It´s not a new phenomena that food and beverage companies market their products as something healthy. Coca-Cola´s latest "healthy ad" was not well received and got banned in the UK, something I to a certain degree applaud. I wish to see people well, not unwell:
Earlier this year, Coca-Cola began running TV ads here and in the UK showing you all the fun activities you could do to burn off the extra calories you consumed while chugging down a Coke. But regulators overseas have since banned one version of the ad saying it misled viewers into thinking they could work off a can of soda with a lot less exertion than is actually required.
The ad, which you can see above, says that one can of Coke is equivalent to 140 calories — or as the ad puts it “140 fun calories,” which are much less boring than your standard calories.
It then shows captions like “25 minutes of letting your dog be your GPS” (or walking the dog, in non-ad parlance), “10 minutes of letting your body do the talking” (better known as dancing), “75 seconds of laughing out loud,” and “1 victory dance.”
Coca-Cola’s intention with the ad was to show that doing all of these things combined would add up to 139 calories, but many viewers didn’t notice the “+” flashing between each caption and complained to UK ad regulators that the ad was saying you could burn off 140 calories just by laughing for 75 seconds — which, by the way, is a long time to laugh; go ahead and try it if you don’t believe me.
Here is the banned video:
But, I must admit! I´m a sucker for all these great vintage Coca-Cola ads. Can spend hours looking at them.
Featured ad: Coke Drive Safely... Drive Refreshed (1953) via TJS Labs Gallery of Graphic Design.
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