After reading “Consuming Faith” I thought that it might be interesting to do a link up every now and then (ie when I have time free) with Duncan’s TV Advert Blog and delve a little deeper into the advert, the product and the message that is being sold by the advertisement. As this is the first time I’ve done this on the blog I decided to explore one of the easier adverts and products, Sprite…
The latest advertisement to come out on television shows a group of young men sitting around a basketball court, as they gather and greet one another they throw one another a bottle of Sprite, which they drink. It soon becomes apparent that the basketball court is actually a pool, as the men each dive into the pool, fall into the pool after hanging on the basketball rings and swim around. As each of them get out of the court/pool they shake hands, just like they would after scoring a goal in basketball.
As the advert ends the words “Freedom From Thirst” appear on the screen, reflecting off of the water in the pool.
The Company:
Let’s face it, if one was to look for dodgy things that Coke has done one wouldn’t have too look very far at all, they’re a multinational company with more manufacturing plants than one can poke a stick at. They don’t operate any sweatshops like some clothing companies may, but as sites like http://www.killercoke.org and http://www.cokewatch.org would have you believe (and some of the accusations are really interesting) the company may not be as innocent as you would like.
The Imagery :
The image of the court is normally used in sport drink commercials or sport shoes commercials, obviously the creators wanted to move away from the use of the competition in the promotion of this drink. Probably a good idea as I’ve tried playing sport after soft drink before and it really didn’t help at all… But the image of the court – come – pool was obviously aiming at giving the consumer a feeling of fun, rather than of competition.
The pool image reminds me of baptism, but water has that ability to make us think of the spiritual, of rebirth and of baptism.
The Message :
“Freedom from Thirst” is the logo that the advertisement uses, the use of quenching thirst has long since been Sprite’s catch phrase, but the question I’d like to raise is what are people thirsting?
Thirst is a reoccurring theme in the bible…
In Amos it’s written:
- “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.”
In Matthew:
- For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…
In John it’s written:
- Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Is this the kind of thirst that Sprite claims to give people freedom from? Is the promise claimed by Sprite a spiritual one, one that gives people freedom from searching for that which they thirst from?
Is the thirst a physical one? And if it is, then what do we know of thirst? Who really thirsts in today’s western society? Who is without water, without something to drink? Is the message really promising freedom from the need to drink, and if so, is it making light of the plight of the millions of people who really are dying of dehydration, from drinking bad water?
The reality is that the message from the Sprite commercial is a hollow one, it’s a message that can’t be backed up, but it’s one that’s strangely alluring, wouldn’t we like to be free from thirst? This is something that Jesus offers and one that Coke cannot live up to.
I wonder if we, much like the Samaritan woman at the well (John Chapter 4) need to ask of Coke “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” For we know their promise is a lie, that their product cannot stop us from thirsting.
Companies compete to be the corporate sponsors of young adult life. Our images of our successful and confident selves are often “brought to you by…” – Consuming Faith, Page 5
And that’s a part of the need for us to have a Consuming Faith, to be able to ask questions of those that wish to be sponsors of our lives, to delve deeper into the company and the message that they offer in their products and to find exactly what we can trust them with and what promises they’re making that they will never be able to keep.
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