We'd expect some kind of controversy from a Pepsi promotion because Pepsi is hip, it's now, it's happening, unlike Coca-Cola, it's backward-thinking rival. So when we heard that Coca-Cola had been caught posting porn messages on teens walls on Facebook, we were quick to say, "no effin' way, really? We didn't think they had it in 'em."
Just when Coke finally did something that would bring their products out of the advertising dark ages, the plug had to be pulled because some mum out there wanted to protect her daughter. Coke just can't catch a break.
Whereas Pepsi sales are consistently booming with ad controversies like Michael Jackson's hair catching on fire and Madonna's "Like a Prayer" ad, Coke never really got out of the mamby pamby, "oh you're such a wholesome kid and your parents must really love you, let's go to grandma's for lunch on Sunday after church" theme ads. So when one of their ad execs came up with a way to utilize one of the hottest tools in the teen market today, Facebook, the folks at Coke were like "swell, keeno, and that is really nifty, man."
Too bad someone had to throw a bit of porn in there. There's always someone coming along and testing the speed zone, pushing the envelope, biting off chocolate bunny ears-sorry, wrong analogy, but you get the point.
Coke had one chance to redeem itself, bring itself into the new millennium and they freakin' blew it big time. They should have told that mum that porn is no big deal anymore; that she could Google the word "big" and she'd be amazed at what she'd pull up on her screen. But no, they apologized and went back to their boring, albeit safe ad campaigns buying the world a Coke and teaching everyone to sing in perfect harmony.
