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What can be better than by using a drink one can make friends with his or her idol? With Coca-Cola, that magical drink is real. In the advertisement in 1979, Coca-Cola Company featured Mean Joe Green, who is a former football player, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL to publicize its product.

In the opening scene of the commercial, press and security are standing with their backs to the corridor to the locker room. Mean Joe is limping back to the locker room. A boy tries to catch up to talk to him. There is a tracking shot for about one second with Mean Joe and the boy walking, which makes the audience feel like the two figures are coming towards them. Very quickly, the shot changes to a close shot at Joe turning back towards the sound of the boy calling him. Joe’s face is uncomfortable and tired. He seems to not want anyone to bother him. Nervously, the boy expresses his admiration to Joe and asks him if he wants to drink the boy’s Coca-Cola. At first, Joe refuses. The audience goes through the brief conversation between Joe and the boy with many close up and cuts as the advertisement emphasizes on the face expressions of Joe and the boy. Afterward, Mean Joe reluctantly takes the Coke from the boy’s hand. During this moment, the audience can see Joe’s hand and the boy’s face. The boy then expresses a hopeful face because his sport idol accept the coke from him. As soon as Joe says “ok” to the boy’s offer, the music is turned on and Mean Joe starts smiling. From there, the advertisement shows a close up of Mean Joe drinking all of the Coke. While he is drinking, we have another cut viewing the boy who is looking at Joe drinking. The boy thinks that Mean Joe would not talk to him again so he decides to go. While he...

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...wer drinks coke, he or she will think about the commercial and feel joyful because if, in fact, the viewers admire Mean Joe and Coca-cola makes Mean Joe smiles, Coca-cola must be good. This is called “a simple logic” that audience use when they see media. The company understands how the psychology of each person works: people tend to hear and then react to what they hear. The music stops at the word “smile” with Joe smiling. The audience react emotionally to the joyfulness in the advertisement and probably their brains tell them to smile. Along with the music, the light, and Mean Joe’s smiling, Coca-Cola’s advertising succeeds in creating blithe feeling inside the audience.

In other words, the Coca-cola Company builds its ethos by describing its product as a drink that can bring up happiness, create exceptional relationships, and most critically, make people smile.