Hayley Graham

Public Relations Cases and Studies

February 6, 2015
Super Bowl Ad Analysis: Coca Cola
Since its creation in 1886, Coca-Cola has been known for spreading joy. The first marketing
strategy that they ever implemented was giving away free samples, which was considered quite
innovative at the time. As the organization moved forward into the twentieth and eventually twentyfirst centuries, they created an identity as a fun, happy brand. Their advertisements have been
memorable and historic, many of which are studied today in marketing and public relations courses.
This includes a 1971 commercial, in which the Hilltop Singers performed Id Like to Buy the
World a Coke, celebrating cultural diversity and harmony. In 1993, Coca- Colas famous polar bear
emerged, which has been central to the brand since. In the new millennium, this company has
focused even more on ensuring that their beverages led to joy. In 2009, a global campaign called
Open Happiness was begun. According to Coca-Cola, this was an invitation to billions around
the world to pause, refresh with a Coca-Cola, and continue to enjoy one of lifes simple pleasures.
(Coca-Cola History)This has been incorporated into numerous advertisements, events, and social
media extensions in the last few years.
Coca-Colas most recent Super Bowl advertising campaign was no exception to this.
Focusing on current global issues, their 2015 campaign centered on internet positivity and cyber
bullying, which are highly discussed topics in the world today. Therefore, Coca-Cola was able to
use their brand reputation for happiness in order to combat a present societal problem. The ad that
was played during the Super Bowl begins quite darkly, with unkind words displayed on different
computer interfaces and individuals appearing sad and angry. Then, the scene changes to a control

room, where a man is working and drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola. The beverage then spills,
consequently getting inside the wiring of computers worldwide. Instantly, the negative messages
that existed are replaced with happier, more uplifting content. The advertisement ends with the
words The world is what we make it. Make it happy.
This commercial follows a fairly standard storytelling practice. This tactic is not exactly
something new, and commercials that tell stories have been determined to be some of the most
successful Super Bowl ads, according to an article by Keith Quesenberry. While this advertisement
does not have much of an exposition, it does follow the rest of a traditional story trajectory. It
begins with the complication or rising action, in which the problem of cyber bullying is introduced.
Viewers see a teenager crying, and another man becoming very violent and angry. The climax, or
turning point, occurs when the Coca-Cola is spilled onto the mainframe for the internet. This is
certainly the place at which the action changes, as the beverage spills through to affect the other
computers worldwide. The reversal, or falling action, shows the joyful change that has been made.
Anger turns to relief, sadness to happiness, and tears to laughter. The denouement, or moment of
release, comes at the end, as happy music is played and the ending text flashes across the screen.
Coca-Colas choice of sound throughout the commercial effectively conveys the desired
mood. In the beginning, as the mean, hurtful messages are being displayed, the sounds are
disjointed and chaotic. While it is difficult to discern particular words, it is evident that what is
being said is angry and taunting. As the computer clicks and beeps build, as well as the fragments of
messages, the chaos escalates, causing the viewer to feel a sense of discomfort and stress. Yet, once
the scene changes to the control room, the ad becomes silent. After the beverage has spilled through
the computers, a calmly joyful song begins, with the following lyrics: Dont let me show cruelty,
though I may make mistakes. Dont let me show ugliness, though I know I can hate. And dont let

me show evil, though it might be all I take. Show me love, show me love, show me love. The
music swells towards the end, especially becoming more forceful on the repetitions of the phrase,
Show me love. Therefore, the commercial ends on a very positive note, celebrating the love and
joy that all people can benefit from in our society.
Coca-Colas strategy does not end there, however. Instead, they utilized a multifaceted
campaign in order to promote the objective of making the internet happy. Not only was the
advertisement featured in the Super Bowl, but the organization also heavily utilized social media. In
a time when most everyone watching the game is also on a second screen, this allows for interaction
among observers. There were a variety of social media platforms that were employed for this,
including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. In addition, a website was created solely for the
purpose of this campaign.
The site, called www.gomakeithappy.com,
included a plethora of different content during and
after the Super Bowl. On the site, anyone could
click a link that invited visitors to happify a
tweet. This took them to twitter, where they could
use the hashtag #makeithappy on any tweet. Upon
doing this, the negative tweet was entered into an
algorithmic program that converted the characters
used to make the negative message into a happy
picture, as seen on the right. The website also
featured a gallery of images that had been happified for viewers to browse through.

A secondary social media tactic was also highlighted on this website. This involved taking a
picture of yourself smiling and making a hashtag sign with your fingers. These images were then
posted to Coca-Colas social media sites, and consequently many ended up on the campaigns
website. In this gallery, Coca-Cola encourages visitors to sign their smile petition, which is what
this portion of the campaign is called.
For the whole campaign, Coca-Cola works to engage audiences through every major social
media platform. Information about how to engage through each of these is listed on the website. On
twitter, as previously mentioned, negative tweets are made into happier art through #makeithappy.
On Instagram, people can sign the smile petition, which is also showcased on the website. Facebook
is also mentioned, and Coca-Cola encourages viewers to share a smile petition photo in order to
keep their little corner of the internet happy. People can also engage on YouTube, where they are
encouraged to only make positive comments and videos. An email campaign is also involved,
possibly for older generations. This encourages people to cut and paste a signature line into their
emails that says, Tired of the online hate? Learn how to #MakeItHappy at
www.gomakeithappy.com
In addition to hitting a majority of the main social media apps and platforms, Coca-Cola also
mentions ReThink, a free software created by teens and for teens that encourages individuals to
reconsider the effect of their words before posting hurtful comments. It was started in 2013 by
Trisha Prabhu, who was fourteen at the time. This teen was upset about heartbreaking stories of
cyberbullying and consequent suicides, and decided to take action in order to change the situation.
This resulted in ReThink, which filters messages to determine whether they are offensive. If so, the
program sends a pop-up window asking the sender to reconsider. According to the ReThink website,

this has been quite effective, as people changed their messages 93% of the time they received this
message (ReThink).
Prior to the day of the big game, Coca-Cola was active on its social media sites. There were
frequent posts on Facebook and Twitter related to the campaign beginning several weeks before.
During this time, brief messages and questions were posted as well as videos. While the video for
the Super Bowl advertisement was not officially released until the game, videos and content posted
in the days and weeks prior indicated that advertisement would have something to do with
spreading kindness through the internet, and built anticipation among the brands followers.
Another tactic taken by Coca-Cola was the use of partnerships with famous people. For this
campaign, they worked with Kid President, Danica Patrick, and Michael Sam. Each of these
individuals is quite different in terms of their following and what they are known for. Kid President,
or ten-year-old Robby Novak, is a young man with a brittle bone condition who took the world by
storm with his humorous and uplifting Pep Talk YouTube video. Since then, he has gained a large
following on social media, and recently published a book. Danica Patrick is a NASCAR driver,
specifically known for her success as a female in a typically male-dominated sport. Michael Sam is
a football player who played for the University of Missouri, before going on to begin a professional
career in the NFL, where he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams. He is well-known as one of the first
openly gay college football players. Therefore, while these three people have little in common, it is
evident that they all have faced adversity that they have risen above. Therefore, Coca-Cola created a
video featuring each of these individuals, all of which were released prior to game day. Kid
President, in particular, also engaged with the campaign on Twitter during the football game, as he
retweeted and communicated with Coca-Cola on numerous occasions. This tactic is effective for

Coca-Cola, as they expanded their audience greatly by adding the followers of these three people to
their own fan base.
The target demographic for this campaign has been hypothesized as being the millennial
generation. While Coca-Cola itself did not formally state this, Forbes analysts state that this
generation is the group that will be most affected by this advertising campaign. There are a variety
of slight variations in definition of this group, however, it is generally accepted that these
individuals were born between 1980 and 2000 (Forbes). As this is a large demographic poised to
have a significant influence on the future of our nation, it is logical to target them for this
promotion. There are several reasons that the millennial generation will be reached most from this
campaign.
First, millennials are very interested in being socially responsible. They are much more
likely to support an organization if they believe that they are doing something good for the world
(Fromm). According to Forbes, this stems from a desire to make a difference in the world in which
they live by changing peoples lives for the better. Therefore, this campaign speaks to them quite
well. In addition, internet bullying is something that is much more relatable to a younger generation
who spends more time online. They are more likely to have been a victim, perpetrator, or witness to
cyber bullying, thus causing the advertisement to hit home personally for them.
Second, millennials are quite tech-savvy as a generation. They enjoy engaging in
conversations with friends, as well as with brands they support (Fromm). Therefore, the opportunity
to actively participate in the activities of the Coca-Cola brand and join something larger than
themselves especially appeals to them. For example, taking a selfie with a hashtag sign utilizes
young peoples fascination with taking pictures of themselves. On a second level, posting it on
social media gives people a chance to see it. Taking this one step further, posting on social media as

part of a larger campaign both allows them to feel like they are doing something good for the world,
and like they are part of a community of other like-minded individuals.
Overall, this campaign took a multifaceted approach in order to engage its audience on
several levels. In my opinion, this campaign was effective for several reasons. First, they
incorporated a social mission element that is very relevant to todays society. This focus on making
the world a happier place is both consistent to their brand identity and to problems that are currently
being discussed, making it quite relevant. Second, they used social media very interactively. Instead
of simply running a commercial, they ensured that the people who watched it would engage with
the company using #MakeItHappy and the smile petition. By creating a website specifically for this
campaign they drew people into a dialogue instead of simply allowing them to be spectators.
Yet, despite the many successes that this campaign had, it was not without problems, by any
means. Following the #MakeItHappy initiative, Gawker noticed that Coca-Cola was using words of
some offensive slogans in their happy artwork without realizing it. As a test, they created a Twitter
account, @MeinCoke, which started tweeting potions of Hitlers manifesto, Mein Kampf. CocaCola did happify this briefly, before realizing what had happened and removing the tweet.
Following this incident, Coca-Cola decided to discontinue the automatic generation of tweets, and
instead focus just on the photo campaign (Monllos). In a statement, a Coca-Cola spokesperson said,
Building a bot that attempts to spread hate through #MakeItHappy is a perfect example of the
pervasive online negativity Coca-Cola wanted to address with this campaign.
In conclusion, while this campaign was not without controversy, it also contained elements
that were quite successful. The implementation of conversational social media platforms
encouraged engagement, partnerships increased the size of the audience, and focus on a current
social issue added relevance. Its bold and brave, and intended to disrupt the complacency thats set

in around online negativity, said Jennifer Healan, Coca-Colas group director of integrated
marketing. Our goal is to inspire America to become a collective force for positivity. (Nudd)
Overall, this was a well-planned campaign with noble aims to make the world a better place.

Works Cited
"Coca-Cola History." World of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola, n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.

"Coca-Cola #MakeItHappy." Coca-Cola #MakeItHappy. Coca-Cola, 01 Feb. 2015. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.

Fromm, Jeff. "How Coke's Super Bowl Ad Will #MakeItHappy And Sell More Soda To
Millennials." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 1 Feb. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

Monague, Brad. "Kid President: Who We Are." Kid President. Kid President, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

Monllos, Kristina. "Tricked Into Quoting Hitler, Coca-Cola Suspends Automated Tweet
Campaign." AdWeek. AdWeek, 4 Feb. 2015. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

Nudd, Tim. "Coca-Cola Targets Online Hate In Its #MakeItHappy Super Bowl Commercial." AdWeek.
AdWeek, 26 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

Quesenberry, Keith. Hons Hopkins Finds With Super Bowl Commercials, Storytelling Beats Sex. 31
Jan. 2014.

"ReThink - Effectively Stops Cyberbullying." ReThink. N.p., 2015. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.