Cock-a-Cola Christmas

Christmas is coming, and with it all the little comforts that make Christmas what it is. Like Christmas turkey, classic films on the telly, and the same red, Coca-Cola trucks proudly 'coming over the hill', as if we've forgotten they're the proud sponsor of our favourite Christian holiday.

But this year something else is 'coming'. In a new campaign for the festive season Coca-Cola have redesigned the advertising on their cans to really express how much they love and respect their adoring consumers. Santa can now be seen leaning back tugging on his massive Christmas-cracker, spraying all the good little boys and girls with his foam of white stars. For extra insult the mouthpiece is placed directly in the firing line of Santa's magic spray. Enjoy.

Now, the use of sexual images to sell consumer products is nothing new. Since the rise in subliminal advertising in 1957, marketing campaigners have used a myriad of different techniques and imagery to try and 'dupe' people into buying things they previously hadn't even wanted. Sexual images, said to appeal to the 'id' (primal) part of the brain are supposed to be the most effective in manipulating consumer desire.

Coca-cola has previously been caught out for using subliminal imagery. In Australia in the mid 1980's, a billboard poster was designed and the artist, for a joke put this crafty little tease in the bottom right corner.

Since Coca-cola was banned from supplementing their drinks with healthy amounts of cocaine they've looked for ways to make their products more appealing. In 1891 their slogan was 'The Ideal Brain Tonic' and was sold as medicine as carbonated water was thought to be good for your health. It isn't.

Since then the public have been treated to many more tricks of the mind. Slogans such as 'Coke Adds Life', 'Life Tastes Good', and 'Open happiness' have harrowed above us on billboards and bus stops, topped off with lasciviously smiling models 'enjoying coke'. Earlier this year a Coke Zero advert was banned as it linked Coke to promoting polyamory. Called 'Break Up As It Should Be' it features a man breaking up with a girl then being surrounded by strippers and Coke Zero. He then looks at his now ex and mutters 'call me when you want to have fun'.

With advertising rife throughout our daily lives and product branding painting images everyday of fantasy lifestyles, what kind of message is Coca-Cola trying to send out this Christmas; 'thanks for buying Coke, now bend over for Santa'? With a company so popular their Facebook page topped 33 million fans (second only to Barrac Obama's), can they be forgiven for this kind of blatant arrogance? Think about that when you're sucking on the nation's favourite soft drink, and have a Merry Christmas.

Murdoch's War

This is a savage time. A ruthless environment where men are constantly looking over their shoulders for fear of that grim reaper, recession. It's a time when competition is bloodthirsty, and in an already starving market the vultures are having a hard time finding meat on the publics bone. Naturally it doesn't stop them trying to pick the remaining flesh off the economically anorexic public and already-plumped Rupert Murdoch is wetting his beak with yet another fist-tightening venture.

In a recent web war with Google, the jewel-eyed media mogul has accused the news aggregate site of 'kleptomania' as they haven't been playing 'fair' recently, stealing advertising revenue by linking to Murdoch's news sites. Currently only 1 in 10 people pay for content online, and Murdoch seeks to change all that.

Announcing the recent plans to erect pay walls for his content on the web, readers will soon have to pay for online papers such as the Sun and the Times. Lifting the other middle finger firmly in the air, Murdoch is also teaming up with uber-nerd Bill Gates to create 'Bing', a search engine designed to rival Google and exclusively link to Murdoch's news empire.

Since the recession hit, UK advertising has been hit hard with online advertising falling 2.1%. This has had a knock-on effect on print journalism as people are more likely to get their truth injection online instead of over breakfast. Lacking in revenue, print publications have been falling like lead balloons, throwing journalists out the basket like sandbags.

Is this the beginning of the end for the humble print journalist? Fear not, a recent report from the KPMG suggests they're still a long way off from getting people to pay for content and entertainment online. However the public have been slowly spoon-fed the idea thanks to Apple's itunes and 'apps', and it seems we're getting a taste for it. How long before we're emptying our paypal accounts desperate to download the latest app to tell us to how to think because we've even forgotten to do that for ourselves?

The internet is becoming a bigger part in our lives every day, and like a crack dealer it's got us hooked and now it's preying on our weakness. James Harding (editor of the Times) promised recently to 'rewrite the economics of newspapers' with plans for 24hr subscriptions to online news sites, using slogans such as 'the first click's free'. I'm sure he meant to say 'hit'.

As a would-be journalist I'm not sure where I stand. On the one hand Murdoch's driving revenue to the very institutions I'm aspiring to, but something leaves a sour taste in my mouth. When internet users have been weaned on free content, and anything that begs a subscription will get hacked, cracked and exploited all over the web, how can one man seek to control content on the world wide web?