Throughout my academic work, I have been interested in power. Not solely the more obvious power exercised through laws or institutions, but more specifically the softer forms of influence that shape how people think, feel, and respond. Advertising is one of the clearest examples of this kind of “soft” power. Companies carefully craft messages designed to persuade audiences, build emotional connections, and influence public perception, often without audiences consciously recognizing those efforts.
Living in the digital age, and watching certain controversies unfold made me realize that the public conversation rarely began by questioning the advertisements themselves. Instead, people often reacted emotionally to the campaigns or to one another's interpretations. This allows those reactions to spread like wildfire across social media. As the controversies evolved, the original advertisements became only one part of a much larger conversation shaped by journalists, influencers, memes, and online communities. This raised a question that became the foundation of this project. When an advertisement goes viral, who ultimately controls what it means? Is it the company that created it, or the audience that interprets it?
By tracing each controversy day by day, this timeline examines how meaning is negotiated in digital spaces. Rather than treating these campaigns as isolated public relations failures, it explores how corporate messaging, audience participation, and social media interact to reshape public understanding in real time. Ultimately, this project asks who holds the power to create meaning, in the digital age?