The above is Greek for ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger.’
This is
the Olympic motto. Every four years for 1 month the world comes to a stop to witness
the greatest sporting spectacle this world has ever been privileged to know,
passed down to us through a rich Greek heritage, separating the demigods from
common man: the Olympics. ‘Tis the season.
The Olympic Games are here and with them comes advertising
on a large scale. A case in point is ARIEL detergent. Their ad campaign is a series
of commercial portrayed with their slogan as the ‘proud keeper of Kenyan
colours’. It starts with an Olympic gymnast and goes on to showcase of various athletes
in their different disciplines. The highlight is when they show the Kenyan heroine
Catherine Ndereba, 4 time winner of the Boston Marathon, finishing the race and
gets to her knees dressed in the Kenyan Olympic uniform, bright colours
blazing. The voice over then says “…In the Olympic games, it’s not the colours
you go out with. It’s the colours you came in that matter.” This ad is 31 seconds
long but in that short period of time the magnitude of inspiration is well displayed.
It is for this reason the advert gets a Naeto C: 10/10.
Then we come to the culprit of the day, Coca Cola. Let me
tell you, one of the reasons I fell in love with advertising is Coca Cola. I was
9 years old and there it was: the ‘holidays are coming’ Christmas ad. I’m sure
you all remember: the ad started with a young boy sitting on his grandpa’s lap
by the fire. It’s Christmas, the house if full of decorations and he is reading
a book to the little boy. Suddenly a huge shiny red Coca Cola truck magically
appears and powers through the living room fireplace, with lights everywhere
and a rotund Santa giving out gifts to little children on the way. The little
boy becomes Santa’s little helper in the first truck in a line of what looks like
thousands of red Coca Cola trucks as far as the eye can see. That ad was spectacular.
Every time I watched that ad I was in awe, and I would rush to my room to kneel
down and earnestly pray that just once, this red Coca Cola truck would pass by
my house so I could see it, if only once…
This year is an Olympic year and Coca Cola is the official
partner of the Olympic Games. This means it gets the most advertising rights during
the entire period of the games. There is only one problem. Their global
campaign is ‘Move to the beat.’ It is about fusing music with sport. I am sure
this campaign was decided on as they rode on the cusses of the excellent World
Cup 2010 campaign with K’Naan’s Waving Flag (also a great ad with a great song
choice, obviously, and the 3D robot with the boy was good as well). But to do
it again in 2012 is NOT OKAY. In 2010 one month to the World Cup the whole
world especially Africa had the World Cup spirit. The Coca Cola ads played
everywhere, all the time; on the radios, on our TVs and flooding the internet.
Fast forward to 2012. Barely a week to the Olympics and the Olympic spirit is lacking!
Their current campaign for a billion Africans sharing a Coke is good; emotive,
happy, powerful, all the things a good Coke ad is known for. However, for the Olympics
‘Move to the beat’ is a poor campaign. I feel it has scarcely any life or colour,
in comparison to Coca Cola’s past record, and bears no unforgettable traits to
adequately represent true Olympian ideals. We all grew up on Coke. They set a
benchmark in advertising that they are apparently they are finding hard to keep
up with. I mean you can’t compare ‘the Brrrr! Side of life’ or simply ‘Always
Coca Cola’ to ati ‘Open Happiness’. Coca Cola is, unfortunately, steadily losing
its touch. They have managed to do injustice to the Olympic campaign that is
why today I give Coca Cola a 2/10.
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