They Can Take a Taxi!
While waiting for Man of Steel to start in the theater this weekend, this commercial played:
This commercial is agonizing on so many levels:
- Coke Zero is chemically laden crap. I don’t think anyone who reads my blog on any regular basis would be surprised that I feel that way. It really isn’t the point of this post.
- Here is yet another “useless, irresponsible” adult male promoted in advertising. The destruction of the American male by media has been a constant onslaught for a few decades now. The less I am exposed to media, the more obvious and infuriating the pattern is.
- Video games are proving to actually be damaging to the brain and addictive. Here is a commercial not only NOT denying it, but proving it.
- MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of boys, tweens, teens, and fathers saw this commercial on Father’s Day weekend. That’s disgusting. I have no words.
I don’t ever see commercials. Honestly, this one makes me glad that I don’t. I’m absolutely flabbergasted how anyone could think this commercial is promoting something good.
Hallee
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I don’t watch commercials either, but I agree, this is distasteful. They’re taking stereotypes and reinforcing them, and they’re justifying resentment about having to be responsible. I googled it:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/coke-zero-campaign-tells-guys-193100007.html
…The campaign takes a lighthearted and comedic approach to say that with Coke Zero you can Enjoy Everything in life. “It’s Not Your Fault” also celebrates guys-being-guys. The Enjoy Everything campaign has evolved on the notion of owning quintessential guy moments of bonding and camaraderie, from sports and entertainment to humor, gaming and music.
“We’re talking to men more overtly with ‘It’s Not Your Fault’,” said Pio Schunker, SVP and Head of Integrated Marketing Communications, North America Group. “We’re positioning Coke Zero as a defender and celebrator of guy enjoyment.”
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http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130617-904634.html
…” Further substantiating the role of Coke Zero as a defender and celebrator of guy enjoyment, the brand has signed on to bring promotional screenings of Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, to major markets this summer…”
“‘Let Me Explain’ builds on the current Coke Zero marketing platform, called ‘It’s Not Your Fault…Enjoy Everything,” said Lauventria Robinson, Vice President, Multicultural Marketing, Coca-Cola North America Group. “We have teamed up with Kevin to take a lighthearted and satirical perspective on the stereotypical things that men do, while cheering guy moments of bonding and camaraderie. Coke Zero has given men the excuse that it’s okay to be who you are; ‘it’s not your fault.’ Kevin has their back with the opening line, ‘let me explain.’ It’s a perfect partnership for a brand that celebrates men.”
“I’m excited about releasing Let Me Explain and working with Coca-Cola Zero to bring it to the masses,” said Hart. “The movie and Coke Zero share a similar view on not making excuses for a man being a man. We have reasons why we do what we do and most start with, we’re men. So it’s okay to play video games all night, talk junk with your boys or pretend you’ve worked out harder than you have — that’s what men do. Coke Zero says that’s cool and so do I.”
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There’s a whole series of these commercials on youtube, mostly about March Madness. Two that especially aggravated me were ‘It’s not your fault – scholastics’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oph5jP3Swb4
“They’re just books.”
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and ‘it’s not your fault – schedules’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I1-bWFlxFQ
They throw in a mishmash of more stereotypes, with the bad scheduler being a doctor of some kind, father of two, former gymnast and amateur harpist from Little Rock AR. I think they intend him to not be a real guy according to the coke zero stereotype; could an amateur harpist be a real guy?
Thinking about it some more: from the links I looked at, Coke Zero is being marketed to men as an alternative to Diet Coke which is aimed more at women. But there is no mention in any of the ads in this series about the fact that Coke Zero has zero calories and zero sugar.
I can imagine a marketing approach that says the idea of dieting is a woman’s thing, not so manly, implying insecurity about appearance and weight. So maybe they make a separate diet drink for men but don’t use the word ‘diet’. They name it with a word that sounds strong and uncompromising instead of an insecure word like ‘diet’. (That is one image I get from the word ‘zero’, for instance in ‘zero tolerance’.
The ads say ‘Enjoy Everything”. That message could be interpreted to mean that you don’t need to think about reducing calories or restricting your food choices at all. But that seems like the opposite of choosing a diet drink.
Maybe the intention is to imply that if you drink a zero calorie soda you don’t have to limit your enjoyment of high calorie foods. But that reason for choosing Coke Zero is absent from these videos. No reason is given for choosing Coke Zero over regular Coke. Maybe people are expected to already know from previous ad campaigns that this is basically a diet drink, but the subject is completely avoided. The ‘Enjoy Everything’ slogan is papered on top of the unspoken idea of needing to think about weight, as if the slogan is itself an artificial sweetener covering up the true reason for choosing Coke Zero.
Ugh. I HATE commercials like this. I gave up watching most TV about two years ago, and it shocks me how things like this can be aired. It’s completely promoting self centered-ness, not to mention breaking promises. There was a car commercial a few years ago with a kid saying “my parents bought this cool new car so I don’t have to be embarrassed being seen in a loser car.” Burned me up on so many levels.