Nobody liked “New Coke” and nobody is certainly going to like “Woke Coke.” Just ask the makers of “Woke Pepsi.”
After last year’s disastrous virtue-signal disguised as a Coke ad, the iconic soft drink company will not be advertising during the Super Bowl this year and will instead run another woke-themed diversity and inclusion ad prior to kickoff.
According to the Boston Herald, Coca-Cola will be running the 60-second advertisement just prior to kickoff to promote unity and positivity in the age of President Trump. Stuart Kronauge, senior vice president of marketing for Coca-Cola North America and president of its sparkling beverages business unit, said in a statement that the ad was specifically placed before the national anthem.
“We have a long history of using the country’s biggest advertising stage to share a message of unity and positivity, especially at times when our nation feels divided,” he said. “This year, we decided to place our ad just before the national anthem as Americans come together in their living rooms to remind everyone that ‘together is beautiful.'”
Ad spots on CBS prior to kickoff can range anywhere between the hundreds of thousands of dollars to the low millions depending on proximity to the actual game. A standard Super Bowl spot this year costs between $5.1 million and $5.3 million.
The Boston Herald reports that the woke Coke commercial will be created by the independent ad agency Wieden + Kennedy and will feature “original animated characters reminding viewers that the company’s flagship drink is for all consumers.”
A famous Andy Warhol quote from 1975 allegedly inspired the commercial and will be used as the closing line: “We all have different hearts and hands; heads holding various views. Don’t you see? Different is beautiful. And, together is beautiful, too.”
According to the description, this year’s woke Coke commercial barely distinguishes itself from last year’s woke coke commercial, which featured people of all races, nationalities, and walks of life (including white rednecks) enjoying themselves with an ice-cold Coca-Cola as a narrator read a poem. One scene even featured a wheelchair-bound person performing a daredevil stunt.
“We all have different looks and loves / likes and dislikes, too. / But there’s a Coke for we and us / and there’s a Coke for you,” said the poem.
Of course, neither this year’s woke Coke commercial or last year’s could ever outdo 2014’s woke Coke commercial that featured children singing “America the Beautiful” in different languages.
“The spot included people from various walks of life,” reports the Boston Herald. “Some wore cowboy hats. Some wore hijabs. The commercial is believed to be the first Super Bowl ad to show same-sex parents.”
Coca-Cola’s decision to run a pre-game ad may prove risky, considering that its main competitor, PepsiCo, will be running several ads for various soft drinks during the game, including one with singer Michael Buble.
So far, Coca-Cola’s openly woke advertisements have avoided the backlash that Pepsi faced when it ran that horrendous Kendall Jenner protest ad, in which the model defused a hostile situation by handing a police officer a Pepsi.