It didn’t start out as a focus on green. It started out as a health-and-wellness push ( what CPG company DIDN’T do a health-and-wellness push last year?) that morphed into some kind of “sustainable well-being”. Coke is hoping to S - T - R - E - T - C - H the meaning of "sustainability" into something that is less about being green and more about filling your needs as a consumer.

"We're thinking of well-being from a mental, physical, community and environmental perspective that encompasses every part of our North American business," a Coca-Cola spokeswoman said. The new campaign will launch this week with ads in the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. The 3 page spread will focus on how Coke products have evolved over the years to fill the needs of its North American consumers. According to thespokeswoman quoted on AdAge "Our own consumers were saying, 'Where are you in this [sustainability] space?'"

The newspaper spread will be followed by a commercial during American Idol this Thursday with another TV ad to be aired sometime during the Smoglympics this summer. Personally, don't really get it. Does it address Coke's "greenness"? Not really. If you go to the website that they include in the print ad there is some material addressing the environment and Corporate Social Responsibility. Interesting, blurry campaign. If you want to connect on the basis of being green then tell and show us that. If you want to tell us that "Like a good neighbor, COKE is there" - then tell us that.

Coke’s Green Street Cred’s

The $10 million campaign hopes to build some green street cred for the company looking to jump on the bandwagon of concepts surrounding green and sustainability. Coke company spokeswoman points to its promise to recycle 100% of its aluminum cans sold in the U.S. and its financial support of construction of the world’s largest bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C.

Illustration: Marc Simon accessed via AdAge article

Sattler Eco-Clothing