Reading a Coffee Ad

Goal: After this lesson you can analyze a coffee advertisement using a media-literacy lens. Subject: English Language Arts | Run time: about 7 minutes

Quick recall

Last time we read the Ethiopian ceremony as a story. Two quick questions. One: name the three rounds of the ceremony in order. Abol, tona, baraka (Pankhurst, 1997). Two: what does abol represent in story terms? The rising action, the strong opening (Pankhurst, 1997).

Why this matters

An ad is a text. Somebody wrote it, somebody shot it, and somebody chose every single thing you see and every thing you do not. A coffee ad is making an argument about coffee, and most people let it slide past without reading it. You are going to read it on purpose, with five questions.

The idea

When you look at a coffee advertisement, ask these five things in order. Question one: who is shown? Look at the people in the frame. Their age, their lifestyle, their economic class. The ad picked them for a reason. Question two: who is absent? This one is harder because you are looking for what is not there. Think about who grows and pours and serves the coffee. The workers, the farmers, the shift workers, the elderly, the disabled. If they are missing, that is a choice too. Question three: what story is being told? Most coffee ads tell a story of leisure rather than labor, of luxury rather than necessity. Notice which one you are being sold. Question four: what techniques are used? Watch for emotional appeal, for lifestyle association, for aspiration, the sense that this cup will make you the person in the picture. Question five: what is the gap between the ad and the data? This is where media literacy gets sharp. Hold the ad's story up against what is actually true about who drinks coffee. Now run that last question with a real number. The heaviest coffee drinkers are adults working 40 or more hours a week (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024). That is the data. But most ads show leisure, sunlit cafes and unhurried, easy moments (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024). See the gap? The people buying the most coffee are tired and working long hours, and the ad is selling them a calm they do not have time for. That gap is the whole lesson. The gap between what is sold and who actually buys shows you how a text gets shaped by its purpose and its audience (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024). The ad is not lying about coffee. It is choosing a story that sells, and the choice tells you what the ad is for.

Picture it

Picture a coffee ad in your head right now. Warm light, a slow morning, somebody relaxed with a mug, no clock in sight. Now picture the person who actually buys the most coffee, clocking in for a 40-hour-plus week, drinking it on the move to keep going (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024). Lay one image over the other. The space between them is the gap, and reading that gap is what media literacy means.

Remember this

The fact to carry out: ask five questions of any ad. Who is shown, who is absent, what story is told, what techniques are used, and what is the gap between the ad and the data (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024). Texts are built for a purpose and an audience, so they show you some things and hide others. When you can name the gap, the ad stops reading you and you start reading it.

Quick check

Quick check. An ad shows a relaxed person enjoying coffee in a sunny, unhurried cafe. What does the consumption data say about who actually drinks the most coffee? Adults working 40 or more hours a week, not people at leisure (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024).

Key Takeaways

Read a coffee ad with five questions: who is shown, who is absent, what story is told, what techniques are used, and what is the gap between the ad and the data (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024).
The heaviest coffee drinkers are adults working 40 or more hours a week (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024).
Most ads show leisure, sunlit cafes and unhurried moments, not the long working hours of the actual heavy buyers (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024).
The gap between what is sold and who buys reveals how a text is shaped by its purpose and audience (Specialty Coffee Association, 2024).

Sources

Pankhurst, R. (1997). The Ethiopian borderlands: Essays in regional history from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. Red Sea Press.
Specialty Coffee Association. (2024). The specialty coffee almanac 2024: Market trends and pricing analysis. https://sca.coffee