#7.
Like all things in life, the Internet has many pros and cons. Though it is a vital portion to our daily lives, it is a product that can be used both for positive or negative intents. Many even consider the Internet to be a type of “drug” that they can’t live without. This Coca-Cola commercial shows just how deep such an addiction can run as people resort to spreading hate and negativity via messaging/posting as they hide behind a computer screen.
At the beginning of the ad, an enraged man is furiously typing “I hate you” on someone’s feed with the scene quickly reverting to show others sending “hate” messages as well — all anonymously. The rapidly changing scenes with bright, big words of “hate” and angry-faced emoticons are meant to resemble the chaotic and destructive power the Internet holds over many of its consumers.
The scene changes to when an IT guy at the “main internet servers” accidentally spills coca-cola all over the servers. This “spill” toggles with the servers creating an “energy surge” throughout all electrically charged devices. The internet cafe scene, though quite brief, shows how deeply ingrained the Internet is in society — how deeply ingrained social media is in our daily lives. We are constantly exposed to many negative aspects on the Internet that we subconsciously record and could act upon in the future, believing it is “o.k.”
With this single “spill,” all the negative posts turn into positive posts. The “violent news interview” that the husband was watching turns into a hilarious video. The young girl sitting at the bus stop clearly upset receives an inspirational yet comedic meme telling her “[she’s] got this.” Another key factor the ad wanted to emphasize was how impressionable young minds are. The young boy on a road trip with his family receives a “hate” message on his page stating that “No one likes [him].”At the start, the boy was clearly very upset at this amount of negativity; I mean, who likes to hear that no one likes you? But then, due to the infamous Coca-Cola spill, the screen instantly changes to “There is no one like ‘U'” with a smile emoticon. This action elicits a smile from the young boy.
At the end of the commercial, the message: “The world is what we make it” appears on the screen followed by the hashtag “Make it Happy.” Though the ad itself was a promotion of the Coca-Cola drink, the Company decided to take their advertisement a step further to inspire and inform their viewers of the power of their words. This moving commercial wants to emphasize the amount of influence many people have at the tips of their fingers. With Social Media, we all have the ability to either make another person’s day or to ruin it; we all have the ability to create a lasting impression on another person. Just because we have the power to sit behind a computer screen and spread toxicity, doesn’t mean that we should for the simple fact that we don’t know the other person on the other side of the screen. Our actions and our words can affect others in incomprehensible manners. The world is what we make it, therefore, as human beings, we have the ability to mold it with kindness and compassion.
humanisticmusings 