The Australian summer offers something to love for just about any type of person: the beach person, the family person, those who loathe the five-day work week. And if you're an ad person — not a Mad Man, but a fan of such a character's creations — it's usually a treat to see a new seasonal wave of advertising by Coke.
Coke's advertising campaigns are successful for many reasons, not the least of which is saturation. But they're also often distinctive and sharp.
Ask some people to picture a polar bear, for example, and most Australians will still think automatically of Coke's over Bundaberg Rum's. Coke's polar bear was introduced in 1993, and in recent years has been decreasingly utilised; but it's easy to see that it has far outpaced its initial advertising budget.
This summer's campaign for Diet Coke has been distinctive for the wrong reasons. Each of the ads features a computer-generated character that looks suspiciously Bratz-like, posing beside a playful, assertive slogan. 'Shopping is my favourite kind of cardio!' one enthuses.
'Three words every little girl loves to hear: It's. On. Sale,' says another.
The world is full of advertising that either miscalculates its audience, or reveals frightening things about what we like — frightening because the things we like are often an expression of who we are. But to see these ads from Coke is particularly shocking because when Coke comes up with a good advertisement, it's exquisitely exciting.
It scratches a weird, deep itch when we're made to want to buy something in a way that feels intelligent and fresh. Coke manages to scratch that itch frequently. Phraseology after phraseology — 'always the real thing','things go better with Coke', simple word after simple word in such powerful new contexts — Coke seems able to telegraph moments the culture hasn't known it's been waiting for.
That kind of cultural prescience requires a serious kind of energy, and it's an energy Coke's customers seem to appreciate. Along with the taste of the Coke product, people seem to feel fondly, of all things, about its branding: Coke's advertising succeeds partly because we want it to.
But the frequency with which Coke nails us probably causes us to misremember the overall quality of its output. To me, the new Diet Coke ads feel lazy, cheap, sexist, and patronising.
Of course the market research would reveal that affluent women might enjoy cardio. Of course Bratz dolls are what one