Tristan Hughart

Professor Granillo

English 103

30 May 2019

Abstract

Coca-Cola’s “A Coke is a Coke” commercial claims that buying and drinking coke will

bring people together through the use of pathos and ethos, along with analyzing the color red

through color psychology to influence a person’s desire and appetite; however, the lack of logos

and the use of an ad populum fallacy reveals how companies try to appeal to an audience’s

emotions and psyche in order to sell a product, demoralizing the initial message of equality that

it claims to have. I looked at the commercial “A Coke is a Coke” through a rhetorical and color

psychology lens by using several references on what ethos, pathos, and logos are, along with the

work of Soma Kalia in order to explain the effects of certain colors on the brain. By using these

modes and research, I was able to analyze and explain how Coca-Cola appeals to the emotions,

morals, and psyche of its audience in order to trick it into thinking that Coca-Cola is a superior,

morally just product that should be purchased over other soft drinks.