The Ethos of Social Responsibility in a Coca-Cola Advertisement

Giovanna Ike Coan*

Abstract: This article analyzes a Brazilian Coca-Cola advertisement that was part of a campaign whose slogan was “Com você, por um país melhor”. The theme of this campaign was social responsibility and the focus in the advertisement studied here is on the opposition between the categories of “workers” and “people”. My purpose in this text is to discuss how The Coca-Cola Company makes use of various verbal and non-verbal strategies for creating an agreeable ethos, in order to weaken its well-known capitalist image and strengthen its proximity to the consumer. Keywords: discourse analysis, advertising, ethos, social responsibility, Coca-Cola.

Maingueneau (2005) points out that every discursive production is

oriented, i.e., it is constructed according to a specific purpose. Advertising discourse is

oriented towards telling the public about a product or service in order to persuade them

to buy it; the successful effect of this persuasion is achieved through different strategies.

In the Coca-Cola advertisement analyzed here (see the appendix), the

company does not explicitly try to sell its product, but it aims at reinforcing its ethos.

Understanding ethos as the image the enunciator attributes to himself through discourse

– which is also constructed by the co-enunciator in the discursive process1 –, Coca-Cola

tries to represent itself as a company that cares about its workers. However, by building

an agreeable atmosphere around its name, the ultimate objective of this advertisement is

certainly commercial.

This advertisement was taken from the Brazilian magazine Horizonte

Geográfico, published in June, 2006, and it was part of a campaign which had social

responsibility as its main theme and the slogan Com você, por um País melhor2. The

advertisements from this campaign could be found in different types of magazines.

The verbal part which first calls the attention of the viewer are the

sentences:

* Undergraduated student at the University of São Paulo. E-mail: gikecoan@yahoo.com.br 1 “(...) o ethos é a imagem que o enunciador pretende atribuir a si pelo seu discurso, sendo construído pelo co-enunciador no processo discursivo” (Greco, 2004:410). 2 In another advertisement from this campaign, found in the magazine Superinteressante from November, 2006, the heading was “Nossas garrafas também vêm com uma mensagem dentro.” and the text at the top of the page clearly expressed this ethos of social responsibility, for it started by stating that: “Quando você abre um produto da Coca-Cola Brasil, também está nos ajudando a colocar pra fora a idéia de um futuro melhor. Isso porque a responsabilidade social da Coca-Cola Brasil não está presente apenas em seus projetos sociais, culturais e ambientais, mas principalmente, em seus produtos. (...)”.

Existem empresas que têm empregados. Nós temos pessoas.

This heading establishes the dichotomy empregados/ pessoas, opposing a

social category (social actors) to a biological one (human beings), and it also creates a

movement from distance to proximity through the use of the binary opposition others/

we. The first sentence is written in the third person, which, according to Benveniste

(1995), creates some distance from the viewer by providing an atmosphere of scientific

and universal objectivity3, whereas the second one is written by a collective first person,

which brings more intimacy to the discourse. In addition, by demarcating the boundary

between the others and we (Brandão, 1994), the advertisement emphasizes the positive

aspects of the latter, which is thus taken as the dominant pole of the pair.

These sentences not only call the attention of the viewer but they stand

for a key to the understanding of the advertisement as a whole, in both verbal and non-

verbal elements. First, we are going to analyze the former by explaining how the theme

of the heading was expanded in the text located at the top of the page, which we

reproduce below:

A Coca-Cola Brasil sabe: pessoas fazem toda a diferença. Pessoas são estimulantes, criativas e fazem melhores ambientes de trabalho. Temos mais de 300 mil pessoas trabalhando conosco, direta e indiretamente. Os investimentos para o bem-estar delas e de suas famílias chegaram a R$ 110 milhões em 2004. Pessoas felizes e valorizadas estão mais bem preparadas para exercer seus papéis. Esta é a cultura de uma empresa que não cansa de dizer o quanto gosta das pessoas. E, talvez por isto, as pessoas gostem tanto da gente.

This text begins with a referent4, i.e., the noun phrase A Coca-Cola

Brasil. This construction is similar to what Brandão (1994:47) observes in the analysis

of an advertisement of Petrobrás:

A enunciação é sui-referencial na medida em que a fala do locutor se dobra sobre si mesma. Em outros termos, a Petrobrás fala de si mesma não como eu explícito, mas como ela, um referente, criando com isso, uma ilusão de objetividade.

Besides, this objectivity caused by the use of the non-person of the

discourse (Benveniste, 1995) is reinforced by the presence of the punctuation mark “:”

3 This is reinforced by the indirect order of the sentence, with the verb “existir” in the first position. 4 “A referência designa a propriedade do signo lingüístico ou de uma expressão de remeter a uma realidade. O referente é a realidade apontada pela referência.” (Charadeau & Maingueneau, 2004:418).

(colon), for it makes the affirmative tone of the statement stronger than it would be in a

subordinate clause (A Coca-Cola Brasil sabe que pessoas fazem toda a diferença.).

Then, in order to establish a familiar contact with the reader, the voice of

the text is transferred into a collective first person (we), as it is possible to notice in

expressions such as “Temos mais de 300 mil pessoas trabalhando conosco” and “as

pessoas gostem tanto da gente”, which reminds us of the second sentence of the

heading (“Nós temos pessoas.”). Coca-Cola is well-known for being a huge and

successful transnational company – a position that certainly implies a relation of

distance with the consumers –, and it also has the image of one of the most

representative symbols of capitalism – an image that is part of our discursive memory

(or interdiscourse), i.e., of the discursive knowledge that makes any statement possible

and determines what we say through the formulations that have already been forgotten5.

It is through the use of a discourse that intends to shorten the distance

between company and consumer – by making use of the first person and an informal

and intimate tenor6, similar to everyday speech7 – that the company tries to construct its

ethos of social responsibility.

As Fairclough (1992:110) points out,

If the voices of powerful people and groups in politics, industry, etc. are represented in a version of everyday speech (even a simulated and partially unreal one), then social identities, relationships and distances are collapsed.

Another third-person sentence whose referent is Coca-Cola, the

company, appears in the text: “Esta é a cultura de uma empresa que não cansa de dizer

o quanto gosta das pessoas”. Here, by referring to a third-person and by using the

indefinite article – “a cultura de uma empresa” instead of “a cultura da nossa empresa”

– the text is presented as an absolute, perennial and ubiquitous truth. In addition, the

word empresa and the positive meaning given to it in the sentence recall the opposition

others/we of the heading.

As seen so far, the verbal text does not directly address the reader. The

exception is found in the box placed at the bottom left-hand corner of the page, which

5 “O interdiscurso é todo o conjunto de formulações feitas e já esquecidas que determinam o que dizemos. (...) é preciso que o que foi dito por um sujeito específico, em um momento particular se apague na memória para que, passando para o ‘anonimato’, possa fazer sentido em ‘minhas’ palavras.” (Orlandi, 1999:33-4) 6 cf. Fairclough, 1992:127. 7 This aspect is clearly observed in the use of the vernacular form “da gente” rather than “de nós”.

shows the logo of the company Coca-Cola Brasil and the slogan Com você, por um

País melhor. According to Fairclough (1992:115), “direct address is conventionally

used as a marker of informality in modern advertising”. In the present advertisement we

find an extra element, which is the company trying to demonstrate that it is worried

about the country, as well as (and together with) the reader/consumer (you); this feature

increases the proximity between these two interlocutors, and, thus, the confidence in the

brand8.

Moreover, the logo of Coca-Cola has its identity acclimatized to the

Brazilian context, not only through the addition of the name Brasil but also through the

yellow-and-green details put into it – the representative colors of this country. This

drawing in the logo is maximized in another part of the advertisement, appearing above

the picture of the two men in a truck, and it is painted in three colors, i.e., yellow, green

and red. Red is one of the symbolic constituents of the image of Coca-Cola and, not by

chance, predominates in the whole advertisement9.

The advertisement attempts to show that Coca-Cola does not have

empregados, but pessoas. This opposition, based upon the distinct meanings of these

words, has much to do with the capitalist system of production. According to Lukács

(1976), capitalism leads to the alienation, the fragmentation and the reification of the

modes of production, so that the products (the commodities) become the most important

element in this process, whereas the ones who produce them (the people, the human

labour) are forgotten or erased from the consumers’ minds10. As mentioned above, the

long-established image we have of Coca-Cola is that this is one of the strongest

symbols of our contemporary capitalist society. We could then interpret that, by using

the discourse of social responsibility, Coca-Cola intends to change its ethos – and,

consequently, the information we have from the interdiscourse –, so that the strategy of

humanizing a category of social actors is developed in this advertising campaign11. The

8 In relation to the pragmatic value of a slogan, Maingueneau (2005:171) presents that “o slogan está associado sobretudo à sugestão e se destina, acima de tudo, a fixar na memória dos consumidores potenciais a associação entre uma marca e um argumento persuasivo para a compra”. 9 As Gobé (2002:172) points out, “o script tipográfico particular da Coca-Cola e a forte cor vermelha são inconfundíveis e memoráveis”. 10 “(…) the universality of the commodity form is responsible both objectively and subjectively for the abstraction of the human labour incorporated in commodities” (Lukács, 1976:87). 11 According to Gobé (2002:242), “As marcas não são estáticas; possuem muitas facetas em suas personalidades. Para crescer e manter-se como preferida na mente do consumidor, uma marca deve evoluir para permanecer conectada a seu público-alvo, em sua existência diária.”.

following statement of Maingueneau (2005:212) corroborates this concept of ‘changing

the ethos’:

O nome de uma marca (...) está associado a um conjunto variável de representações sedimentadas ao longo do tempo, uma ‘imagem de marca’, sobre a qual a empresa deve agir constantemente.

In order to change the image of The Coca-Cola Company as having the

sole intention of earning money by selling their products, the advertisement tries to

conceal the product itself and, when it refers to money, this is related to the amount they

invest in “people” (“Os investimentos para o bem-estar delas e de suas famílias

chegaram a R$ 110 milhões em 2004.”). But before stating that, the company justifies

such investments by saying that “pessoas fazem toda a diferença. Pessoas são

estimulantes, criativas e fazem melhores ambientes de trabalho”; and right after

showing the numbers, it discusses the results of such investments (“Pessoas felizes e

valorizadas estão mais bem preparadas para exercer seus papéis”). All of those

statements make a repetitive use of the term pessoas, reinforcing the importance they

have for the company (as emphasized in the heading); moreover, this use is significant

in the sense that the reader/consumer is also (and identifies him/herself as) a “pessoa”.

The identification between the consumer and the people depicted in the

advertisement is achieved through non-verbal strategies, with the participants in the

picture looking directly at the viewer – acknowledging his/her existence and addressing

them with a visual “you” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1999) – therefore establishing a

contact and demanding some action from the viewer:

(…) the participant’s gaze (…) demands something from the viewer, demands that the viewer enter into some kind of imaginary relation with him or her. (1999:381).

However, this demand is not authoritarian in the sense that there is the

tentative creation of a relation of social affinity with the viewer, for the participants are

smiling in the picture. This picture is a medium shot (i.e., it shows the head and

shoulders of the participants), which corresponds to a “far personal distance” in which

“subjects of personal interests and involvements are discussed”12. The angle is frontal,

showing that what the viewer sees is part of his/her world, something he/she is involved

with. As the men are not depicted from a lower or higher angle, but from the same

12 Edward Hall, apud Kress & van Leeuwen, 1999.

height as the viewer, it transmits the idea that participants and viewer are in the same

position in respect to power relations (cf. Kress & van Leeuwen, 1999).

As it was previously said, the advertisement intends to portray those men

not as workers, but as people. Yet this purpose seems to be contradictory when they are

depicted as two employees who are working (and wearing a uniform with Coca-Cola’s

logo) – although they smile and seem to like their job –, and when it shows the badge of

one of the workers, reinforcing the idea that his identity (and consequently that of his

companion) is constructed only through his relation with the company, despite of any of

the other identities these people might have (as husbands, friends, students etc).

Nevertheless, the advertisement at least shows a photo on the badge that

is different from the usual pattern: here the worker is smiling; thus the relation of social

affinity is reinforced. It also tries to present the uniqueness of the workers by displaying

their full names (Arlindo Cunha and Cristiano Garcia), which, according to Brandão

(2004), gives more individuality and significance to the named being13. In spite of that,

again, the fact that they are portrayed working – i.e., in their social role – is translated

into words when they are classified as “funcionários do sistema Coca-Cola”.

A question we can raise is whether the word empregado in the heading

sentence “Existem empresas que têm empregados” has a more negative sense than the

term funcionário, used by the company to describe their workers. The dictionary

definitions present both terms as synonyms14, but maybe their use in ordinary

conversation confirms the difference. However, it is interesting to notice that

trabalhador is seen as a synonym for empregado, but not for funcionários15.

Returning to the argument exposed at the beginning of this article (that,

although the advertisement emphasizes the ethos of the company, its ultimate purpose is

commercial), we could say that Coca-Cola highlights social responsibility discourse in

the form of an advertisement by creating a hybrid “information-and-publicity” (or

‘telling-and-selling’) discourse (Fairclough, 1992:115). According to this author, this

form of “interdiscursivity” or “constitutive intertextuality” is common in contemporary

society and such hybrid texts

13 “O nome é o primeiro passo de um processo simbólico de construção da identidade: o nome distingue, singulariza, individualiza, confere estatuto de existência ao ser designado.” (Brandão, 2004:697) 14 In Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa (2001:1403), it is given that the synonyms and variant forms of “funcionário” are the same as the ones for “empregado”, which include even items of negative connotation such as “lacaio” and “serviçal”. 15 According to the electronic version of Novo Dicionário Aurélio (2005): “trabalhador”: 2. Aquele que trabalha; lidador, pelejador. 3. Jornaleiro, empregado, operário.

(…) testify to a colonizing movement of advertising from the domain of commodity marketing in a narrow sense to a variety of other domains. One can relate this to a current surge (…) in the long-term process of commodification, the incorporation of new domains into the market, and a spread of consumerism. (1992:117)

In the Coca-Cola advertisement we may interpret that there is actually a

“colonizing movement” of an argumentative text – which expresses through verbal and

non-verbal elements how this company is worried about its workers – from the domain

of informative discourse types to the domain of advertising, i.e., the domain of

commodity marketing. Thus, the strategy of using the discourse of social responsibility

intensifies the persuasive power of the company over the consumers of its products.

Therefore, in the analyzed advertisement, The Coca-Cola Company

makes use of various strategies to create an agreeable ethos, such as the movement from

a more objective to a more intimate and colloquial language and the mix of advertising

and social responsibility discourses, in order to weaken their well-known capitalist

image and finally strengthen the proximity between the company and the consumer

through a visual text that evokes affinity.

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Appendix