Campaign

"Buy them a Coke and say sorry" !!

That is stoooopid. Might as well buy a knife and stick it to them. Coke and Peace don't go together. You need to look behind the can to see the real thing. Utter Bullshit!

What a negative response! Personally I believe that corporations that want to embrace social good should be encouraged, not slagged off. You have to start somewhere. Coke may not be perfect, and certainly have a controversial past, but they're trying. Give them a chance.

A century has passed and the cola wars rage on. Brand names are always a dominant force in consumer goods, and some wonder what the world's most popular brand is – the answer, believe it or not, is Coke.  Coke won the Pepsi challenge, or rather – Pepsi has dismally failed the Coke challenge - miserably.  The next biggest brands, under the Coca Cola Corporation, are, in order, IBM, Microsoft, GE or General Electric for those out of the loop, then Nokia.  Coke has been around over 120 years, starting in the latter half of the 19th century in Atlanta, Georgia, and still remains the largest bottler worldwide, and ships more bottles than anything else – including Guinness.  It seems <a rev="vote for" title="Cash Keeps Flowing for World’s Most Valuable Brand" href="personalmoneystore.com/.../cash-flowing-worlds-valuable-brand ">Coke</a> won't need financial help anytime soon.

Robert's right. Corporations who embrace social change should be encouraged. The fact that it's on a Coke can is far more controversial than it appearing on say, every product in a Body Shop. That could easily be overlooked. The jury's out as to whether Coke will keep it up. As Leo Burnett said, a principle isn't a principle until it costs you money. It will be easy to keep it going if it increases sales. Let's save the big pat on the back for when they say 'we lose money on it but we want to keep it up because it gets more people talking about peace'. Let's hope that's the case. I don't care if Coke sell more cola as long as we stays on an agenda somewhere. Cola wars are safer than civil wars. We should call for more world corps to come out in support of other pressing global issues. There's always been money to be made in war time. Perhaps corporations can be convinced there's more to be made in peacemaking/promoting, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, putting clothes on the backs of advertising people....mind you, Hugo Boss already does that. I wonder how he got started?

Hi Robert, hi Bob, yes, this is a big brand doing something that is a just cause for the greater good. But, c'mon, you and I know it's a pandering PR exercise. Actions speak louder etc. The company has a dreadful history of violence in the work place and destruction of the environment. That is why I say it's just bullshit. It's hypocritical and that is what upsets me. ...as for, give them a chance... well, if they started cleaning house rather than looking outside of it, then yeah, I'll give them a chance. But this exercise is just PR for a teflon brand. And if you swallow this can o' peas you'd probably vote for GW Bush if you had the opportunity. Just because we work in marketing doesn't mean we have to believe the nonsense it often produces. Just remember one very important point. In the second world war Coca Cola didn't want to lose out and couldn't be seen to sell Coke to the allies and the Nazi's ...so what did they do? They invented Fanta. Hence, Peace and Coke do not go together, nuff said.

John. The second world war was a long time ago. time to forgive and move on. No one's perfect. We are all guilty to an extent.  But I also believe that the world's problems are more likely to be solved by corporations than politicians.

John, I understand your distrust. But I don't care if Coke are doing it for PR. It got the subject of 'peace' on the front page of an advertising magazine. That's no mean feat. I don't care if Jordan, Kerry Katona and all the rest of Max Clifford's publicity junkies are scrambling to get on the news by talking about peace. It's peace that will ultimately benefit. Call me naive. But it beats debating whether product placement should be allowed or not. Regardless of whether, as Robert says,  you should give the corporates a chance, we must give peace a chance. Every time.

I'll admit, I do have a bee in my bonnet for Coca Cola. And yes, we should all give peace a chance. I am distrustful of super-duper sized corporations and look forward to what some people say will be a shift to local brands due to the advent of social media... but I won't be holding my breath, just watching intently and ready to cheer, jeer or join in the action when the opportunity for it (peace) arises. We all need to talk a lot, lot more...

Have a good wekend all.

I love Coke. I love McDonalds...and if you saw me you'd see that was true. But i mean as global brands. If Coke ended world peace tomorrow someone would still complain that they were a ruthless american corporation hell bent on taking over the universe, or simply that they were too fizzy. They'll always be something. Lets see what would happen if they weren't around, I reckon a few people would be out of work. For me it's simple, I don't think anyone will remember World Peace Day regardless of whoever is involved. Unless it became another bank holiday...