Steven Heydt from Elite Island Resorts came up with a creative promotion that not only aligns investors’ depressed moods to the plus of a vacation in his chain, but also landed them broad media coverage, like this story in the New York Times.
In contrast to Pepsi’s CEO who is earnest every time she is interviewed and every time she formulates strategy and advertising, Coke’s CEO seems to be in denial about the impact soft drinks have on health, and is intent on fighting the evidence.
This is the best he could do in his argument:
"People need to understand that obesity is not about a beverage or a candy bar or a restaurant meal or a PlayStation game or about working longer hours," Kent said in prepared remarks for his keynote address at the InterBev 2008 conference. "It’s a systematic lifestyle issue that we must address individually and collectively as a society."
Yes, of course, and so? Coke still has huge doses of high fructose corn syrup. Muhtar Kent is going to alienate so many people by combating facts (and claiming Coke is all natural), while Pepsi is going to change its portfolio of foods to add healthy snacks. Who do you think will win?
In contrast to Coke’s advertising trying to say that Coke is all-natural (!), Pepsi has focused its product development and advertising messages separately promoting lines that are "FUN" (as above) and lines that are "Healthy." Of course the goal should be to create healthy and fun lines, but at least where fun is what you’ve got, Pepsi makes the best of it! This commercial is a hilarious nod to Chris Kattan.
As warned in this earlier post, companies like Coke, Cadbury and Kraft have so abused the term "natural" that they are gradually destroying its meaning. It is really upsetting that they dupe consumers with products containing High Fructose Corn Syrup and other ingredients that are harmful and cause diabetes and obesity. It is even more upsetting that their misleading advertising causes mistrust in good products and causes consumers to lose faith in the "natural" claim.
