Forget About Santa And The Cute, Cuddly Polar Bears Won't You? Coke Doesn't Target Kids!

MayorBob.

Posted to Business on Sun Nov 02, 2008 at 12:07:53 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

If you look at the ingredients in Coca Cola and try to figure out the nutritional value of the soda, you should come to the conclusion that Coke is not a health food.  For children, especially, Coke is hardly a good, healthy substitute for beverages like milk, juice or water.  But that's not the message the Coca Cola Company is trying to impart in a series of print ads in Canadian publications.  The ads state: "Can't remember the last Coca Cola ad targeted at children.  There's a reason."  The reason, according to the soft drink giant is that they have never targeted children with their ads.  But, one Canadian doctor who saw this ad in a medical journal stopped and essentially said to himself "WTF you mean you don't market to kids?"

Dr Yoni Freedhoff, director of the Bariatric Medical Institute in Ottawa, caught the ad in a recent copy of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).  Without addressing the assertions of Coca Cola that their product is "wholesome", Dr. Freedhoff took issue with the "bald-faced" lie that Coke is never marketed to young kids.  According to Freedhoff, the company has children squarely placed "in its crosshairs" in their marketing drives.  He rattled off a list of such attempts: Santa Claus, polar bears, baby penguins, tie ins with super stars and rock groups popular with young children.  He invoked the nearly 30-year-old Mean Joe Green Coke commercial as proof positive that Coke markets to kids.  Freedhoff says:

"Claiming that Santa Claus and animated polar bears in Coke commercials don't target children is about as believable as claiming that bikini-clad women in beer commercials don't target men."

Coca Cola communications manager Amy Laski calls this "a misconception."  Laski says Coke is "wholesome and suitable" for kids but the company adheres to a marketing discipline.  This discipline says "any programming or media platform for which 50% or more of the audience is under 12 years of age" is considered a children's market and Coke won't be marketing their message in that market.  However, if the mix is 51% adult and 49% under 12, "it stands to reason that at 50 per cent, for every child viewer there is also an adult present."  Thus, Mean Joe Green during a Super Bowl is okay; Mean Joe Green during Saturday morning cartoons, not so much.

Glenda Proctor, CMAJ editor, responded by thanking Dr. Freedhoff for his concern but the journal is satisfied that Coke conformed with CMAJ advertising standards.  History professor Gerald Bowler, a Santa Claus expert no less, suggested that the aim of the Santa Coke ads is to establish a "golden triangle" among Santa, Coke and kids.  According to Bowler, the current CMAJ ads are false and the "kindest thing you could say is they are family ads."  Bowler thinks the linkage between childhood icons and favorites is no mistake:

"There's no question they're certainly meant to be formative of young consumers' choices. You just have to compare it to my age group. How many Coke ads are aimed at the 50-something drinker of Diet Pepsi to convert to Coke? It's just not done."