Love PR » Coca Cola

Coca Cola remove Gay marriage scene from Irish ad

niavie — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 04:56:25 +0000

Coca Cola have caused controversy by slightly tailoring their latest ad campaign ‘Reasons to Believe to each country in which it is shown. Why does this cause controversy? Well, in their Irish ad, Coca-Cola have omitted a scene of gay marriage which is airing in many other countries, saying that since gay marriage is not yet legal in Ireland, the scene in question was left out whereas it was left in for audiences in the UK, Norway, and Holland as those countries all allow same-sex marriage. As you would expect, a lot of people are quite upset about this and why Coca Cola have decided to remove this extremely relevant part of the ad. Many have taken to social media sites Facebook and Twitter to express their anger at the multinational corporation…

Take a look at the two ads below to see for yourself…

A spokesperson for Coca Cola is quoted in an article on The Journal as stating:

As you rightly say, the wedding images used in the ad for the UK and in other parts of Europe show two men getting married. The reason that this was changed for Ireland is that while civil partnership for gay people is legal, gay marriage currently is not. This will be the subject of a referendum (2015).

In response to the above statement, Eile Magazine have posted the following:

The article on Eile can be found here.

It will be interesting to see how Coca Cola deal with this one.

Pepsi dress as Coca Cola for Halloween in clever stunt

niavie — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 23:01:39 +0000

Possibly one of my favourite Halloween PR stunts from Belgium agency Buzz in a Box highlighting the competitive nature between the two brands in a cute stunt.

In my humble opinion, some of the very best stunts are some of the simplest.

Coca-Cola apologise after ‘You Retard’ found inside bottle cap

niavie — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 11:31:23 +0000

Coca-Cola have apologised to a family after daughter found ‘You Retard’ printed inside a bottle cap.

Blake Loates, from Alberta, Canada, was shocked to turn over her bottle cap to read ‘You Retard’.

‘We immediately thought, you have got to be kidding me?’ she told the Huffington Post Alberta.

‘We thought it might been a disgruntled employee or someone in a (bottling) plant playing a joke,’ she added.

In response, Coca-Cola have issued an apology and blamed the profanity on a competition it is currently running.The drinks giant said it is printing at random one French and one English word on the inside of each Vitamin Water cap.

‘We did not mean to offend at all,’ Shannon Denny, director of brand communications for Coca-Cola Refreshment Canada, told Metro Calgary. ‘We are certainly very apologetic for this oversight.’

The word ‘retard’ in French means to be ‘late’ or ‘delayed’.

The company also told her it was recalling any remaining related products.

It’s great to see Coca-Cola acknowledging a mistake and taking a course of action to rectify the matter. So many multinationals think if they ignore the issue it will go away or for this example a one off, accidental mistake.

It’s great to see Coca-Cola showing a sense of responsibility to their customers.

Coca Cola FM: Transform magazine into iPhone sound amplifier

niavie — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:10:21 +0000

To celebrate Coca-Cola.FM first birthday, Capricho Magazine subscribers received their magazine with a special cover that allows the reader to transform the magazine into an iPhone sound amplifier.
Just roll it up, plug your iPhone and amplify your party.

This is pretty cool!

Coca Cola Magazine Amplifier from Rodrigo Adam on Vimeo.

Love Niamh x