Most marketers design television advertisements with the intent of manipulating the viewer or consumer in some way to increase the chance that he’ll buy the product. There is only so much advertising that can be done to describe most products, so corporations find other ways to entice buyers to choose their stuff. Originally, most television advertising promoted fitting in or defining oneself with a group, and how the product would allow for this inclusion. Many twists have developed since this strategy, and Sprite is usually the first one to respond to ever-changing societal needs for novelty in both products and in the way they’re advertised. Sprite launched one of the first ad campaigns that parodied the previous manipulative ads and related to the ad-wary consumer by telling everyone that Sprite will not make them better at basketball or cooler, as other soft drink ads suggest. These Sprite ads gave the impression that they were not intended to manipulate the consumer’s opinion even though in doing so they accomplished that anyway. In the last few years Sprite has initiated their “Sublymonal” campaign. It employs a method similar to the earlier ads of parody as it immediately exclaims that the commercial uses “Sublymonal Messaging.” This was a bold step in advertising because subliminal or manipulative ads have been on TV for decades and disliked by many. But most people had never seen an ad that warned the viewer of its controlling nature before the commercial even began. Sprite took a daring step in venturing to this style of advertisement, but they may have started a new era of commercials in the process.
Television advertisements have been around since the invention of television and they all seem to have a common theme in promoting their product: manipulation of the consumer. Marketers in the 1980s weren’t concerned with the uniqueness of the product, but instead they used “primal, flim-flam appeals to sell sugary crud to people whose identity [was] nothing but mass consumption” (Wallace, 60). For instance, a 1980s Miller Lite commercial shows a conversation in a bar between a football player and his cool friends before the football player crushes the beer can. In this commercial any beer could have replaced Miller Lite, the only thing attractive in the commercial was the people whose lives could be emulated by the viewers if only they drank Miller Lite. This kind of manipulation was common in commercials for a long period of time before the rise of Joe Isuzu ads and Grant Hill Sprite commercials. Eventually television viewers caught on to the idea that every commercial promoted a better or more interesting life through the company’s product, whatever it was. In response to the consumer’s awareness of this artificiality, brands began making parodies of these commercials that had dominated television for so long. Isuzu Inc. began its series of Joe Isuzu commercials in the late 1980s which poked fun at other car commercials for their oily and Satanic looks, without even mentioning anything about the car itself (Wallace, 61). These commercials allowed the viewer to appreciate the humor in the ad and also to drive an Isuzu as a statement against all other car commercials in general. Companies like PepsiCo and Coca-cola followed this new trend, coming up with their own versions of satirical ads to please customers. With this new commercial style, the viewer believes that the ad transcends manipulation and actually relates to him, whereas this different style of marketing is simply a different form of manipulation.
Sprite’s TV advertisements developed similarly to other companies’ ads: changing the message and hiding the manipulation for as long as culture would allow. Original Sprite commercials followed similar structures to other ads at the time. For example, a 1987 Sprite commercial shows a trendy guy and girl walking down the street seemingly not affected by any brands or products. Eventually they are seen together and they like each other, and then background music sings “I like the Sprite in you”. Again, this is an example of an old-style commercial in which the actual product is completely detached from the advertisement. Sprite graduated from this phase fairly early as Grant Hill became the new face of Sprite. This series of ads in the 90s was called ‘Grant Hill Drinks Sprite?’, and was probably Sprite’s most successful ad campaign. The commercials feature a kid or kids who watch Grant Hill play and think they can play as well as him after they drink Sprite. They try to dunk or play him one on one, but each fails miserably as the slogan ‘Image is Nothing. Thirst is Everything. Obey you Thirst’ comes over the screen. These commercials place more emphasis on the fact that Sprite can’t make you cooler or better at basketball, but it will quench your thirst. As Douglas Rushkoff says in his Merchants of Cool, Sprite wasn’t just saying, “‘Please drink our product.’ They didn’t – they almost weren’t even selling the product. They were selling the fact that they understood the culture” (Rushkoff). Viewers new to this concept loved it and thought that these ads rose above manipulation because they were telling consumers not buy products that celebrities told them to buy. However, the method had the same effect because Sprite was still manipulating viewers into drinking Sprite under the illusion that they were choosing to do so on their own. As Sprite commercials developed they found that people were more attracted to individual thought or choice than anything else. Consumers wanted to have a sense that they were choosing what to buy independently, and Sprite wanted to allow this while still influencing them to drink Sprite. The result of this thinking was the creation of a completely new line of advertising: Sublymonal Messaging.
New Sublymonal Advertising is Sprite’s most recent creation and comes the closest to completely transcending manipulation. The new ads all begin by flashing “Sublymonal Advertising” before the commercial starts. This warning about the contents of the ad makes the viewer aware of the possibility of manipulation, but also serves as a makeshift title for the commercial. Sprite has developed their advertisements so they seem more like regular programs in order to keep the attention of the viewer (Wallace, 58). This particular advertisement is over a minute long, and also has a little story behind it. Six men with paintball guns and masks, three lemon and three lime-colored, enter a building from opposite ends. One of the lime-colored men is Lebron James. As they make their way through the house more men come in their support and the viewer realizes they are all trying to find a giant tongue. The ad randomly flips to two midgets (lemon and lime) flying towards each other, and two lego men attacking each other in a different set. In the original set, the men all enter the room with the giant tongue and begin firing paintballs at it. The impact of the lemon and lime paintballs on the tongue is shown closely at the end of the commercial, as is the mixture of lemon and lime in the other parts of the commercial. These instances seem to place an importance on the taste of Sprite that wasn’t present in the Grant Hill ads, even while the ridiculous action of the commercial continues to occur. Sprite has always been interested in fully involving itself in pop culture, and the addition of Lebron in this commercial reminds teenagers that it’s still cool to like Sprite. The majority of the mini plot, however, seems to be completely useless to the viewer. The effect would have been the same if it were a ten second commercial with the giant tongue or a sixty second one, but Sprite adds this aspect to keep the viewers interested in a story and also to make sure they want to know how it ends. This drawn out plot is a form of manipulation by Sprite, as viewers don’t realize what’s happening to them while they watch. But the emphasis is mostly on the taste of Sprite and the mixture of the two flavors to invoke a memory of the experience. The ‘Sublymonal Advertising’ message appears at both the start and the end of the commercial, and its presence along with taste as the main emphasis of the commercial make this series the least subliminal and manipulative set of advertisements that Sprite has designed yet.
Works Cited
Wallace, David Foster. ”
Youtube. “Grant Hill Sprite Commercial – Grant Hill drinks Sprite?”
Youtube. “Sprite Sublymonal”
Rushkoff, Douglas. “Merchants of Cool”
5 comments:
I liked your parallel between the two eras of sprtie commercials in that it showed consistency in Sprite's marketing. I would ask, however, if you would consider all advertising to be subliminal at some level because of your referances to the manipulation of the consumer without their knowledge. I think that their ads are not subliminal, but simply marketing strategies and to categorize them as manipulation may be harsh. Also, how does the cool factor of superstar athletes play into Sprite's advertising further?
I found it very interesting that in all their ads they are saying do not get manipulated, but in many of their commercials they have some star power like Grant Hill, Kobe Bryant was a Sprite spokesman, and now LeBron James. They say not to get manipulated and then manipulate you by using the star power that they employ. It seems to be a theme, it is an extremely risky strategy because if the consumer notices they probably will not be very inclined to buy the product.
It is very interesting that Sprite has a history of exposing the truth in advertising, yet still does not completely openly sell their product based on its qualities. The Grant Hill commercials, while acknowledging that Sprite won’t improve your abilities, fail to present any reason to purchase Sprite other than the fact that Grant Hill drinks it and as a beverage it will quench your thirst.
I also wonder if the Sublymonal commercials do any better job, at least they present the two tastes of the product, but if you were unaware of what Sprite was, the entire commercial would be confusing and ineffective.
Also if the Sprite commercials are parodies of other advertisements selling products, could parodies of the Sprite commercials be created? And additionally would Sprite be unique enough in their advertising campaign to poke fun at even themselves and their past marketing campaigns?
There might be a difference between manipulation and selling. I would have liked some discussion on the significance of Sprite's name and how it plays into their brand image. It was very neat to see how culture at that time affected Sprite commercials, by moving them away from the traditional method of presenting personality traits or lifestyles that a consumer desires, in favor of a strategy that uses satire of that strategy.
Sprite was able to uniquely connect with their consumers by letting them in on a special joke, and by letting them feel as if they were wise advertisers and know better than to fall for the same tricks they've been using for years.
I see a link between the Sprite ads ("Image is Nothing, Thirst is Everything") and the subliminal advertising campaign. Both are poking fun at some form of media manipulation in order to capture and "manipulate" their audience. Do you think that perhaps the subliminal strategy is just as manipulative as "Image is Nothing..."?
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