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  • Writer's pictureStu Lloyd

Coke TVC that Captures the Zeitgeist of the Times.


One of my favourite words in the whole wide world is 'zeitgeist', a German word meaning the spirit or mood of the times.


And these are crazy times, my people, full of chop and change.


And Coke have patiently listened to the world, synthesised it, and got George the Poet to hold a mirror up to us.


We suddenly see this whole mad and muddled world for what it is, and ourselves trying vainly to make sense of this strange bubble of time.


They put our very words and thoughts back into our mouths, so it resonates, because, well, those were our words in the first place.


So it becomes a reassuring manifesto.


Without ever mentioning the fizzy brown stuff in the can or bottle.


Because they've again risen above that, by focussing on the highest order of emotional benefit of the benefit -- "openness" -- the polar opposite end of the communication scale from a rational approach.


I say 'again' because Coca Cola are no strangers to capturing the zeitgeist. I grew up with another of their commercials as a literal soundtrack to my childhood: "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" was a jingle which became a hit song in the UK and USA by The New Seekers: ''I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony."


They absolutely nailed it then, and forty years later the need and the message remains the same: Wouldn't it be great if the world did finally learn to sing in perfect harmony?


C'mon, people ... all together now.


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