Coca-Cola has launched a new product blog and it’s not going over too well.
Here’s some of what resistance fighters, The Zero Movement Sucks, have to say:
In co-opting the trademarks of the counter-culture–blogs, street art and a passionate cause–to promote an artifically sweetened cocktail of chemicals and flavourings, Coca Cola is demeaning it’s audience. We don’t want an ad agency forming our life philosophy. We don’t want a group of soft drink executives trying to tell us how to live our lives. We just want Coca Cola to ‘fess up to the fact that it’s a profit-driven multinational whose only interest in culture change is the carefully researched chord it might strike into it’s target market.
Coca Cola, welcome to the underground. As others have found out, it’s not always comfortable.
[via Adrants]
I’m weeping for the counter-culture and their inclusion in the rest of the living, breathing world. If they didn’t want Coke or anyone else co-opting their cultural hallmarks: online journals, public graffiti and “passion”(?), then they shouldn’t have worked so hard to be “hip.”
It’s hard to believe, let alone empathize with people who try so damn hard to make sure you notice that they don’t want to be noticed.
Great point, Mike.
While Mike does indeed make a valid point, my sympathies still lie with the “counter culture” on this one.
Granted, they may come off as insufferably pious, prententious and whiny. But just because they work “so hard to be ‘hip'” is no excuse for the likes of Coke to hijack their credibility.
I know some people see blogs as the next great marketing opportunity. But just because you can co-opt them to pimp soft drinks or sneakers or wine or video games doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.
There’s no question that it’s getting harder and harder to reach consumers these days. But I would argue that turning everything from blogs to water coolers (see story on Adrants) into a come-on, a sales pitch, a hustle only exacerbates consumer cynicism and ultimately makes them even more resistant to any kind of sell.
Well put, Carl.
I believe there is an opportunity for clients to use blogs, but they need to adapt to the media. So far, very few have done that. Sadly, their same old shuck and jive on a blog comes off as insulting, if not ludicrous.