What excites me most about advertising

Imagine you had to choose between two competing products, let’s say Pepsi and Coke. What would you prefer? And why?

Okay, you could say that one tastes better than the other but apart from that it’s all about the advertising. And in this case I would definitely take the Coke! Their TV commercials just make me happy and create the need to be part of the big Coca Cola family where everyone loves and helps each other and where a hug is all you need to get a drink.

What excites me most about advertising in general is how it manipulates people in order for them to buy something that they actually don’t need. Coca-Cola uses music and appeals to your reason (“Believe in a better world”) as well as your emotions (“open happiness”). Their advertisements are all about friendship, peace, happiness and love and who wouldn’t like to support that? Even if you don’t like any type of Cola (like me), you have the feeling that Coca-Cola is a good company and you’ll spread the word.

One psychological effect that Coca-Cola is using is the in-group out-group bias. It means that you need to evaluate your in-group better than your out-group in order to improve your self-esteem. As I already said, everyone wants to be part of the Coca-Cola family so that would be the in-group and that makes Pepsi the out-group. The next time you choose Coke over Pepsi think about how that makes you feel and tell me about it! 

So I guess all that’s left to say is: Stay on the coke side of life!