Coke and the digital age

This chapter explores Coca-Cola's global brand presence on Instagram, and the degree to which the gender portrayals differ when catering to different cultures. Communication researchers have extensively examined how men and women are portrayed in mass media, particularly in advertising, to see whether they conform to gender stereotypes or traditional roles. Research question one asks about the differences in gender portrayals within each of the seven Coca-Cola Instagram accounts being analysed. Research question two aims to investigate the differences in the portrayals of men and women between Coca-Cola's global Instagram account and its six regional accounts. Men from the Russia account were depicted as sexier than their global counterparts, though this also held true for most of the other regional accounts, albeit to a lesser degree The results indicated that although the accounts for the feminine cultures had women and men sharing equal placement within posts than their masculine counterparts, women were less likely to be the sole primary character.