It is one easy question to ask people what they think about this Pepsi advert.
But it is another to relate it with our world, the one we have created. Our standard of living is much higher now than 50 years ago, but is that totally beneficial?
This advert expresses a lot of things. We all need each other to survive in this world, to help one another. But once we’ve obtained what we are willing to have, we suddenly forget about all that things or people that have helped us reached our target.
Sometimes, to achieve our goal we hurt people without noticing it, and this is what worries me. Undeveloped countries lag behind the fortunate ones. But the real thing is that without them, the developed countries wouldn’t progress. Third world countries are used to help more powerful countries, but then are forgotten with their misery. We have to help one another, don’t you think?
Of course, this advert was just accepted in America, as it uses another company to make Pepsi look more powerful. It is now not accepted the use of other brands, despite their high spirit competition between them.
I think this advert has clearly been studied and thought about, as just in a few seconds you can see the competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, how Pepsi steps, literary, on top of Coca-Cola, and then just leaves without looking back.
What do you think?
Natalia, I totally agree with you and I found really interesting your interpretation on this advert, as I had never actually stopped to think about it.
ReplyDeleteI have heard many times that for some to be rich, many have to be poor and it can be applied with what you are saying that for developed countries to succeed and be wealthy we step over those less fortunate developing countries. It’s very obvious that this should stop, but if all these countries, which are being exploited by the “great ones”, reach the same standards of living than us and have the same equal rights, it will bring consequences. Firstly for this event to happen all the developed countries wont be able to maintain the same standards of living, which means that our wealth will decrease while theirs will increase until there is a moment were we will be equal. This fact is very easy to talk about and discuss but I think none of us are willing to contribute to making it happen.
As Natalia mentions in her post, we need each other to succeed and survive and without noticing we might hurt each other to achieve our objectives. This truly reflects our society because once we’ve achieved our goal, we don’t look back to see what effect it might have caused in others. It’s totally unfair and many would say we have no option but I don’t agree, like with this advert. Pepsi could have perfectly thought about another way of advertising their product without stepping onto Coca-Cola, like the powerful countries could find other ways or better ones to reach their goals without using the third world countries.
In the future this has to change because if not the differences between the rich and the poor will increases leaving a small percentage of the worlds population wealthy while the number of poor people increase dramatically, also its necessary for our survival.
I think it`s a great advert and a very creative idea. It plays with an ironic view of the situation and the innocence of a child. It shows a high creativity from the pepsi advertisers despite the polemical situation involving the competition (cocacola).
ReplyDeleteIt may notbe totally correct but I think the idea is great and it isworth seeing.
DANI R
Natalia I’ve found your comment to be very interesting as you’ve arrived to a fantastic conclusion from a simple advertising.
ReplyDeleteDani, it is true that the Pepsi idea when doing this was original and we could say, successful for a lot of Pepsi fans. They’ve done a surprising advert for a very low cost, but of course it’s immoral because they’ve used their competence to create it and that’s not good. They could definitely have done another type of adverts that generated similar results when trying to sell a product and avoided this disrespectful attitude.
Returning to what Natalia and Maria told, I totally agree with both. We are surrounded by a capitalist world that has been, gently but powerfully, destroying some parts of the world. There is indeed a first and a third world and they are completely different, and that’s not because some of them don’t work, no. It is because not all the world is done to be rich, and for ones to be rich others have to depend on these firsts. We have to change this situation but not everybody wants, and going back to history there has always been two groups: the owners and the submitted ones.
Is this never going to change? Maybe , I don’t know, but it’s going to be very difficult , so I would start from helping each other, having respect and empathy for the others and trying to look for other goals rather than consuming and hurting our competitors.
Agus Nieto
I share Dani’s opinion as I find this advert very intelligent in a way, as it has been clearly thought about and it shows the creativity Pepsi is able to achieve in order to win this brand competition, which may go on forever. The fact of a child stepping on top of two Coca-Cola cans with the objective of being able to reach the Pepsi button clearly conveys the superior message that Pepsi is trying to manifest, a message which is based on the overcoming of life obstacles in order to achieve those objectives you want. It is the fact of considering Coca-Cola as an aid to arrive until Pepsi the one thing that makes this advert so attractive and clear about which of the two Brands deserves popularity.
ReplyDeleteHowever, coming back to Natalia’s initial reflection, it’s unbelievable the quantity of feelings that a 30-second advert like this one is able to portray. I totally agree with her opinion as it has been truly thought about. In a way it’s linked to the overcoming of obstacles through life I mentioned before, but looked from a different point of view, which involves the superficial thinking of developed countries and, as Maria and Agus also pointed out, the progression the capitalist countries look for taking into no consideration the undeveloped countries which need more help than the one these ones demand from them.
All in all, this advert should be considered immoral because of the unconsciousness the Pepsi brand shows towards important global problems that are subliminally touched in the advert. Moreover, trying to sell their brand damaging Coca-Cola’s reputation is totally intolerable.
I hadn’t seen this advert before and I am completely shocked. I must say I share Natalia’s opinion and most of the comments above. I could have never imagined something like this, I don’t know why. I suppose I’m used to seeing the cleaning products advertisements here in Spain, where the competition brand logo is blurry so that you can’t really recognize which one it is when they compare their product to the other one. Amazingly, the one being advertised is always the best.
ReplyDeleteI can’t stand the fact that they use the other brands to make theirs look much more interesting and at the same time superior. However, it is very well thought and they have to be really sure of themselves for launching this advert, as they may be criticized by other companies and the consumers too. They have been really creative and intelligent, because as Natalia mentioned, the boy actually STEPS ON Coca-Cola just so that he can buy his Pepsi and after that, he just walks away without even looking at the cans he bought before because now that he has what he wants, what could there be which is any better?
To achieve our desires, our aims, we have to gradually get closer every time. When we finally reach it, we don’t think about all of the people who have made an effort and helped us during our path and made this possible. Although when famous people win a prize, such as an Oscar or the World Best Football Player, they thank lots of others who have helped them, and I’m sure most of them don’t really mean it or at least don’t feel it really deeply in their hearts.
I’m just trying to say that we should all be more conscientious about who cares about us and want the best for us, and who doesn’t.
Honestly, I have to admit that my interpretation of this advertisement is completely different from Natalia’s point of view. However, I do agree with her arguments, although not related to this specific campaign.
ReplyDeleteFrom my personal point of view, this advert shares a direct reference to the vastly competition that has always existed between two of the most important and biggest firms in the world, which, surprisingly, move millions of people all over the world in a dayly basis. I shall admit that this is the most impacting commercial I’ve ever seen, with a fantastic photography and location, which provokes a stronger touch and message to the viewers worldwidely. A message which is direct and powerful.
Promotion gives the consumer information about the product. It shares basic information which will ensure the firm that the advert will go out to millions of people. One of the basic aims of promotion is to compete with competitors’ products, which is clearly seen in this case. The adverting process is used to plan an advertising campaign of a product. The last step is to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign - to see if sales have increased as a result of the advertising campaign, so, has it met its objectives? For sure, Pepsi met its objectives and I would bet, with excess, as Coca-Cola is a huge competitor with much more capital input.
To conclude, I don’t relate it with the dependance between rich and poor, which could for sure be an option, but I rather prefer to think of it as a satiric image which will therefore make competiton between both brands overwhelm in an endless path in history of fizzy drinks.
Susanna Balaguer Serra