The first time I saw this ad I really enjoyed it so I thought it would be interesting to deconstruct it. I don't know a lot about video games and have only seen my brother play GTA a couple times but the scene was instantly recognizable. It would have instant appeal with young people and draw their focus right away. Coke took a risk by using scenes from GTA because it has such negative connotations for parents and those outside of a certain age bracket. In order for the ad to be successful, they needed to hold the attention of that audience long enough to get to their message, "You give a little love and it all comes back to you. You're gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do.", which is "the Coke side of life". They took a piece of popular culture that is extremely controversial and negative and transformed it into an uplifting and hopeful commentary on "being nice". In essence, saying that Coke has the power to remove the shadows from our world and make everyone a little more happy.
One thing that I've found interesting as I've looked at for ads is the intergenerational aspect to commercials. Marketers are trying to play to both young people and their parents. They need youth buy in, but in many cases need the parents money so they have to find a balance of each viewpoint. I think this ad is a good example of those dichotomies at play.
I looked at the commercial through a racial lens and tried to figure out who was missing and the thing that struck me is that there were three black guys hanging out when the car pulled up to the store but as the sun started to come out and more people came into the picture, it felt very suburban. There may have been a few people of color in those clips, but they were easy to miss. There was a shift in the culture on screen, it went from urban street cars to convertibles with preppy white guys and pretty girls. There was a underlying message that the in order for life to be happy the "urban-ness" needed to be placated.
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