Airing Out Coke’s Dirty Laundry

Everyone loves controversy. It’s true. We especially love when a big powerhouse gets caught with their pants down (Enron, anyone?). Investigative journalism is usually at the heart of all revelations, and then it’s only a matter of time before the media runs with it. These days, when most of the media is online, news spreads like wildfire. Blogs are a major tool in fanning the flame.

Exhibit A: Coca Cola’s fake “Zero Movement” blog, a sorry attempt at underground marketing for their newest innovation, Coke Zero, is discovered to be one big Coca-Cola-owned advertisement. Perhaps if the execution had been better, they might have gotten away with it. But, tragically, as one blogger put it, “how does a fictional male blogger whining about chick flicks help sell a diet cola product?” Good question.

In response to this revelation, a slew of angry anti-Coca-Cola blogs added their name to the list already in existence. Most notably, “The Zero Movement Sucks” blog took quite a stab at the conglomerate, providing links to a number of blogs responding to Coke’s human rights scandals just a year earlier. In 2005, “egregious actions” by Coca-Cola were unearthed in both India and Columbia: high pesticide levels in soft drinks and poor labor practices (leading to dozens of innocent union deaths), respectively.

This is a perfect example of how the blogging community makes a huge impact on big business, or any business for that matter. Blogs facilitate dialogue and lots of it, good or bad. Simply by clicking on link after link, I was led to the “Killer Coke” site, outlining the gross human rights violations in Columbia, as well as “The India Resource Center,” a site centered on the malpractice of Coca-Cola companies in India. Extremely informative, the site led me to press releases from the University of Michigan regarding its temporary probation and the subsequent full-blown suspension of business dealings with the Coca-Cola Company. In addition to the loss of business partnerships, blogs like “The Zero Movement Sucks” and “The India Resource Center” sparked major advocacy campaigns, protests and rallies in India.

If all publicity is good publicity, then why was there such a poor response to the Coke Zero campaign? Could it still be the aftermath of those abominable episodes in Colombia and India? After all, blogs created in response to the Coke Zero debacle made sure to mention Coke’s previous violations abroad. Someone simply Googling Coca-Cola would most likely find at least one of these less-than-glowing reviews of the company.

I guess some free publicity really is bad for business.