Coca-Cola’s Latest Marketing Gimmick: Selfie in a Bottle
Forty-five years ago, Coca-Cola launched what may be its most memorable campaign to date: a commercial featuring the song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” with a diverse cast singing of world harmony and hope and keeping one another company in this big ol’ crazy world. It’s a message that’s still relevant today, perhaps even more so. It was an anthemic moment in marketing—few have followed since—succeeding in lifting not only the spirits of millions of Americans, but also millions of Coca-Cola bottles up off the shelf as its competitor PepsiCo struggled to follow suit.
But today, desperate to assert its relevance in a world losing its taste for soda as soda taxes and interest in healthier beverages shift consumers away from soft drinks, Coca-Cola has gone in the complete opposite direction of its iconic 1971 commercial in its latest marketing ploy. It has moved away from promoting its bubbly brown sugar water as a means to unify, and instead focuses on our obsession with our own self-preservation and ego in the social media age. I’m talking, of course, about The Selfie.
Coca-Cola has designed a soda bottle with a camera built into the base. That’s right–a Coca-Cola bottle is now also a camera.
When you tip the bottle at a 70-degree angle—just enough to ensure the liquid diabetes makes it to your mouth—the bottle takes a pic of your soda-swilling face. Users can then immediately send the images to Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. Quaint, no?
“Devised by Coca-Cola Israel, the snappy design arose after its makers spied a gap in the market for novelty drinks,” reports Business Insider. You know, that gap in the market when your food documents your sugar addiction.
Coca-Cola’s attempt to stay relevant isn’t being understated with its latest marketing gimmick. According to a consumer spending habits research agency, most Coca-Cola consumers are over age 45. This pic-in-a-bottle move is a direct push to snag the millennial shopper and younger generations who can’t resist anything that promises a selfie opp.
“Users tag themselves and their friends in photos on Coca-Cola’s social media assets,” Gefen Team, the agency behind the campaign, said in a statement. “It really does the trick and makes the partygoers more present and active during the event, knowing they can share their special moments just by drinking.”
That’s right folks. Want more “special moments” out of life? Just drink more soda.
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