Decoding Coca-Cola's Collectibles

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Analysing the information provided from a collector’s point of view, there are not much information on understanding the culture behind these collectibles. From this book, I gathered information that Hill collects these collectibles due to Coca-Cola brand etched to her life and also because these items are beautiful in terms of aesthetics. Since Hill is only a collector with a purpose to own every collectible as a form of memory and only appreciates the overall visual aesthetics of the collectibles, her book mainly provides visual images on her personal collectibles accompanied with their price values and year it was made. Hill did not share her opinions or provide any information on the culture behind the collectibles’ design. In addition, a website resource for people who love vintage and antiques and has eBay auctions for these collectibles, ‘Collectors Weekly,’[3] the website provided an insight for the reason to collector’s collecting collectibles. It said, “Collectors today can find a flood of Coke memorabilia and collectibles—part of these items’ genius in the first place was their durability and usability.”[4] This tells us that Coca-Cola collectibles were collected by consumers for their functionality and long-lasting factor. It dawn on me that most collectors collects as a hobby or habit as well as they look at these collectibles for their function and overall visual aesthetics. [pic 4][pic 5][pic 6][pic 7]

However, as mentioned above, the aim of using this book is for me to look into the different varieties of collectibles by Coca-Cola such as bookmarks, bottles, calendars, cars and trucks, clocks, coupons, signs and trays and source out for images of collectibles as references and sources for object of analysis. Upon analysing the collectibles in Hill’s book, majority of Coca-Cola’s advertisements used on the collectibles featured women and I have compiled them for your reference (see Figure 2.) These women are known as “Coca-Cola Girls.” Hill mentioned about Coca-Cola Girls in her preface, “Everything that is in this book was in our elaborately decorated home to enhance the beautiful Coca-Cola girls.”[5] Coca-Cola’s advertising method of using “Coca-Cola Girls” led me to source for a book called “Coca-Cola Girls” by Chris H. Beyer,[6] that introduces and contains information on “Coca-Cola Girls” used in advertisements found on the collectibles which will be discussed later on in the essay. To conclude the research from ‘Price Guide to Vintage Coca-Cola Collectibles, 1896-1965’ by Deborah Goldstein Hill,[7] it led me to narrow down the focus to a distinctive group of collectibles — the advertisements that featured the beautiful and iconic “Coca-Cola Girls” used on the collectibles.[pic 8][pic 9]

Figure 3. A Coca-Cola serving tray, 1904, featuring Lillian Nordica, the second Coca-Cola Girl

Are the “Coca-Cola Girls” considered women being used as products? Was it a culture commonly used during that period where women should be used as objects in advertisements? With reference to Figure 2, Coca-Cola’s advertisements specifically the ones featuring “Coca-Cola Girls” seem to portray gender stereotypes as well as social standards. As I flipped through the collectibles book and researched on them, majority were female models in their advertisements as if it was a culture and it seemed to me that there might be a hidden message behind the usage of women in their advertisements. In order to confirm if Coca-Cola’s collectibles are showing gender displays and stereotypes, I will be analysing using gender theory — Erving Goffman’s gender analysis from his book ‘Gender Advertisements,’[8] provides a clear and structured framework to analyse objects for gender theories. We will be looking at Figure 3 as our object of analysis using Goffman’s gender theory to understand the culture of using women in advertisements.[9] Goffman’s book describes how femininity and masculinity is displayed within Western media[10] and he analyses a variety of adverts in terms of gestural forms as a way to decode the construction of gender and to reveal the social structuring of gender roles.[11] In his book, Goffman came up with six ways of analysis — relative size, feminine touch, function ranking, the family, the ritualisation of subordination and licensed withdrawal.[12][pic 10]

Using Figure 3 as reference, I will decode the object using Goffman’s six ways of analysis. Analysing the object using ‘Feminine Touch’ — referring to women’s hands depicted ‘caressing or tracing’ objects or themselves instead of just ‘holding or grasping,’ giving off a gentle vibe, it seems that Lillian’s hand posture seems very soft and gentle but caressing a prop instead of the Coca-Cola glass in the background. Her fingers seems so delicate posing with the feathery prop, giving off a prominent feminine feel. Another way to analyse the object would be by using ‘Licensed Withdrawal’ — definition provided by Ariah in her blog on media studies, “Women are portrayed as psychologically removed from the situation, implying that they must rely on others. This is shown with an averted gaze, a look of fear or uneasiness, or hands/fingers covering their face.”[13] In the object, Lillian’s gaze is averted away and she is not looking straight ahead facing audience but in Lillian’s case, her facial expression does not seem to portray a look of fear or uneasiness. Ariah’s definition is credible as Johanna stated her opinion on how women are being portrayed in her blog on gender displays, “women are portrayed as soft, vulnerable, fragile, powerless, dreamy, child-like, and submissive.”[14] His framework definitely expresses the gender stereotypes clearly with women being portrayed as feminine and also made us analyse the object critically and involves us to observe the design of the advertisement on the object. In conclusion to this source, Goffman gave an interesting approach and analysis to gender theory which seems quite helpful in helping me to decode if Coca-Cola’s collectibles are portraying gender displays. Seeing that his theory worked on Figure 3, Coca-Cola collectibles do have gender display culture behind their advertisements used in their collectibles.[pic 11]

The third source would be by material culture approach. What is material culture? With reference to Dr Frances Robertson’s lecture on material culture approach, it is about the study and writing about objects which can be linked to systematic accumulation of observations to help create theories about the world — leading to materialism, realism and positivism. Material culture allows us to find symbolic meanings relating to the elements used in the objects as well as helping us to determine if

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