The premiere of King Kong in 1933 was met with high public demand. It received reviews for being a powerful adventure film and having a fascinating plot.
The mass market of film introduced the great ape to new media forms. According to Cynthia Erb in her book Tracking King Kong: A Hollywood Icon in World Culture she states that King Kong met the definition of being a popular hero in his role (13). She further explains that he continues to make a splash in popular media. King Kong has recently been spotted in “advertisements for Coke and Energizer batteries” (13).
We can easily see in this Coca Cola advertisement that King Kong is used to demonstrate how the popular cola drink can be more alluring that a beautiful woman. He acts as though it is a difficult choice between the woman and the soda pop.
In contrast, this 1993 Energizer battery commercial paints King Kong a more stereotypical light. We see that the board members in the advertisement view King Kong as a powerful, aggressive opponent to the energizer bunny. This magnifies the fact that ultimately the bunny overcome the attack of the gorilla through the use of his brand name battery.
Just like the many ‘isms’ of feminists there are varying characterizations of how King Kong, and further great apes, should be views in popular media. Though, the mainstream message seems to be one of “monstrosity” and “instability” (205).
