Coca-Cola today launches a striking campaign in the Benelux. With a manifesto by the London word artist George the Poet, the multinational wants to ‘inspire people to look at the world in a different way’. And it doesn’t even have to include their own name.
–
‘Wait. Stop.’ For example, a double ad page should grab your attention when you open the newspaper today. The red background with white wave is immediately recognizable for many, even if there is no brand name, except for the small print at the bottom. Coca-Cola does not want to promote new products with the double advertising page either, but spends its advertising budget on announcing an extensive message, starting with ‘who says we have to go back to the old normal? What if the biggest change comes from all of us and together we choose to be more open? “
“Open, like never before”, is the name of the campaign, which will also be seen on the streets and which also includes a television commercial. The texts in the newspaper and on billboards are only part of a longer manifesto, written by the promising London word artist George the Poet. The Dutch translation was somewhat polished and adapted by the Belgian artists Dvtch Norris and Yellowstraps.
“Coca-Cola is a brand known for its optimism and togetherness, and George the Poet has translated that positivism into a manifesto at our request, with which we still want to send an encouraging message during a difficult period,” says communication director for Belux Laura Brems . “We want to use this campaign to encourage people to look at the world in a different way.”
George the Poet’s text focuses on the everyday things in life, which suddenly were no longer taken for granted, but he also emphasizes what we absolutely must remember from the corona crisis, such that no one’s job is unimportant. “Every role in society is important, as the corona crisis has clearly demonstrated. People who usually work in the shadows, such as healthcare workers, factory workers and store clerks, continued to work harder than ever during the lockdown, “Brems explains. George the Poet also emphasizes ‘my job’, which you can see as a reference to all artists who suddenly find themselves at home, but whose work has given us comfort and dispersion during quarantine.
Not on social media
It is an international campaign, which will be shown on various channels, but for the time being not on all social networking sites. Coca-Cola was one of the companies that decided last month to temporarily suspend all social media campaigns, to encourage social networking sites such as Facebook (which also includes Instagram) and Twitter to act harder against racist and hateful messages.
“We will continue that break on some social media for a while, so we had to change the campaign a bit,” confirms Brems, although she will be visible on Linkedin and Youtube, for example. “As a company, we remain behind our decision, and discussions with the social networking sites in question are still ongoing.”
–
