"Advertisements R Us" Summary

In “Advertisements R Us”, author Melissa Rubin discusses how much we can learn about a society’s culture by studying its advertisements. She uses a Coca-Cola ad as her example.  Rubin starts her analysis by describing the ad in depth, noting the people in the ad, their placement, and the background. Rubin then goes on to give historical context about Coca-Cola being identified with mainstream American culture, noting its particular connection to the military. She then begins to respond to her thesis by explaining what the ad tells us about society. First, the position of the people is very important, as it reflects the white male-dominated society.  Men uniform are placed in the foreground, highlighting their importance, a blue-collar worker and a businessmen are placed next to the servicemen, but their position suggests they take a second tier role to those in the military. There are only a few women in the ad, which Rubin notes is the assumption that women had a smaller role to play in society. Then, Rubin goes on to discuss how the ad shows the smoke coming out of the smokestacks is shown in a prideful way, suggesting that society was not as concerned with the environment as we are today. Another reflection of society that Rubin observes is that everyone is white, showing how prevalent racism was. Rubin closes with the idea that while at first Coca-Cola ads reflected their culture, they have grown to shape culture.