Thinking About the Text: "Advertisements R Us"

1. Melissa Rubin gives us inside to quite a number of things in the Coca-Cola ad. Firstly she informs us that Coke spread in popularity because of its role in the war effort. This lead to factories in other countries and by the time the war had ended Cola-Cola was in a prime position to further their enterprise. Secondly she informs us about the segregation that appears in the ad as far as both black people and women are concerned. Her evidence for it was directly from Coca-Cola in that it was in tune with the society's view of racial prejudiced. Thirdly she shows that in the ad it's pretty much the prefect life. She presents this by describing the setting in which that ad is in and what is happening around it. Ultimately she concludes that in the ad it's depicted that American's lives are to be envied and drinking Coke would give you that same emulation.

2. She incorporates historical context with the use of direct quotations and through the way she starts the analysis and goes into its roots. This ultimately provides a firmer understanding of what she is connecting so as, to the reader, there isn't a disconnect.

3. Given the question, we're able to learn a great deal about a culture from a single ad. What we learn and how much we learn though is ultimately determined by how much research is done and how much analysis is done of it. Not only can you answer questions about the culture but you can also answer questions about the lifestyle, the economic situation during that time. As well as you could find another similar ad shortly after the other was published and attempt to determine how successful it was. 

4. A contemporary ad that comes to mind when thinking of our era is ads about phones. Ads about phones these days consist of many happy people and many people using the phone in all of it's features. In reality most people won't know how it works, how to do the functions shown or understand what's better about it. They also show almost nothing but the phone and people on it. Not retroactively in a group, by themselves, alone. They also depict famous and good looking people using it giving a sense of status to the phone and a sense of feeling and objectivity. The two ads compare two very different things but they basically do the same in their meaning. That the product is great, it's something to be envied but you could also have it and have the status it presents.