Some minor issues

In an era of abundance, self-awareness kicks in. People become sensitive for non-elementary values. Even more: they start living by it. These values become elementary, at least that’s what people think.
I’m talking about health, about environment, about spirituality. For the record, I’m not saying these values aren’t important, but I know you only care about them if you have food on your plate and don’t see your siblings get killed in some dirt war.

Anyway, we start mattering about stuff (mainly ourselves), and this is reflected in our consumption pattern. We pay more because the package states Aloe Vera or Omega 3, we prefer green things and even fair trade becomes an option.

Clever brands noticed this and started offering products that respond to this new demands. They boomed! A billion dollar market! Abundance rocks!
And again, I’m not blaming these brands. And I’m not blaming the consumers either (I’m one of them). Buying these things just makes you feel better. Cheaper than a shrink.

But I’m astonished if a see these new values become absolute and bluntly translated to any brands. Watch this (Belgian) Cola commercial.

It’s about a new product: Coca Cola Light plus. It’s Diet coke with added vitamins and magnesium. I have 2 problems with this approach:
1/ drinking coke isn’t about health. I perfectly understand de light/diet movement: it’s about enjoying good live without damaging yourself (well ..). But the plus movement is telling your consumers: “you know, it’s not only ‘not bad’ for you .. it’s GOOD for you”. As a consumer, I don’t buy this. Drinking coke isn’t about wellness. The message isn’t authentic.
2/ the commercial .. it doesn’t understand the movement. Taking care of yourself is an active decision (passively supported by the adapted products). But if you choose to go to a wellness center for example, you don’t do it because you HAVE to. You do it because you WANT to. Because it makes you feel good. In the spot these values are wiped of the table. Coke light plus .. the lazy way to wellness. Wait, it even is the payoff of the spot: “An easy way to goodness”.

In my mind coke messed up big time. I’m probably proved wrong because I’m sure the product will sell, but they’ll pay in authenticity.

An other local example: McDonalds is sponsoring a Basketball camp. I don’t understand why the organiser of the camp (Pieter Loridon & C°) is accepting the sponsorship, it’s simply the wrong message. McDonals isn’t healthy food, don’t fake it is. Again, not authentic. Not authentic for Micky-D, but most important not authentic for the basket camp.

Writing these things, I feel nagging and getting old
To be honest, I don’t care about the ethics. But I do care about the marketing. And in my mind these examples are bad marketing. And I don’t like bad marketing, I like to do things proper and effective, and now it just feels like wasting money.

Now please bring me a beer with added calcium, I need it!