How NOT to connect with young people – The case of the Coca-Cola vice president
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2024 5:37 am
At the end of May, Coca-Cola Spain presented its new communication strategy to connect with the younger public, where Pepsi is gaining ground and with a comparatively ridiculous budget compared to that used by Coca-Cola, it obtains results that the latter cannot achieve.
Several months have passed since the launch of this “strategy to reach young people” and my suspicions about the results that could be expected have finally been confirmed.
Below I quote the EFE agency statement with which Coca-Cola presented "this":
Coca-Cola Spain has hired Ignacio band data Fernández, a 16-year-old student in his second year of compulsory secondary education, who lives in Madrid and will be the voice of contact and a channel for proposals between the company and young people aged between 16 and 17, as its non-executive vice president.
According to the company, Ignacio Fernández will maintain a business relationship with Coca-Cola Spain and will be involved in communication campaigns, although he will continue with his studies.
Fernández was selected from among the proposals submitted by different agencies to the casting, organised by the company for the advertising campaigns it will carry out this summer.
In fact, since last week an advertisement has been broadcast on television in which Ignacio Fernández is presented as vice president of Coca-Cola.
The video itself has nothing to do with it… but you can see the comments, they are priceless. Coca-Cola was supposed to use this strategy to stir up hatred and passion in equal parts, but seeing the negative impact it is having on the internet, the balance has tipped “very much” towards the hate side… Connect with young people? Is that how they intend to do it? There are already dozens of groups on social networks that call for the stoning of the vice president of all Coca-Cola, hundreds of videos imitating and laughing at the poor kid, thousands of negative comments… And what does the agency that manages this disaster do? Well, little or nothing.
Several months have passed since the launch of this “strategy to reach young people” and my suspicions about the results that could be expected have finally been confirmed.
Below I quote the EFE agency statement with which Coca-Cola presented "this":
Coca-Cola Spain has hired Ignacio band data Fernández, a 16-year-old student in his second year of compulsory secondary education, who lives in Madrid and will be the voice of contact and a channel for proposals between the company and young people aged between 16 and 17, as its non-executive vice president.
According to the company, Ignacio Fernández will maintain a business relationship with Coca-Cola Spain and will be involved in communication campaigns, although he will continue with his studies.
Fernández was selected from among the proposals submitted by different agencies to the casting, organised by the company for the advertising campaigns it will carry out this summer.
In fact, since last week an advertisement has been broadcast on television in which Ignacio Fernández is presented as vice president of Coca-Cola.
The video itself has nothing to do with it… but you can see the comments, they are priceless. Coca-Cola was supposed to use this strategy to stir up hatred and passion in equal parts, but seeing the negative impact it is having on the internet, the balance has tipped “very much” towards the hate side… Connect with young people? Is that how they intend to do it? There are already dozens of groups on social networks that call for the stoning of the vice president of all Coca-Cola, hundreds of videos imitating and laughing at the poor kid, thousands of negative comments… And what does the agency that manages this disaster do? Well, little or nothing.