How Playing the “Good Guys” Became Coca-Cola’s Real Ad Campaign.
You know the name, you know the product. It’s difficult in most parts of the developed world to even spend a day going about your normal routines without being reminded of this titan of the beverage industry.
Ranked this year as number thirty-one in a study ranking global market capitalization (Scoring higher than Disney, Netflix, Exxon, and Nike) and with Coke maintaining a Brand Value of over $70 Billion dollars and a U.S. Market Value of over $203 Billion.
On average, over 10,000 soft drinks from Coca-Cola are consumed every second. Coke sold 25 bottles its first year, but currently sells 1.8 billion bottles per day.
Nearly incomprehensible figures that represent a massive utilization of resources such as aluminum and water, and a need for billions of tonnes of plastic. In a world with an ever growing issue on the environmental front Coca-Cola set an ambitious goal for itself, to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can it sells by 2030 and to make its bottles and cans out of at least 50% recycled material.
This Summer Coca-Cola suspended its use of social media as an outlet for advertisements and took a break from traditional marketing; calling for Facebook to take a more active approach to eliminate and silence hateful, racist speech made by users while Coca-Cola launched ad campaign focusing on empathy.
This lack of presence on what is, even in 2020, an incredibly popular online destination has not meant that consumers forgot about the drink that’s been a staple of the global beverage market for nearly a century.
During the ongoing pandemic Coca-Cola has spent millions of dollars funding the purchase of medical supplies and providing advertising for small businesses. They also took steps to distribute food to local outlets during a time when other companies struggled to maintain a supply chain.
“Our focus is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our people and our communities in these challenging times,” Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola James Quincey said in an official release.
“The resources of our company, our bottling partners and The Coca-Cola Foundation are making a difference through needed assistance to organizations that are positioned to mobilize quickly and provide humanitarian relief.”
In 2020 the company publicly places their priority on doing good and contributing to a global relief effort, while simultaneously cutting back on advertising and working to clean up our planet. On the surface a sign that profits are not as important as humanitarianism to the company, serving as the continuation of a legacy the company is certainly proud of.
So equality, safety from a pandemic, and the need for sustainability. Coca-Cola is clearly in a position to either help or hinder global efforts in these pursuits. But just how honest are these claims?
Coca-Cola is able to reduce the cost of producing their beverages by tapping local water supplies for their bottling facilities. Coca-Cola recently found themselves the target of boycotts after refusing to cease using local taps in areas where water supplies are being drained by these bottling plants and causing crops to dry up. According to Verge “-an international PR nightmare that threatened Coca-Cola’s brand image and global business strategy.”
The company broke records when it agreed to pay the largest settlement ever in a racial discrimination case. The settlement mandated Coca-Cola make sweeping changes and even gave an outside group authority to ‘revise company personnel policy’.
According to The New York Times in an article by Greg Winter “Coke officials and plaintiff’s lawyers characterized the settlement as a ‘business necessity’”
Nearly two decades have passed since that hearing and the company speaks of their court mandated policy saying “Empowering people’s access to equal opportunities, no matter who they are or where they’re from. Diversity and inclusion are at the heart of our values and our growth strategy and play an important part in our company’s success. We value equality.”
Indeed diversity and inclusion are vital to the success of the company, especially when the public perception can move more product than a billboard ever could. These values that are at the heart of this 128 year old company are only nearing about 20 years. Continues Winter; “a global company operating in roughly 200 countries can ill-afford to develop a reputation for intolerance”
Undoubtedly the efforts and donations made to health organizations in the interest of COVID-19 relief have provided some level assistance. But such help during a highly publicized pandemic is not tantamount to Coca-Cola taking in interest in world health, especially when their claim to fame is a drink harmful to the health of entire nations.
Mexican Health undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell connected soda consumption with COVID-19 deaths, blaming sugar for causing comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension — maladies common in Mexico, where almost three-quarters of the population is overweight, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Continues López-Gatell;
“Why do we need bottled poison in soft drinks? Health in Mexico would be very different if we stopped being deceived by these lifestyles sold on television and heard on radio and which we see on adverts — as if this was happiness.”
In an age before regulations in advertising extreme almost comical claims were made about the health benefits of drinking not just Coke, but any sugary soda. The nature of conversation about Coca-Cola today is not about whether or not the drink is bad for us, but how bad for us it is.
Research done by health writer Wade Meredith and pharmacist Niraj Naik shows the damage that a 330 milliliter (ml) can of Coca-Cola can inflict on the body within 1 hour of consumption; “Blood sugar levels increase dramatically causing a burst of insulin. The liver then turns the high amounts of sugar into fat. Caffeine causes the pupils to dilate and the blood pressure to increase. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the pleasure and reward centers of the brain.
The way that Coca-Cola stimulates these centers is comparable to the effects of heroin. It triggers a person’s urge to drink another can.”
After this study was published, a Coca-Cola spokesperson in an official press statement assured consumers that the beverage is “perfectly safe to drink and can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet and lifestyle.”
Early advertising focused heavily on the product. But in a world where everyone knows your product, you must sell consumers on the company. Everytime we purchase a product in a competitive market we are presented with dozens of choices, and every product you’re offered has an advertiser behind it hoping to win your purchase. A company that has been pioneering methods of advertising for over 100 years is no doubt invested in influencing that choice, and can do so in ways we aren’t even aware of.
Opinion : Companies around the world, and the governments leading the countries in which they operate, are the only ones able to influence our planet’s future in a truly meaningful way, but it is up to the individual to allow or to refuse the actions of these groups. With your money being a vote about who affects our world, of course companies like Coca-Cola use the politicians approach and tell us they have our back and will save the world, but just how true are these new campaign promises?