsimplicity in modern life. (Nachbar &Lause, 1992, p. 177)

Upon studying and analyzing the Americanicons, Nachbar and Lause offer five groups ofinquiries to examine the object thoroughly; 1)appearance of the icon, 2) history of the icon, 3)evolutionary change of the icon, 4) iconic group,and 5) exploitation of the icon. The first inquiryis determined solely from the physicalappearance of the object—it could be the shape,color, and size. Second inquiry, the object oricon can be examined through how it developsfrom the very first creation, including thedescription of what kind of culturalcircumstances that helped shape the icon to besignificant. These cultural circumstances can bederived from the representation of importantvalues in myths or beliefs. Third, evolutionarychange of the icon revolves around the alterationthrough the year or generation. Nachbar andLause point out that the more evolving the iconis, then the more it implies the increasingindividual freedom values in it. Fourth, theiconic group, is particularly the society thatfavor the icon. Every object or icon has its owndemographic charateristics, whether it’s by age,sex, class, region, etc. The last one, exploitationof the icon, basically about the significance ofthe icon itself; including what makes the icon soappealing to the audience.

The creation of American popular icons is themore visible and concrete form of permeation

the aforementioned ideas and values, as they areexpressed into artifacts that bind people togetherby “displaying people’s similarities as well asthe individual selves”. The work of Americanicons is basically as the anchors which “permit acuture to float on the shifting currents ofchange” (Nachbar & Lause, 1992, p. 178)because it will perpetually be created andproduced even in different generations with thesame underlying ideas and values.

DISCUSSION

As the biggest beverage company in the world,Coca-Cola has sold over 3,500 productsworldwide in more than 200 countries. In 2012alone, Coca-Cola company obtained $9 billionnet profit, and in the same year, Interbrandranked it as the Most Valuable Company withS77.8 billion value. In terms of advertising andcreative marketing, the company also received alot of recognition. Cannes Lions, the biggestaward shows for creativity in communications,awarded the company as Creative Marketer ofthe Year in 2013 from its various televisioncommercials; “Share a Coke”, “Coca-Cola FMAmplifier”, “Coca-Cola Share a Can”, “MillionReasons to Believe in Thailand”, and “SmallWorld Machine”. This company truly has apositive track record as it always showstradition, creativity, and optimism in every of itstelevision advertisement—which alsocontributes to boost the actual selling numbersof the beverage product.

Jonathan Mildenhall, the Vice President ofCoca-Cola’s Global Advertising and ContentExcellence, explained how this company hasbeen contributing to promote social goodswithin their marketing strategy—particularlyvisual communication—since 1970s. Althoughthe commercials are seemingly inspiring andinnocent, they were mostly consideredprovocative in each period which they were

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released. Straddling boundaries and challengingracial prejudice are two of the nine main valuesof Coca-Cola’s advertisements, and this isparticularly why they frequently employedmulticultural figures within their commercials.Mildenhall further stated that as a powerfulcompany, Coca-Cola has the opportunity andresponsibility to create a significant change inthe world.

Earlier this year on February 2, 2014, Coca-Coladebuted a teaser of their new televisioncommercial, “America is Beautiful”, during thebroadcast of America’s National FootballLeague biggest tournament, Super Bowl XLVIII.The 60-seconds commercial teaser showsvarious ethnic groups gather with their relativesor companions, with patriotic song “America theBeautiful” sung in the background with variouslanguages. The commercial was initially made tobe broadcasted during Sochi 2014 Olympics, inwhich Coca-Cola has been taking part as apartner and supporting Olympic Movementsince 1928. As it was originally aimed forworldwide audience, seeing the commercialfrom the perspective of the global citizen showshow the product symbolizes ‘togetherness’ andbreaks the multicultural boundaries. This is themain underlying idea that Coca-Cola in thisadvertisement is not just an American beverageproduct, but transforming into an American iconwhich represents the equality for all, bydisplaying people with multicultural ethnicitieshaving a great time in America.

COCA-COLA AS AN AMERICAN MULTICULTURAL ICON IN “AMERICA IS BEAUTIFUL”

The transformation of Coca-Cola into anAmerican icon in this commercial is the processof representation and is explained with thesemiotic theory, where the advertisement wasseen through two main structures, signifier and

signified. The signifiers here were derived fromevery scene in the “America is Beautiful”advertisement, while the signified meaningswere examined through the main five inquiriesas described by Nachbar and Lause, and furthermaking a coherence and relevance with theunderlying contradictive American values,democracy and individual freedom.

The first step was to see the product through itsappearance. The famous countour-shaped Coca-Cola bottle is designed by The Root GlassCompany of Indiana.2 It is designed asdistinctive as possible to help the product “standout from other drinks”, and that the design ismade profoundly to make it “recognizable” evenin the dark and when it’s already broken. The‘distinctiveness’ here is relevant as to theconcept of American exceptionalism, a conceptthat was first brought by puritan John Winthropin his sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity” inMassachusetts back in 1630. It was the start ofthe establishment of puritans in the NewEngland, and Winthrop delivered his sermon ona ship, telling his followers that the new placethey were going to live in is a “city upon a hill”.3

Winthrop’s preach then had permeated throughthe nation, giving the people a new belief thatAmerica is the “God’s country”, as the term“city upon a hill” connotatively means thatAmerica is in “the highest position”, which laterleads to the emergence of Americanexceptionalism. This idea has been lived upthrough the generation, for example, during a

2 The Coca-Cola Company, “Who designed thedistinctive Coca-Cola bottle?”, Coca-ColaOfficial Website. Accessed from:http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/faq/heritage/who-designed-the-distinctive-coca-cola-bottle.html

3 John Winthrop, “A Model of ChristianCharity”. Accessed from:http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/charity.html

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speech in Massachusetts, former president JohnF. Kennedy cited Winthrop’s famous metaphor.4

Kennedy further elaborates that United States ofAmerica have “the eyes of all people” uponthem, a country “constructed and inhabited bymen aware of their great trust and their greatresponsibilities”.

In relation to the distinctive shape of Coca-Cola,it is clear that the product had wanted to be seendifferent—or, exceptional—than other products.The “contour bottle” shape, with its ridged glass,bowed middle, and unmistakable curve appeal5,is so iconic even in the sillhouette people wouldrecognize that it’s Coca-Cola. Before they cameup with the idea of this shape, Coca-Colaalready had many imitators with the identicalnames—as Coca-Cola’s company historian PhilMooney explained, there was Cheracola, DixieCola, Cocanola—and that the customers weren’ttoo aware about ‘which one is the real product’.After the company upgraded the product into thecontour shape, Coca-Cola has become so uniqueand people could identify it easily. The fact thatthey had ‘imitators’ it means that Coca-Cola wasthe pioneer of beverage product that becamewidely successful. All eyes were on this product,and they saw how it became commerciallyprofitable, thus they deliberately produced the‘imitation’ to make profit for themselves as well.In the end, Coca-Cola is still exceptionally

4 John F. Kennedy’s address delivered to JointConvention of General Court of Commonwealthof Massachusetts on January 9, 1961; from thearchive of JFK Library. Accessed from:http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/OYhUZE2Qo0-ogdV7ok900A.aspx

5 Mark Strassmann, “The real thing: Coke’siconic bottle” (22 July 2012), CBS News.Accessed from:http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-real-thing-cokes-iconic-bottle/

powerful even in its physical form, becausepeople will immediately identify it easily.

Picture 1. A blurred shape of Coca-Cola stamped ina cork glass

Picture 2. A bottle of Coca-Cola in the woman’shand with the brand label obscured by her hand

From the two images above, which are thescreencapped version from the scenes in“America is Beautiful” television advertisment;the product is shown in a not-obvious way. Inthe first image, there are two little girls enjoyinga movie in a cinema, but the person next to them—presumably their relatives—is carrying a largecork glass with the sillhouette of Coca-Colabottle on it. In the second image, a woman issitting in her truck, carrying a bottle of Coca-Cola with her hand obscuring the label. Evenwhen the text of the brand, “Coca-Cola” isnowhere in sight, we need no time to find out

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that they are indeed carrying the product, andthat the cork glass is filled with the product. Itshows how even the shape alone is alreadyexceptionally remarkable, and recognizedworldwide.

The second inquiry requires an explanationabout the history of the icon, which in thisresearch is merged with the third inquiry,evolutionary change in the icon, as the twoelements are significantly related. “America isBeautiful” is not the first televisionadvertisement from Coca-Cola which depictsmulticultural ethnicities in United States. Eversince the company has received worldwiderecognition in the 1960s, including theestablishment of Coca-Cola in other globalplaces such as Cambodia, Montserrat, Paraguay,Macau, and Turkey6; there was a drift in howCoca-Cola made its television advertisement. Inthe 1970s, Coca-Cola started to make a shift inbroadening its international appeal. Still stickingwith the idea of reflecting fun, companionship(friends), and enjoying the togetherness (goodtimes), Coca-Cola remarkable embodied theuniversal joy in 1971 commercial, “I’d Like toBuy the World a Coke”. The advertisementshowed people with various ethnicities gatheredon top of a hill in Italy.

6 The Coca-Cola Company, “The History ofCoca-Cola: 1960-1981”, Coca-Cola OfficialWebsite. Accessed from: http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/about-us/history-of-coca-cola-1960-1981.html

Picture 3. Multicultural figures carrying a bottle ofCoca-Cola in “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”

television advertisement, released in 1971

Despite not being filmed in United States, thiscommercial has a similar idea to that of“America is Beautiful”. As the very latestcampaign of Coca-Cola company in 2014, it hasa wide range of 57 years from theaforementioned commercial. And in the 57years, Coca-Cola has been evolving to a biggerand bigger company internationally, with a moresignificant codification that it’s already anAmerican icon. The shifting of values fromCoca-Cola as a beverage that is enjoyed byAmerican people, to the beverage that is enjoyedby international multicultural people, and finallya beverage enjoyed by multicultural people whospecifically live in America signify the perpetualevolvement of this popular product. In relevanceto Nachbar and Lause’s concept of Americanicon, Coca-Cola wasn’t only increased inmarketing manner, but the fact that it is nowenjoyed by a wider and larger number of peoplefrom all around the world, it shows that it wasalso increased in terms of the fundamentalAmerican values, individual freedom anddemocracy. The product is mass produced(specifically, globally produced) for any kind ofpeople—thus everyone can enjoy it. This alsoputs a significant element to the fourth inquiry,iconic group or demographic groups, in whichCoca-Cola can now be examined in a broaderdemographic characteristics from all ages, sexes,classes, regions, and ethnicities; with the factthat the company has placed its internationaloffices in more than 200 countries.

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Picture 4. A Mexican family enjoying the meal in arestaurant with Coca-Cola as their main drink.

Picture 5. A group of young people with variousethnicities (which features African-American boy,Asian-American girl) playing around in front of a

large wall with “Coca-Cola” written on it.

Picture 6-7. A Filipino-American family swimmingand plays a game of collecting Coca-Cola bottle

caps beneath the pool.

The last inquiry, the exploitation of the icon, isderived from what makes this product soappealing and what is the ‘magical power’attached to the icon. From the televisionadvertisement “America Is Beautiful”, themagical power is of course how Coca-Colasymbolically binds the people together in theirgood times, even when it’s only featured as adecoration on a wall. Also, the people featuredin this advertisement are that of variousethnicities. As aforementioned in the opening ofthis chapter, ‘straddling boundaries andchallenging racial prejudice’ is one of the keyconcept in making almost all Coca-Colaadvertisement. After its release during SuperBowl, the company released the advertisementinternationally on YouTube, in which theyannounced through their Twitter account withthe following introduction: “The only thingmore beautiful than this country are the peoplewho live here.”7 As it mentioned “people who

7 Coca-Cola official Twitter account (February2, 2014), accessed from:https://twitter.com/CocaCola/status/430140839763783680

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live here”, it indicates that all multiculturalfigures shown in the commercial are indeedAmericans. The commercial tried to live up tothe fundamental idea of how America is amulticultural country, just the same as the Coca-Cola company which has been led by a Turkish-American, Muhtar Kent.

Muhtar Kent publicly supports the immigrationreform, and wrote an open letter to USA Todayon February 23, 2013, titled “Immigrationreform good for business”. Kent, whose fatherwas a Turkey’s consul general for United Stateswhen he was born in New York, shared hisviewpoints about how immigration is anessential part of the growth calculus for thecountry. Kent stated how the fortunes of 500companies in United States were started byimmigrants, including the company he’s beenworking for since 1978. Kent took an exampleof the former Coca-Cola Company CEO,Roberto Goizueta, a Cuban native who’s underhis leadership; Coca-Cola eventually obtainedits top American corporation status by creatingvacancies and billions of shareholder value. Asthe leading country in the world, Kent propelledthat United States has the opportunity topromote immigration reform beyond borders,and tried to define the fundamental problem ofthis reform, which is protectionism. Kentaddressed that international organization, suchas G-20, United Nations, and World TradeOrganization to advance immigration issue intheir upcoming summit and meetings.

In his letter, Kent propositioned United States tobe more open especially to the immigrants withhigh competency as they would likely tocontribute in the country’s economic growth.However, the immigration reform is stillrequired as the current policy is still a restraintfor the immigrants. Kent briefly mentioned howimmigrants still need to face complicatedbureaucracy and ‘outdated regulations’, and thisis one of the main causes why illegal immigrants

(or how he wrote it, ‘undocumented’immigrants) are prominent in United States. Inthe other hand, Kent also indirectly encouragednon-US citizens whose dream is to make a livingin America. As an immigrant himself, he wrotehe was lucky that his family made it easier forhim to acquire the American citizenship, but byreforming the immigration policy, Kent washoping that everyone will have the same chance.

Kent’s values are also coherent to the published“values of Coke” by the company in the pressrelease of “America is Beautiful” commercial.According to the press release, the newcommercial reinforces the spread of optimism,promotes inclusion, and celebrates humanity.8

Katie Bayne, the president of Coca-Cola NorthAmerica stated, “Our ad provides a snapshot ofthe real lives of Americans representing diverseethnicities, religions, races, and families [...] Webelieve “It’s Beautiful” is a great example of themagic that makes our country so special, and apowerful message that spreads optimism,promotes inclusion, and celebrates humanity —values that are core to Coca-Cola.” These valueswere also reflected as the commercial used “epluribus unum” as the title in its online releasevideo on Youtube, which is the Latin phraseincluded in the Great Seal of United States andalso appears on coins and currency. This phrasewas also considered as the national motto until1956. “E pluribus unum” literally means ‘out ofmany, one’ but usually rephrased ‘one frommany’, and it refers to the thirteen colonies thatjoined together to form a single nation of UnitedStates. 9 The meaning, however, evolved throughthe years, that the unification of United Statescame from people with various races/ ethnicities,religions, languages, and ancestries.10 The lattermeaning is more relevant to what “America isBeautiful” attempts to represent, that America is

8 Journey Staff, “America is Beautiful andCoca-Cola is For Everyone” (7 February 2014),Coca-Cola Company official website

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the country where people of the world gatherand celebrate.

CONCLUSION

The emergence of Coca-Cola going global hasbrought the significance of American companyto a whole new level. It has offices in more than200 countries with global employees, and withthe products that already reached out to the mosturban areas, that makes Coca-Cola the mostpopular beverage product in the world—or inanother word, a product that can be bought andenjoyed by all kinds of society. This democraticvalue of Coca-Cola is of course the main reasonbehind the popularity of the product.Additionally, the company has a remarkablycreative marketing team who often trancendsCoca-Cola into something else more meaningfulthan just a beverage product in theadvertisements; a symbol, an icon of breakingsocial boundaries. The company has creatednumerous creative advertisements all around theworld and this year, Coca-Cola came back witha new campaign, “America is Beautiful”.

From the displayed image from the scenes alongwith Nachbar and Lause’s five inquiries ofAmerican icons, the television advertisement“America is Beautiful” is indeed arepresentation of Coca-Cola as Americanmulticultural icon. Coca-Cola does contain thecontradictive American values of individualfreedom and democracy. The advertisement

9 Susan Headley, “E Pluribus Unum - WhatDoes This U.S. Motto Mean?”, About.com,accessed from:http://coins.about.com/od/uscoins/f/e_pluribus_unum.htm

10 Edwin Warner, “E Pluribus Unum?” (7 June1976), TIME Magazine, accessed from:http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947739,00.html

shows how Coca-Cola can be universallyenjoyed by all the people in any occasion whichrepresents the democracy; but at the same time,it shows the multi-ethnic figures that accentuatetheir role as individuals, thus represents theindividual freedom. By showing the multi-ethnicfigures in the advertisement, “America isBeautiful”, also represents the liberty andequality in America—which is consideredbeautiful, just like the title—and that the countryis the place to celebrate the people of the world.

REFERENCES

Coca-Cola Company. “Cannes 2013 Winners List”. Coca-Cola Company at Cannes 2013. Accessed from: http://thecoca-colacompanyatcannes.com/winners-2/

Coca-Cola Company. “Our Company at Glance”. Coca-Cola Company Official Website. Accessed from: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/infographic-coca-cola-at-a-glance

Coca-Cola Company. “The History of Coca-Cola: 1960-1981”, Coca-Cola Official Website. Accessed from: http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/about-us/history-of-coca-cola-1960-1981.html

Culler, J. 1976. Saussure. London: Fontana

Cultural Politics. Production Analysis. Accessed from: http://culturalpolitics.net/popular_culture/production_analysis

Gallo, Anthony E. “Chapter 9: Food Advertisingin the United States” in United States’ Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service.

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Hall, Stuart (ed.). 1997. Representation: CulturalRepresentations and Signifying Practices. California: Sage Publications.

Headley, Susan. E Pluribus Unum – What Does This U.S. Motto Mean?. About.com. Accessed from: http://coins.about.com/od/uscoins/f/e_pluribus_unum.htm

Iezzi, Teressa (ed.). 18 June 2013. The 9 Principles of “Work That Matters”. Fast Company. Accessed from: http://www.fastcocreate.com/1683241/the-9-principles-of-work-that-matters

JFK Library. “John F. Kennedy’s address delivered to Joint Convention of GeneralCourt of Commonwealth of Massachusetts on January 9, 1961”Accessed from: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/OYhUZE2Qo0-ogdV7ok900A.aspx

Jorney Staff. 7 February 2014. America is Beautiful and Coca-Cola is For Everyone. Coca-Cola Company Official Website.

Kent, Mohtar. 28 February 2013. Immigration reform good for business. USA Today. Accessed from: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/02/28/coke-ceo-immigration-reform/1954543/

Nachbar, Jack and Kevin Lause. 1992. Popular Culture: An Introductory Text. Ohio: Bowling Green State University PopularPress

Pope, Daniel. Making Sense of Advertisements. History Matters: The U.S. Survey on theWeb.Accessed from: http://historymatters.gmu.edu

Strassmann, Mark. 22 July 2012. “The real thing: Coke’s iconic bottle”. CBS News.Accessed from: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-real-thing-cokes-iconic-bottle/

Svendsen, Sara Edith. May 2013. Refresh. Create. Inspire: A Rhetorical Analysis ofthe Mission, Vision and Values Behind The Coca-Cola Company and the Digital Marketing of the “Open Happiness” Campaign. Liberty University

Warner, Edwin. 7 June 1976. E Pluribus Unum?.TIME Magazine. Accessed from: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947739,00.html

Winthrop, John. 1630. “A Model of Christian Charity”. Religious Freedom Library, University of Virginia. Accessed from: http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/charity.html

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