Coca-Cola’s advertisement history is like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Coca-Cola's advertising resonates with millions across the world. It is renowned for being effective, entertaining and instantly recognisable, but the “Because I Can” campaign released in January proved to be a disappointment. This raised the question: what’s happened to its ad strategy? It’s time to delve into the good, the bad, and the ugly of Coke’s advertising past.

First, the good. We all love a good Christmas ad and, being roughly 120 years old, Coca-Cola has had a lot of time to get it right. It’s no surprise, then, that one of Coke’s best adverts is its Christmas iteration of 1995: the Christmas trucks. It is a masterclass in brand awareness, and even uses a painting of Santa that has been around since the 1930s. Talk about brand continuity.

Another great campaign to mention is “Share a Coke”, which replaced the logo with names and simple phrases. This became a viral hit with 235,000 tweets on the #ShareACoke hashtag, and 25m new Facebook followers, demonstrating its remarkable success. Coke’s advertising once had heart.

Now for the bad. Speaking of Christmas, it’s well known that brands jump on holidays and days of celebration as a chance to make money. For the most part, customers let it slide. But perhaps there are some things that should be left alone, such as last year’s landmark ruling allowing Saudi Arabian women to drive.

Coke turned this into an ad featuring a man teaching his daughter. She’s shaky at first, but that’s all fixed by a sip of Coke, and they drive off into the desert. Some applauded Coca-Cola’s inclusivity, but many found the ad tasteless.

Finally, the ugly. “Because I Can” was a new campaign launched in order to appeal to millennials. With younger generations choosing healthier alternatives, Diet Coke wanted to alleviate their concerns and encourage them to do what makes them “feel good.”

The outcome is a bland and patronising campaign that is full of stereotypes. The word “super” is thrown around like confetti, and buzzwords like “athleisure” appear fundamental to the millennial lexicon. The ad basically says, “we know its not good for you, but do it anyway”. It is full of generalisations, Coke glosses over the one that is most likely to hurt sales.

If Coca-Cola can teach us one thing, it is that no business is immune to bad advertising choices, no matter how well ingrained it is in the public consciousness. It may have been easier in the days before political correctness, and the youth may well be a bunch of easily offended “snowflakes”, but businesses need to remember who has buying power.