Coca-Cola myth busted by ACCC
Coca-Cola will publish corrective advertisements in newspapers across the country about its ‘myth-busting’ campaign, created by agency SO&M Sydney, following action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
“The ACCC has accepted court-enforceable undertakings from Coca-Cola South Pacific Pty Ltd (CCSP), about statements published in Coca-Cola’s Kerry Armstrong on Motherhood & Myth-Busting advertisement,” ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.
Coca-Cola South Pacific Pty Ltd (Coca-Cola) is responsible for marketing and technical services for the Coca-Cola beverage products within Australia.
“On 11 October 2008, Coca-Cola published an advertisement featuring actress Kerry Armstrong called Kerry Armstrong on Motherhood and Myth-busting. The advertisement referred to a number of ‘myths’ about Coca-Cola.”
In particular, the advertisement used the words in relation to Coca-Cola:
• Myth. Makes you fat
• Myth. Rots your teeth
• Myth. Packed with caffeine.
On 18 October 2008 Coca-Cola published a further advertisement entitled To all our Customers which, in relation to the advertisement said “…we felt it was time to state the facts and to help you understand the truth behind Coca-Cola.”
The ACCC believes the advertisements had the potential to mislead consumers by representing that:
• Coca-Cola cannot contribute to weight gain and obesity
• Coca-Cola cannot contribute to tooth decay
• 250ml of the Coca-Cola Product bearing the brand Diet Coca-Cola contains one half of the amount of caffeine as that contained in 250ml of tea, and
• a responsible parent can include Coca-Cola in a family diet without any regard whatsoever to the potential for weight gain or tooth decay arising from consuming Coca-Cola.
“Coca-Cola has been working with the ACCC to address concerns, and has agreed to:
• publish a corrective advertisement in; The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Courier Mail, Adelaide Advertiser, The West Australian, and the Hobart Mercury
• publish a corrective advertisement for a period of 28 days on www.makeeverydropmatter.com.au
• publish for six months on http://www.makeeverydropmatter.com.au the correct levels of caffeine for Coca-Cola, Diet Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero and compare this with the levels of caffeine in the same amounts of tea brewed from leaf or teabag and instant coffee, and
• implement a trade practices law compliance review.
“After seeing the Myth Busting campaign the ACCC was immediately concerned about the misleading messages it was likely to send to consumers and in particular, to mothers who are often the decision makers about family nutrition.
“Coke’s messages were totally unacceptable, creating an impression which is likely to mislead that Coca-Cola cannot contribute to weight gain, obesity and tooth decay.
They also had the potential to mislead parents about the potential consequences of consuming Coca Cola.”
16 Comments
The ads were rich, sure, but this is a classic case of the gongbeaters getting over-excited. People know it’s got sugar in it. And caffeine. And anything’ll make you fat if you have enough of it. Sales won’t be dented or bolstered either way, which admittedly begs the question of why the strategy was adopted in the first place.
I’m off for my morning can.
It’s about goddamn time someone talked about this. They have warnings and pictures on cigarette packs saying you’ll get cancer. Why don’t they have pickies on coke cans of rolls of flab and people having heart attacks?
Saw that one coming. That ad was an outrage.
Totally unrelated to this story, but I just saw the ‘revised’ Cadbury Gorilla ad on TV last night.
I can imagine the conversations that led to the creation of that monstrosity:
“Let’s Australian-ise it”
“Yeah, let’s make it more relevant to an Australian audience”
Fuck me. What’s next? Taking ‘Gone With The Wind’ and redubbing it?
– “Franky luv, I don’t think some Aussie clients have got any fucken idea”
Why are lots of Australian clients so obsessed with selling the sausage and not the sizzle?
2:41 – This ad was all about “motherhood”. Can you not see how this was totally irresponsible?
Irresponsible on two levels:
1. Coke is shit for you. No matter what way you cut it. As an adult, you can make a decision about what goes into your body, but suggesting to Mums that it is fine for their kids is just plain unethical.
2. As advertisers, we are facing government legislation on what we can advertise. I have no problems with Coke advertising their products, but as i say, this is simply misleading. This will outrage the general public and increase groundswell of support for limiting our ability to advertise ‘junk’ food.
Doing an advertorial for Coke. What an incredible lack of imagination.
Australian advertising has hit a new low and the marketing director should be SACKED.
I agree. If heads don’t roll for an abomination like this, what would you have to do to get fired at Coke. Shocking idea in the first place and then getting shit from the ACCC just reinforces the perception that Coke is the worst thing that you could put down your throat. Couldn’t have screwed up a piece of communications more if you tried.
At least it’s not scam.
Gee, And I thought Kerry Armstrong was so sexy too. Methinks it damages her- and advertising’s reputation.
The agencies should never allowed to place or run it.
> do you really think this makes a difference to all of us who drink coke? or what we think of coke?
I wish Kerry Armstrong was my mum.
I’m glad to hear that this particular piece of advertising was called in to question.
I have worked in paediatric dentistry for many years and have far too often seen children present with horrific dental decay as a result of poor dietary choices and oral hygeine management by their parents. Coke, Nutella, Roll Ups, Nutrigrain, Cocoa Pops, chocolate bars and Pop Top type sweet drinks are almost always without exception main or bit players in the tale of devastated teeth in children and adolescents.
It’s shitful, heartbreaking, distressing and unfair that so many young children end up spending hours in dental clinics having injections, extractions, root canal treatment or massive fillings largely because their parents have been tricked into believing that the above mentioned products offer children some sort of healthy benefit or ‘energy to grow’.
I was personally livid that someone of Kerry Armstong’s standing consented to being the face of such blatant, misleading and dangerous communication to parents. I am more livid that the Coca Cola company even dared to pass off their drink as being ok for children’s health in any way. At best, it should be regarded as a ‘sometimes treat food’, not a regular part of a family’s daily intake.
Not convinced about my point of view? Perhaps a day in the dental hospital watching children as young as 2 years old having all of their teeth extracted because they are nothing but abscessed, black root stumps or making a 5 year old get injection after injection followed by extraction after extraction may alter your view point.
Poor little kids. The little buggers deserve better. And Kerry Armstrong should have known better.
That’s what I think.
The agency involved here has not been mentioned, and I think they need to be.
It was Singleton Ogilvy & Mather.
Methinks they weren’t very smart, as any initial gain would have been negated by general bad brand vibes that will smoulder for some time to come….
Coke shouldn’t take all the blame for this.
Am I mistaken or isn’t this what clients pay agencies for? I worked on a confectionary company a while back and the brief was to sell said confectionary to mothers as “fat free”.
While true, it is also 95% sugar. It is up to us as suits, planners, and creatives to have a little responsibility, show some spine and offer alternatives to the clients ‘strategy’.
In my personal anecdote, we (the creatives) sold a different strategy to the suits, planner, CD and ultimately the client.
There are other ways of changing the world than just doing another charity campaign.
This is what GRAEME SAMUEL said today on ABC Radio: “Coke executives must be sitting in the offices this morning scratching their heads and saying why ever did we put the ads in the first place, because people who might have otherwise believed part of what was being claimed by coke, will now be saying look we ought to disbelieve the whole lot of it.”
Bully Coke takes it on the nose. About time.