Coca-Cola Commercials - Best of 2007

One of my favorite mainstream advertisers every year is Coca Cola. The company has a massive budget that leads to extensive annual marketing campaigns, making it much easier to reach someone like me who doesn't think they watch that much TV. Not all of Coke's commercials are great; in fact, many fall very short in entertainment and effectiveness.  I would like to look back upon one of my favorite Coke commercials and analyze why I thought it was so good.

If you want to check out other great TV Commercials, you should check out this link and decide if you think Coke or Pepsi is really the winner of the COLA WARS. 

The best Coke tv commercial in 2007 was easily their Grand Theft Auto concept.  Introduced during the Super Bowl (the Mecca of TV Commercials), Coke took a very popular and controversial video game and used that as a basis for an uplifting and entertaining advertisement.  Grand Theft Auto is known to be a particularly violent video game, which is very popular with the younger generation of gamers.  By using this video game as the background concept for the tv commercial they were connecting directly to the mostly male and generally younger crowd.  Introducing this tv commercial during the Super Bowl further solidifies both the biggest audience of the year as well as an audience that skews male and young.  Before any more analysis, let's get to the video....

First, the commercial is very entertaining and enjoyable to watch and listen. 

I think Coke does a brilliant job contrasting the hardcore rough image that Grand Theft Auto signifies and immediatley turns it around showing the good deeds of the main character in the commercial.  From helping old ladies to stopping a car in the middle of the street just to give the driver a coke, it was clear that this Coke commercial was the exact opposite of Grand Theft Auto.  This quickly grabs the attention of audience and can keeps them as the main character performs more good deeds to catchy music. 

The audio and visual effects in the commercial are also top notch.  Not even mentioning the subtle and intricate sights and sounds of the actual Grand Theft Auto game, the creativity of the cartoons and upbeat Coke jingle really complete the concept.  The upbeat music contrasts heavily with the rock and rap that is usually associated with Grand Theft Auto.  Perhaps most importantly, a Coke bottle is visible a few times during the commercial.  This indicates Coke's attempt to show how different a place could be, no matter how violent and controversial that world is.  Essentially, if you have Coke in your life, it leads to much joy for you individually AND as a community.  

It is for all of these reasons that I truly believe the Grand Theft Auto commercial was Coke's Best Commercial in 2007.