We all know about it. The red and white logo, the family and friendship-inspired commercials. Coca-Cola is a brand known to all, unless you live or lived under a rock.
But how did it get this way?
Nowadays, you can walk into a store and find Coca-Cola merchandise. Tank-tops, T-shirts, towels, candy, socks, anything. Anytime I see the color red, the back of my mind associates it with Coca-Cola.
I find this very interesting, because the fact of the matter is, Coca-Cola is just a soda. It tastes near identical to Pepsi, despite the age old argument. So why is Pepsi not so big of a pop culture icon as Coca-Cola?
One reason could be just the fact that the ads that they have used were more successful. Coca-Cola's ads mostly focus on the fact that if you drink Coke, you could gain popularity, you could be a good friend, you could be all these things and something you're not. However, is this the reality of the product?
No.
In fact, this soda is more likely to have negative long-term effects, versus those positive ones used in promoting. For example, a common thing I have been seeing around lately is a large inflatable can of soda that is obviously done to imitate the style of Coca-Cola, which instead reads Diabetes. it appeared at the international day at McClatchy, and somewhere I got a flier for it. I found this interesting, too, and it can probably be related back to the question of where Coca-Cola's popularity came from: Why did they use Coca-Cola, and not Pepsi? Why not Sierra Mist, or root beer?
This (hypothetical) answer is simple.
Coca-Cola is a very old brand. It has been around for so long, so many people are already familiar with the name and are more likely to tell others about it so that they can buy it too. As these people are spreading word of this classic soda, the advertising agents are building specially-targeted commercials in order to appeal to people's sense of diversity and companionship. The campaigns done by Coca-Cola further support this; for example, the #ShareACoke.
So for this post, instead of focusing on several songs by the same artist (though I definitely weighed the idea, because I simply couldn't decide what song to do), I decided to pick one song and look at the lyrics and other aspects of the song as closely as possible.
So recently, I began listening to the Future Hearts album by All Time Low again, and I fell in love with it all over again. All the songs have a message, so I definitely recommend you go listen and enjoy. But one song that has stuck out to me since I first heard the album was the song Missing You.
This song stood out to me, I think, for several reasons; the upbeat tempo and guitar, and the really supportive lyrics are the biggest ones.
All Time Low can typically be considered a band that is aimed at teens and young adults. That's a pretty general consensus. What I find most interesting about this song is that you can tell, simply by listening, that this song was written for their audience; their target market. If you listen to the lyrics, it kind of tells a story, speaking directly to the listener.
I heard that you've been Self-medicating in the quiet of your room, Your sweet, suburban tomb. And if you need a friend, I'll help you stitch up your wounds.
I heard that you've been Having some trouble finding your place in the world. I know how much that hurts, But if you need a friend Then please just say the word...
In these first two verses, it is the main singer Alex Gaskarth saying that he's "heard" about all these plights. He is speaking, as noted before, directly to the listener, and offers to be there if they need a friend. I think in this case, he is saying that their music can be the friend that they need when they lock themselves in their room, or if they're searching for themselves, or hiding from the world...he is trying to get the message across that their music is made to help you through these times.
Hold on tight, This ride is a wild one, Make no mistake, The day will come when you can't cover up what you've done, Now don't lose your fight, kid, It only takes a little push to pull on through, With so much left to do; You'll be missing out, and we'll be missing you.
As for the chorus, I also think this is speaking directly to the listener. The first few lines are trying to say that yes, life is crazy. Life is fast and wild and insane and there's nothing you can really do to prepare yourself, so just "hold on tight." For a while now I've been a bit confused on the line, "The day will come when you can't cover up what you've done," but if I look at it in a slightly different (slightly more depressing) light, it makes more sense.
What I mean by this is that the lines start to make more sense if you narrow down the original target audience from just teens and young adults in general to teens and young adults considering suicide. In the beginning, he is offering their music to be a pillar of support for those struggling, and in the chorus, he is saying that there will someday come a day when you won't be able to hide the cuts on your wrists or anything like that.
I love that he follows that line with, "Now don't lose your fight, kid." This really shows the support he is trying to offer to the listener. "It only takes a little push to pull on through." He really wants the listener to give life a chance, to just try a little harder in order to see that things will work out. If they don't, and if they end up giving in "with so much left to do," they will just be "missing out" on life and opportunities, and they the band and the rest of the world will be "missing you."
Grit your teeth, pull your hair, Paint the walls black and scream, "Fuck the world 'Cause it's my life, I'm gonna take it back," And never for a second blame yourself.
The bridge is the final part of the song that I will be analyzing lyrically. I love these lines because Alex is once again trying to put a little motivation back into the listener, trying to give them a reason to fight. He is saying that they are strong enough to not let the world bring them down, they are strong enough to take their life back. They are strong, and they are enough. The whole second line, I think, is him saying that teenagers should be able to freely express themselves in any way they so choose with little judgement, because its their life, and they can make of it what they will. The line, "and never for a second blame yourself" jumps out at me legitimately every time I listen to the song. It really resonates with me, and hits close to home. I blame myself for basically everything that goes wrong, even if there was no concievable way it could've been my fault; so with such a powerful message of a song saying that I have no reason to blame myself, it really makes me stop and realize, they're right. This is my life, and I can do with it what I please. I don't need to be guilty.
Finally, I want to talk at least a little about the video for this song.
This video has made me cry every time I watch it. Because the song is so deeply influenced by the fans, and directed toward them as well, its only fitting that they made the video for it revolved around the fans as well. This video is literally, as he even says in it, a way for the band to say thank you back to the fans that have gotten them to where they are. They facetime several fans and hear the stories of how their band has affected so many people's lives; I can only imagine what they must've been feeling. One even admits to getting goosebumps.
All in all, this song and its video are a perfect shining example of how All Time Low is a band that really cares for and aims to connect with their fanbase, because one cannot exist without the other. They are a codependent ecosystem. And this is also one hell of a catchy song.
So as I was on my way to work this weekend, I looked up and saw - you'll never guess - a billboard.
I mean, I'm pretty used to seeing them nowadays. What with the media having several surges, there are more and more ways that they try to break through the clutter. So billboards and other common forms of media are /everywhere/.
But this billboard was a little different.
Most that we see are these flat, two-dimensional generic ads that have some slogan or sappy picture, ya know? Nothing that exceptional to draw your attention.
But this billboard for Chick-fil-A wasn't like that.
The ad, as pictured below, was plain white with words "painted" on that read, horribly misspelled, "Eat Mor Chikin." Then on the little landing below the ad, there are two cow figures. One is standing atop the other and holding a paintbrush to make it obvious that he was the one that painted the billboard.
This method of using 3D figures definitely attracts attention; you don't see billboards like that every day.
I'd imagine that this would appeal well to children who might assume that the cows are real. It uses Wit and Humor in order to make you want to buy their food. I, for one, love Chick-fil-A; but they're very homophobic last I checked, and it really disappoints me because it tastes sooo good.
As I was looking online for a picture of this billboard, because I forgot to snap one myself, I saw that Chick-fil-A uses this method often; what with the 3D cows and hand-painted messages discouraging buyers from eating beef and encouraging them to eat chicken.
Other billboards using this same method include ones like these:
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