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Sophia Shang
Instructor Mercedes Eng
English 101C
28 March 2016

Coca Colas Intention

Coca Cola is one of the most successful pop drink companies in the world. It
spends a lot of money on advertisements and commercials to attract customers and
advertises its brand. One of its videos "Hugs = Happiness" acts as its advertisement. It
records that people will get a bottle of free Coke when they hug Coca Colas special
vending machine. I argue that the video creates a myth that helps improve the companys
image. The myth is companies that care about customers feelings are responsible
companies. In the video, Coca Cola shows that it takes care of its customers feeling and
wants to make them happy, so with the myth, people may believe that Coca Cola is a
responsible company. Coca Cola appears to share happiness with customers by offering
free Coke, but its connotation is to stimulate people's purchases and making profit, and it
succeeds through the use of myths such as caring companies are good and ethical
companies. In this essay, I will argue that by using these myths, Coca Cola attempts to
cover its real intention of making profit and the fact that its products are not very healthy.
In Daniel Chandlers essay, Semiotics for Beginner: Denotation, Connotation, and
Myth, he states that in semiotics, denotation comes first, and denotation is the dictionary
meaning (Chandler 1). It is the meaning at the surface that people will get without any
thinking and analyze. When people start analyzing, they will get to connotation which is

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the deeper meaning that contains more meaningful language and signs (Chandler 1).
People can find out the meaning or real purpose behind (Chandler 2). Lastly, at the last
level of semiotics, there is myth which contains people's ancient culture and beliefs.
Myths are often used to persuade people to believe in the advertised connotation. With
the understanding of Chandler's semiotics, people can analyze advertisements better, and
semiotics will be used to discuss Coca Cola's video "Hugs = Happiness."
In the video "Hug = Happiness," Coca Cola provides free Coke to customers when
they hug Coca-Cola vending machines. The company wants to show people that it is a
caring company and they can happily get free products from it. In the video, it only
shows happy, healthy young people who hug the vending machine, but not those who
walk off and ignore the machine. This creates a myth that people who drink Coke are all
healthy and positive. Coca Cola demonstrates it is a loving company, and it cares about
people, especially its customers. The denotative meaning of the video is that Coca Cola
shares happiness with customers, even spend the companys own money to give out free
products. It also denotatively shows that people who get its products from these "Hug
Me" Coca Cola vending machines are surprised, happy, and satisfied. The way Coca Cola
advertises its brand is really rare and interesting, because it does not depend on traditional
advertising only. However, this way of advertising contains even more information. It
makes people see what Coca Cola tries to express denotatively. Without think deeply,
people may not understand the connotative meaning behind this video and may not see it
as an advertisement.
The connotation of Coca Cola's video is obviously different from its denotation. In
fact, the connotative meaning of the video is Coca Cola is a socially responsible company

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that cares about everyone in the society, especially its customers. It looks like Coca Cola
is using its money to give free products to people, but the company is actually saving a
lot of money in this way. In order to get more profits, Coca Cola needs to advertise
through traditional advertisements which will cost the company much more money. Now,
Coca Cola creates this kind of vending machines and gives products for free to make
people think how loving and caring the company is. Comparing to the money spent on
advertising, Coca Cola spend a lot less money, to stimulate customers' purchases.
The cost for Coca Cola to do this is very low because giving customers coke for
free does not cost the company much. The video is cheaply made as well as posted on
free online channels such as YouTube, but the influence of such promotion is very large.
People can easily get attracted to this kind of advertising strategy. It is a clever choice to
spend money on this kind of promotional videos because these videos are long and
contain more information to promote the company's connotation and affect people's mind.
In "Corporate Reputation Management: "CRM" with a strategic Twist?" Nakra supports
this idea by stating that corporate reputation management "builds a competitive
advantage" (Nakra 42) for companies. She also notes that Coca Cola is one of the
companies that uses this strategy, and what it has done is "Emotional appeal" (Nakra 37).
Apparently, Coca Cola is trying to affect consumers' feelings and thoughts to make
consumers feel good about its brand, building better reputation that will stimulate
business for the company. This kind of videos also has another effect. By making people
like its brand and think that it is a good company, people and investors may think Coca
Cola will do well in the future, so they may buy not only the company's products, but
may also invest in the company's stock. More stocks purchased will lead to an increase in

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the company's stock price, and increasing its stock price is even more important because
the profit gained from the stock market is much larger than selling Cokes. According to
Nakra, companies that use this kind of promotional strategies can "create value for
shareholders and stakeholders relative to others in the industry" (Nakra 39). Clearly, Coca
Cola creates this kind of videos to affect consumers' and shareholders' thoughts to gain
profits by increasing consumers' purchases and its stock price. In short, the goal of
offering free Coca Cola and filming the video is not only to make people happy, but also
to achieve benefits for the company.
The video does not only promote the companys connotation, but also makes people
forget the truth which is Coca Colas goal is making profit and its pop drink is actually
unhealthy. People tend to believe in the myth that only good companies do these
initiatives because they care about the society, but this myth is not true. The real purpose
of all these companies, including Coca Cola, is to earn more money. In "The Role of
Advertising in Brand Image Development, Tony Meenagham explains this strategy of
businesses. He writes, "Corporations have become obsessive about public perceptions of
their activities while at the level of the product/brand (Meenagham 23). He also writes
there has been a "shift in attention away from the physical aspects and functional
benefits of products to their symbolic associations, expressiveness (Meenaghan 23). He
means that companies are now working on their images by using symbols, so he proves
that Coca Cola is using myth to make people think it is a good company that gives up part
of its profit for the happiness for people. It has also created another myth which is good
companies are more ethical. When people believe in this myth, they tend to think good
companies will not use bad ingredients in production. It is true that Coca Cola does not

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use any dangerous chemicals in its products, unlike the food safety problems in China.
However, Coke is not a healthy drink. Drinking too much Coke causes people to become
fat and diabetic. In the article Soft Drink Consumption Linked with Fatty Liver in the
Absence of Traditional Risk Factor, Nimer Assy states that Coca Cola actually uses a lot
of sweetener in both regular and Diet Coke, and it is proven that sweetener is highly
related to the problem of fatty liver (Assy 811). Coca Cola uses its resources and myths to
build good reputation for itself, making people forget its real intention and the unhealthy
facts of its products.
The advertising strategies that Coca Cola uses are successful. People's thoughts are
affected by both Coca Colas connotation and myths. Coca Cola appears to be a great
company because it gives free Coke to customers. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not
think critically and analyze every advertisement. People believe in what Coca Cola
promotes itself to be and forget the main purpose behind the advertisement, which causes
Coca Colas success. Clearly, Coca Colas use of semiotics can make its business
successful. However, consumers need to think critically to find the real purpose and facts
in order to avoid being controlled by the company's advertising strategies.

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Works Cited
Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners: Denotaion, Connotation and Myth.
N.p.,n.d:1-11. Visual-Memory. Web.22 Nov. 2015.
Assy, Nimer. Soft Drink Consumption Linked with Fatty Liver in the Absence of
Traditional Risk Factors. Can J Gastroenterol 22.10 (2008): 811-816.
Meenagham, Tony. The Role of Advertising in Brand Image Development. Journal of
Product & Brand ManagementI 4.4 (1995): 23-34.
Nakra, Prema. Corporate Reputation Management\: CRM with a Strategic Twist?
Public Relations Quarterly 45.2 (2000): 35-42.