Background: I used to drink Coke Zero, but gave up all artificial sweeteners recently. Anyway, Diet Coke has always tasted like soap. With Coke Zero, introduced decades after Diet Coke, they imitated the vanilla-ginger taste of Coca Cola. I drank Coke Zero for the last ten years or so until they changed the name to Coke Zero Sugar in case anyone was unaware what it meant. Plus they made it sweeter, which made it cloying and undrinkable. Just background information.
This new Diet Coke ad features an insolent girl (can't tell her age - about 20 to 25) saying "Here's the thing about diet coke..." (long pause as she has a long swig)..."It's delicious."
No it's not. Seriously? This is the thing about it? Hey - reminds me of their old slogan in the 60s, was it? Or the 80s? "Just for the taste of it". Because they had nothing good to say about it then either.
Then she says "if you want to run a marathon, it sounds super hard but go ahead. If you want to live in a yurt, yurt it up". (making up a term that doesn't exist because she is so condescending. I am surprised she ever heard of yurts). She concludes by saying life is short and you should do you. That's her slang for "do your thing." She's going to have a diet coke, and if you want a diet coke, you should have one. Life is so short, you had better drink this artificial junk!!! Heaven forbid you eat real food or do anything for your health. Be authentic! If you want a diet coke, have one. How desperate is this on the part of their ad agency. Who approved this?
If I had liked diet coke before, this would make me despise it.
What's wrong with this? First, it's stolen from the movie Invention of Lying, which is a parable about a world where no one can lie, so the commercials for Coke just say "Coke. You know what it is. We just want you to keep buying it." Second, the ad makes it sound like there are two camps in the world. Those who care about their health (run a marathon, live in a yurt), and those who just don't care about anything except that this zero nutrition, pricey product in a new can is "delicious." NO it's not.
I think we have all seen enough articles to know that diet drinks are suspected of CAUSING weight gain because they raise insulin levels, and they possibly make people add more calories since they had the zero calorie drink. This girl in the ad of course doesn't mention she's watching her weight. She's only interested in the "taste".
I looked it up and the company is trying to attract a new generation so they changed the cans to tall and skinny, and made these repulsive ads. Yes there is another one with a young man, who is even more vague about why he is drinking this product.
The point is that there is so much that is suspect about diet colas in general that there is nothing the company can say about them, so they make it about "doing your thing". Only, oops, it also insults those who like to run marathons or live in a yurt. Because - those people are not swilling down canned pop, right? But she is because it's her being her authentic self.
That's all - this ad is totally offensive.
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