Obey Your Thirst

One of my favorite advertising campaigns of all time is Sprite's ubiquitous "Obey Your Thirst" campaign that began in the mid-nineties and has been presented in various iterations through the early aughts.

To push their soda as a "sports drink" and appeal to a young urban (and mainly male) demographic, campaign images often featured professional basketball or football players in action, a hip-hop theme song, and bold-print copy (often drawn in graffiti-esque lettering) touting their memorable (and genius) slogan:

Image is Nothing. Thirst is Everything. Obey Your Thirst.

A dual-faceted campaign, Sprite tackled both print and television adverting during this time. One of the first lyrics for the television ad hip-hop jingle were, "Never forget yourself 'cause first things first, grab a cold can, and Obey your thirst."

Advertising itself, along with its obvious premise (to help sell products), exists to perpetuate our dissatisfaction with our place in the world. It is meant to undermine our sense of balance, and then uses the opportunity to offer a solution for sale. In an age where pleasure is separate from happiness (the former being read from an internal gauge and the latter being measured against societal values), advertising promises us, falsely in many cases, to bridge the gap.

What can we understand then, about the Sprite campaign's attempt to simultaneously undermine and save it's consumer base?

A catchy slogan often abbreviated to just the final three words, the campaign remains one of my all-time favorites because the deeper meaning, while not directly emphasized, easily soaks into our subconscious mind, taps into the existential struggle felt by so many, and becomes immediately and inextricably associated with the product. The subtext itself is actually so powerful that over time, nothing more than an image of the can or bottle itself, without a spokesperson or even the suggestion of a human presence, is needed.

As a young urbanite coming of age in a time of economic and social upheaval, I can say that the idea of taking destiny into your own hands is a mighty powerful one indeed. Despite the fact that I personally try to avoid drinking soda whenever possible, I would still say that this campaign has been successful in assuring that I maintain positive feelings about the product at hand. More importantly, I can still easily identify the slogan, even a decade after its introduction into public discourse.

In unpacking the slogan itself, you may be surprised to find that the deeper meaning still feels particularly resonant and thus the campaign still feels extremely relevant and current. (It is likely that this reasoning has contributed to the lack of revamps. If it ain't broke...) 

Image is nothing, the ad tells us. In other words, it doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter if you're not exactly where you imagined yourself; you don't need to compare yourself to others. On the other hand, thirst, they maintain, is everything. Tap into your inner drive, the campaign urges. Who do YOU want to be? What do YOU want out of life? In asking yourself these questions and answering honestly, you are forced with only two paths: the ultimate hypocrisy of living a life whose outer appearance is incongruent with inner motivations... or confronting the truth of your own desires, becoming an  active participant in your own destiny, and Obeying Your Thirst.

We cannot ignore, however, that Sprite is also offering a shortcut to all of this self-reflection: drink Sprite, and you'll be calling society's bluff. Sprite, in this case, can be understood as a symbol of anti-conformity, and as such, the consumption of Sprite is a shorthand for declaring yourself a free-thinker. Ironically though, by taking part in the growth of an already-successful corporation, you are also self-identifying as another member of Team Sprite.

Particularly interesting too, is the way that this simple slogan has been co-opted by other groups to include other shades of subtextual meaning. The image below, for example, plays on the idea of personal empowerment to impart the benefits of following the teachings of Christ. While not particularly clever or out-of-the-box thinking, the parody still "works" because the essential message remains in tact: ignore the superficial, turn to something more meaningful and you will find the way.