Coke: Sharing or Selfish?

Coca Cola have long been the masters of marketing. They may (or may not) have dressed Santa in his distinctive red cloak, but they've had some memorable marketing campaigns. Their current one could yet be the most successful as well as the simplest yet.

Over recent months they've been printing the 150 most popular names in each country. They've even added another hundred names under popular demand. The full list is here. If you watch the ad (this is the Irish version below), or read the cans and bottles carefully, the campaign is focused on altruism: 'Share a coke with...'



It's a nice idea, even if it's rank commercialisation. You share a coke / diet coke / coke zero with someone whose name you see on the bottle, for lots of different reasons. The company wants us to share, to give, to be generous. Now, some people might be doing that, but as with so much of life, the buzz on Twitter and Facebook seems to be selfish. The goal is to find a coke with your own name on it, rather than being given one by someone else...

Its depressing that finding a coke bottle with my name on it has been the highlight of my week #firstworldproblems

— AJ Jameson (@AberrantAdam) August 15, 2013

I FINALLY FOUND A COKE WITH MY NAME ON IT pic.twitter.com/QGQrWKVBPU

— Elagabalus' Lion (@Orla_White) August 15, 2013

10/10 to @CocaCola for marketing! Was actually excited to finally find a bottle of Coke Zero with my name on it!!! pic.twitter.com/vTbdXgkcZS

— Adrian Kennedy (@AdrianFKennedy) August 14, 2013

None of those Coke 'Share a Coke with' bottles have my name on them. I FEEL SO ALONE.

— Blake ✌ (@blakesteven) August 1, 2013

Some are even taking it badly (!):

Me looking for my name on a coke bottle: pic.twitter.com/8rK5KpAAaZ

— br(ok)en (@y0itsShelby) July 31, 2013

This is just a small sampling of the vast numbers of tweets about the Coke name campaign, and the majority are all about us finding our own name, rather than sharing. Something as simple as a bottle of pop, but when the fizz settles, we're all still selfish.

And no, I haven't seen a Gary on a Coke yet...

PS As with any other topic, Twitter excels at bringing out the comedians. Honourable mentions for these two:

You all get so excited when you find a coke bottle with your name on it. Pepsi got me covered for life pic.twitter.com/ZEIjFXLSpc

— Maximillian (@MaximillianMJ) August 10, 2013

If you've been chuffed to see your name on a coke bottle then imagine my joy on every visit to B&Q.

— Matt White (@mattyfwhite) July 17, 2013

Lifestyle Choices

Yesterday as I was having my lunch, I caught a few minutes of TV. Trying to avoid those Loose Women (who terrify me!), I flicked through the Freeview schedule, and saw the last minutes of My Wife and Kids. The programme ended, and up popped on the screen a little funny caption from the station - Virgin 1. Earlier, it had said 'Don't move' and then after a few ads, 'You're still there.' But this one was perhaps the most honest - perhaps even too honest:

Now three minutes of lifestyle choices.

The advertisements on the channel are portrayed as lifestyle choices. Things like a new phone, a holiday, car insurance, just lifestyle choices. But all pushing in one direction - towards materialism. For the TV channel and its advertisers, really there's no choice in lifestyle - everyone should be pushing for materialism. The only choice is which car to drive or which phone to use.

Lifestyle choices, but biased towards more complicated, more expensive, more extravagant living. Surely for a choice they should also show ads promoting a simpler life, service of others, reducing consumption. But then they don't make a profit.

So will we buy the advertisers lies that the only lifestyle choice is for materialism? Other lifestyles are available. Don't be bought and sold for a lie.

Adbusting: A 'Very' Expensive Christmas

Have you seen the adverts for the latest online department store? Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby feature in it, throwing in the word 'very' very often in the dialogue, as a bunch of ice skaters dance around and then arrange furniture on a frozen lake, before the name of the store is revealed: Very.co.uk.



What's very concerning, though, is that it could turn out to be a very expensive Christmas if you do your shopping on the website, using their credit services. Their typical APR is 39.7% variable, which is very bad on its own, but in the smaller print under this very big figure, the conditions state that: The actual APR applicable to you may be different from the typical APR based on your credit status. (bold original to website)

So if you have a very poor credit rating score, they'll punish you even more by giving you a higher APR which will push up the amount of interest you have to repay. A very expensive Christmas.

Yet that's not the worst of it. Imagine you've had a hard year, the credit crunch has taken hold, and you're wondering how you will manage for Christmas presents and giving your kids what they want. Imagine you had the chance of a buy now, pay later offer - would you take it? Christmas now, and pay for it later, when the economy has recovered and you're back in employment?

Very also offer a Buy Now Pay February 2011 service. What's so bad about that? Well, first of all, you can have all the joys of this Christmas 2009, escape paying for it, have another Christmas in 2010 before the bill comes in for Christmas 2009 in February 2011. You simply cannot keep deferring payments forever - the credit people at Very will come looking for their money.

Secondly, the bill they come looking for will be very big.

Interest will be calculated from the date of your purchase but it will not be charged to the account until the expiry of the Buy Now Pay Later period. You can avoid paying interest on the products purchased on this offer by paying the cash price in full prior to the expiry of the Buy Now Pay Later period. Typical 39.7% APR Variable. The actual APR applicable to you may be different from the typical APR based on your credit status.

So while you have an interest free period of time (which customers probably wouldn't use if they had the money in the first place), when the clock hits February 2011, the full weight of interest calculated from the day you bought the goods (December 2009) will be applied to your account. That's 14 months of interest of at least 39.7% (depending on your credit rating again) on top of whatever Christmas cost you. And that adds up to a very expensive Christmas.

Adbusting: Free?

I noticed a new advert on TV the other night for a new fragrance from Calvin Klein. CKFree purports to be the essence of true freedom. Here's what the actor says:

The best thing about getting lost is what you find along the way. Here, or there, I'm just going. Anywhere I end up. I'm just free.

So does freedom come from a bottle? Is being free just the absence of restraints, the ability to drive around a desert in a classic vintage car?

Freedom is what many of us long for. Teenage rebellion is a manifestation of the desire to be free from parents, school, authority and responsibility. We want to be free to set our own agenda, do things our way, in our time, according to our will.

The thing is, though, that often we fail to see that when we think we are free, we're actually in deeper bondage than we realise. In exercising our freedom, we're becoming slaves.

Going our own way sounds so respectable, yet it is the lie of the devil. It's what our first parents did, and what all of us do:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way. (Isaiah 53:6)

So as we chart our own course, we think we're free and unique, yet it turns out everyone else is doing the same thing. Turning aside, out for Number One.

True freedom? Well, no. It turns out that as we seek to be free, we turn to sin, with devastating effects. Jesus said:

Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)

Thinking we're free has led to a greater slavery, and we're trapped in the prison of sin, submitting to our master, the devil.

So how can we truly be free? Is there any hope for us of finding freedom?

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free... So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:31, 32, 36)

Our freedom comes in submitting to the Lord Jesus. Only through the word of his gospel, the forgiveness of sins, the glorious liberty of the children of God can be ours.

As the old collect reminds us: 'O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom...'

Are you free today? Truly free? Who is your master, the one you serve with all you have?

This Little Light of Mine

There seems to be a current fashion for advertisers to use songs from Sunday School. Previously, we noted the corruption of 'He's got the Whole World in His Hands' for PSP. The other day, I noticed another in this trend, using the song 'This Little Light of Mine, I'm gonna let it shine' to advertise the new Honda hybrid car.



"Everyone wants to be good. And now, there's a hybrid for everyone. The affordable Honda Insight." So declares the commercial. Therefore, to be good, you should buy this car - it's the secret to the world's problems. To use the title of Nick Hornby's novel, it's How To Be Good.

While the idea for the ad is certainly clever, it's almost distracting. Shining your little light might be about being good, but certainly not in a being good for the sake of it kind of way - no, it's about witnessing for Jesus Christ, shining the light of the gospel for Him in this dark world.

So while buying a hybrid car might be slightly better for the environment, this suggests that you can be "good" based on your choice of car. I don't think so!

Excluding Northern Ireland

Residents of Northern Ireland have long been accustomed to seeing the words 'Excluding Northern Ireland' in Television and Newspaper advertisements, particularly in adverts promising discount car insurance deals. The bargain prices seem attractive, but then those magic words appear meaning that they don't apply. You do get used to seeing them, such that you don't even get interested in ads.

Normally, the words are excluding residents of Northern Ireland. Yet in one instance, the words are giving the Northern Irish something that people from other parts of the United Kingdom aren't. McDonalds have their Best Chance Monopoly promotion at present, and to claim prizes, a purchase is necessary, 'except in Northern Ireland!' This means that you can send a sae (self-addressed envelope) and they'll send you a token or voucher for free!

It makes a change for something to be only available for Northern Ireland, rather than us being excluded! Saves you from having to eat the McDonalds cuisine too...

Forgiveness of (Scalp) Sins

In my last sermon, I was speaking about how we need to understand the culture we're living in, and use it to communicate the gospel, the good news about Jesus. The implicit assumption here is that people may find the ideas of sin, forgiveness, grace, gospel etc hard to grasp, so any connections from culture - movies, TV, music, - may help unbelievers to understand.

Over the past couple of days, however, I've been amazed to see a TV advertisement using precisely the language of sin and forgiveness - to promote a shampoo. Even consider the marketing being associated with the product from the Head and Shoulders website. The religious imagery is plain to see - hands held devoutly in prayer and forgiveness for scalp and hair sins being proclaimed.

Is the company only targeting Christians with this ad campaign, or are the key concepts of Christianity more widely grasped? Perhaps the ads will enable us to speak about the one true Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us from all our sins through his death on the cross and his resurrection.

Mixed Messages?

I wonder if advertisers ever consider the full portfolio of the celebrities they choose to endorse their products. It seems to me that sometimes, the impact of one can harm the possible benefit of another advertisement by the same person.

Take Ulster's own James Nesbitt, also known as Jimmy Nesbitt. His dulcet tones can be heard on the voice-over for the Isle of Man ferry service at 'steam hyphen packet dot com.' Soothing, relaxing, sure the ferry journey itself sounds like a holiday, let alone the time you get to spend on the Isle of Man with its tourist attractions and possibilities.


All very well and good, until you're driving in your car (maybe even to the ferry), when you hear Jimmy's voice-over on another advert. In the advert, he sounds like he's about to be sick, as he complains about the dodgy journey on a boat. Indeed, the only chance the boat has for success is the bottle of bubbly that was smashed on its side for good luck on its maiden voyage. Such odds are slim, compared to the confidence a car buyer can achieve when they buy a car from Network Q, the Vauxhall multi-point check on used cars.

Now, maybe the Isle of Man ferry people haven't heard of the other ad, but it seems to me that if you saw the two adverts together, you would get the impression that the Isle of Man ferry wouldn't be too reliable, and that there's a fair chance of seasickness. And I'm reckoning that they wouldn't be too happy with the implied link.

How about our advertising? Do we manage to make a good show of living for Jesus, advertising his way for most of the week, but then turn around and seem to dismiss him?

Those old words of Elijah ring through the centuries, as clear as ever: 'How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.' (1 Kings 18:21)

Jimmy Nesbitt may have to decide between ferries or cars, but the more important question for us is this: Who is your advertising executive? Which 'brand' name will you advertise and live for?