Get Your Hearts in Gear and Grab a Diet Coke!

Now-a-days the media is running amok with the new fad to be thin. Personally, i am proud of my curves and my certain features that I was graced with. Plus, I am to in love with food to ever give it up to be a stick figure. Due to this new look many junk food industries are hurting. However, some are adapting their products or creating new ones under their company to change with the times. The Coca-Cola Company has always had diet drinks but now they have Vitamin waters and other forms of beverages not considered soda. The campaign/event that I am talking about today is the Heart Truth Campaign.

Each year, Diet Coke is proud to sponsor The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection Fashion Show to raise awareness for women's heart health. Celebrated women wear one-of-a-kind red dresses designed by America's top designers. Diet Coke has helped sponsor this event for the past three years. The Coca-Cola company sent out its Press release about them working with the Heart Truth on Febuary 4th, 2010. It was about how Diet Coke is partneing with the Heart Truth to put on the fashion show and what other programs or advertisting that Coke would do.

There were two quotes within the article that would draw attention. One was from Heidi Klum herself, about how she is honored that Coke is an ambassored for the program. Also, the second one was from the Brand Director of Diet Coke North America. You can read both of these quotes and the press release here.

At the actual event the background to the red carpet and posters on the catwalk had Diet Coke's symbol on it. This was showing everyone who either watched the fashion show on TV, were participating in the event or heard about the event that Coke cares about people's health and is trying to help make strides to make everyone in the world aware of this. I watched a video on Diet Coke's Website that was taken at the event. There was a woman who was speaking about Diet Coke and how it is a part of the healthy lifestyle. Click here to watch the video and see pictures from the event. CLICK ME!!

Not only was Coke publicized at the event by showing their sponsorship but it is being spread worldwide. First off, there will be limited edition packaging that will tell about one woman's journey from heart health awareness to empowerment to advocacy. Also, on 6 billion cans throughout the year the Heart Truth's logo will appear. The website for Diet Coke is also on the can to promote its website.

This is another good PR move. Not only are the cans going out to millions of people but it says to find out more about how to keep your heart healthy go to their website. Once you are there the main image is of the Heart Truth. They have a calendar of different activities to do each day to maintain heart heath and how to basically live a well balanced life.

I believe that the PR team is doing a good job. Not only will everyone know from the advertising that coke is doing to promote the Heart Truth and a healthy lifestyle but the Press release and pitch letter that were made to the media is helping to get the point across to more people. If you just type in heart truth or type in heart truth and coke many articles from different newspaper and online publications come up. It sparked interest in reporters which led them to help market the event further. There are also two commercials that were made that can be seen on you tube and Diet Cokes website. One was aired during the Oscars that tried to convince people to go out and buy coke and use the rewards to win Heidi Klums dress that she wore for the Fashion Show. This is a link to the other commercial HEART COMMERCIAL!!

Go to www.dietcoke.com for more information about what they are doing to help promote awareness. Also, go to http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov//educational/hearttruth/ to learn about your hearts health!!!!

Coke and Social Media

Coke has always been known for their commercials. Many of their commercials deal with singing, everyone uniting or the kindness and love of a friendship. One of the first commercials have three women singing and promoting their slogan of the time. it was "Thirst Asks Nothing More." The tone is catchy and will be stamped into the costumers head so they remember this product. Coke has a commercial called "I Like to Teach the World to Sing". This has been remade a couple of times. This is showing a couple of things. It is showing how coke is unifying the world and that coke is for everyone, they are showing how their change commercials for the season because it says Season Greetings and it is showing how it is a catchy tone that is a feel good commercial. If you even look at the recent commercials from the Superbowl with the Simpsons and how the town comes together and gives the guy that is mean to everyone a coke to fit in. Another way that the commercials have changed for season is the most famous of all. The Polar Bear commercials. This are by far my favorite commercials during the holiday seasons for coke. What is making this New and social media is the fact that these commercials are posted on youtube and on their website. They have links to commercials from their site to youtube and the most recent commercials on their website. It just reinforces the adverting and the use of the Internet to promote their product.

On their website they have many links that direct you to their use of the new media. On the bottom of the homepage there are tabs that are colored to make it more eye appealing. They direct you to different categories. The first is the blog that is read directly off their site, the next is advertising, our system, leadership and finally Coca-Cola on the web. The best part of this tab is that it just doesn't direct you to the link for Cokes twitter, facebook, flickr, youtube or myspace account. It has a link to all of their companies websites. These websites have just as much detail and links to their own social media sites right on their website. For example look at the fanta website. http://www.fanta.com/. It has the theme song that everyone knows how to sing and the girls right on the first page. Also on the first page is the links to facebook and myspace.

In my opinion they are utilizing the web to its full potential. They have certain employees monitoring these pages constantly and keeping it up to date. On the fantans facebook they updated it everyday counting down the days till the contest was over to be the next fantana. It also told them to watch MTV made to view their newest commercial. On the Coke's Twitter the company is tracking what people are saying about their products. If people have questions they are answering it right away and if they are saying something good about their company they write a tweet thanking them. It is showing that they care about their customers. They are utilizing the media relations the best way.

The company is also using rich media. They have a virtual tour of their products.. Here they are using flash and shockwave to allow their costumers to interact with their website and products. I never knew all the products that the Coca-Cola Company had until playing around on this website and finding their descriptions. The company is also using the RSS feeds for people who want to stay up to date with the news about the company. When i clicked on it it asks you which type of homepage you would like to put RSS on. This allows people to see the company in the news every time they log onto the Internet. With people being online all the time this is a major accomplishment. If they click on a link it will bring them to the website and to the vast opportunity to click on any one of their other new media lists.

The PR person for Coca-Cola is doing an outstanding job and I do not think there could be anymore for the company to do. They are all over the Internet on different websites and are keeping those websites up to date and the costumers that communicate with them there happy. This is a success story.

Welcome to the Coke Side of Life

This blog will be about the Coca-Cola brand. It will focus on what the company is doing within the media and what promotions they are having that are newsworthy (or PR-worthy). I have selected this company because first it was familiar to me. Even though I have never been on the website to actually look around before this assignment, I knew the brand and have heard about it in the media. After examining the site, I found alot of interesting information about the company that helped persuade my decision.The companies business is pretty obvious. They are the Coca-Cola Brand that makes drinks such as Coke, Vitamin Water, Minute Maid, Powerade, Fanta and much more.


Upon researching on the Internet I have found many criticisms and problems associated with Coca-Cola. Some are obvious while others astonished me that this was alleged to occur. (The following criticisms were found at www.wikipedia.com.) These include negative health effects resulting from consumption of its products, exploitative labor practices, high levels of pesticides, building plans in Nazi, Germany that employed slave labor, environmental destruction, monopolistic business practices, hiring paramilitary units to murder trade union leaders and marketing unhealthy products to children. Throughout the blog I will not focus on all of these issues that were addressed. I will focus on the main issues that are big right now in the media. They are negative health effects, marketing unhealthy products, and environmental destruction. These will be the main points but I will try to touch upon the other issues as well.


To communicate their reputation the company is using it's websites, brands and who they are sponsoring to show how the company really is. They are using the website to show what they have accomplished throughout the years and what initiatives they are taking to help improve the environment. They have been a sponsor of athletic events since the early days of coke. They are attached to a physical activity that helps them seem not as bad for you. They are also starting a new campaign with Heidi Klum and Diet Coke to help raise awareness about your health. Finally, in the Superbowl commercial they were airing how they are giving back to the community by donating to the Boys and Girls Club.


The PR people are doing a good job with getting this company good PR. They are putting the name on activities and groups that are showing the public that Coca-Cola cares about them and is trying to help them live a better life. Also, that they care about the environment and by changing the way they are producing drinks it is helping to make the environment cleaner.

Check out the website at www.cocacola.com