Coke: The Chase

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uFQAqwbwSg


This advert shows groups of different people (Cowboys, Las Vegas showgirls, etc) in the desert racing to get to the giant Coca Cola bottle.
The main aim of this advert is to get people to vote for the group that they think will win the race. In my opinion, however, nobody will care about who wins this race and therefore hardly anybody will actually go online to vote. Coca Cola have given people no incentive to vote. Most Coca Cola adverts are off topic (like this advert), but most are memorable. This one just seems so long and random that it would not stick in my memory.
This advert tried to use a storytelling technique. However, it is unlikely to have worked because nobody is actually interested in the story (and the outcome of it). Slusher & Anderson (1996) looked at the effects of presenting information to participants in a story manner. They found that participants could remember more information if it was presented in a story manner compared to statistics, and this therefore had more of an effect on their behaviour.
This advert also used a prescreening technique, and time contraints were used (i.e. vote by a particular time).
In general, the longer the message, the better it is. For example, Petty & Cacioppo (1984) found that when a recipient did not have to process much information, a longer advert increased persuasion. However, this Coca Cola advert is, in my opinion, too long and becomes boring.

Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T (1984). The effects of involvement on responses to argument quantity and quality: Central and peripheral routes to persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 69-81.

Slusher, M. P., & Anderson, C. A. (1996). Using causal persuasive arguments to change beliefs and teach new information: The mediating role of explanation availability and evaluation bias in the acceptance of knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 110-122.