Topic: Dumbest Marketing Campaign Ever?

[trapeze]

LINK

So the masterminds at the CocaCola Corporation decided that they would make these soft drink machines that would dispense a can of Coke whenever someone "hugs" the machine. The machine is labeled "Hug Me" in big white letters on a red background.

Now apart from the inarguably creepy notion of expending a human emotional gesture on a cold inanimate object there is the very real comparison of this situation to that of a psychology experiment...you know, where an animal is rewarded with food for performing a task. Once this starts showing up on youtube it will be kind of hard to get away from that image. I can even see people making a youtube video that makes that very same comparison. That will surely do wonders for the CocaCola image.

Coke: Soft drink of lab animals.

Coke Hug Me Machine

[charlesoakwood]

Not too far from an X.

[Glock32]

Now apart from the inarguably creepy notion of expending a human emotional gesture on a cold inanimate object

I know several guys who've done that for years before finally getting divorced.

[John Florida]

Now apart from the inarguably creepy notion of expending a human emotional gesture on a cold inanimate object

I know several guys who've done that for years before finally getting divorced.

  That's sick!!

[trapeze]

Now apart from the inarguably creepy notion of expending a human emotional gesture on a cold inanimate object

I know several guys who've done that for years before finally getting divorced.

  That's sick!!

Yeah, but not far from the truth for some people.

Speaking of soft drink marketing...

I don't know if this applies to other places but where I live Pepsi is aggressively acquiring market share by selling their 2-liter bottles for an awful lot less than Coke. They will put Pepsi on sale just about every ten days or so for as little as $0.89/2-liter bottle. Coke almost never goes on sale and when it does it is usually for $1.59 or so...almost never less than that. I like to buy the bigger bottles because it just insults my intelligence that they sell 20-ounce bottles in convenience stores for $1.80 or more so I kind of notice these things. I drink diet cola a lot...it's my form of coffee. I admit it's pretty sick. I purchased some of that heat reflective bubble wrap from the hardware store and made up my own custom drink Koozie for a 2-liter bottle. It's nuts, I know...but there it is.

[Glock32]

I used to prefer Pepsi easily, but got to where Coke seems better. I don't know if it changed or I did. I like RC too.  Remember when 3 liter bottles were common? You never see those anymore. I think they went flat too quickly.

[trapeze]

I used to prefer Pepsi easily, but got to where Coke seems better. I don't know if it changed or I did. I like RC too.  Remember when 3 liter bottles were common? You never see those anymore. I think they went flat too quickly.

Coke Zero is my favorite...tastes remarkably like Coke. But I prefer a lower cost more so I end up with Diet Pepsi. Which is not bad. It certainly tastes better to me than Diet Coke. I can't stand Diet Coke...horrible formulation. I have tried RC and don't care for it.

As for going flat...absolutely a 3-liter bottle will go flat pretty quick. It has to do with the volume of the bottle and the nature of carbonated liquids. The carbonation in the liquid does not want to stay there. It wants to move from the liquid to the gas and the more available volume there is in the bottle (like when it's half empty or more) the quicker it will go flat. Agitation will accelerate this process. So the trick is to either drink it pretty fast as it approaches the halfway point or go for a smaller bottle. But mostly drink it quick. If they could make a (cheap) bottle that shrinks to fit the liquid it would almost never go flat.

This is also one of the reasons why restaurants don't use bottles. The other (and bigger) reason is that it's cheaper to buy the drink in concentrated form (syrup) and carbonate it on site. Concentrated syrup is cheaper to transport than pre-mixed which is the biggest reason why restaurants make their own. Cost beats quality. But even if it didn't quality would still dictate mixing on site.

[Libertas]

Coke: Soft drink of lab animals.

 

That there is funny, I don't care who you are!

PS-I hope Trojan doesn't get any stupid ideas...

 

[IronDioPriest]

...As for going flat...absolutely a 3-liter bottle will go flat pretty quick. It has to do with the volume of the bottle and the nature of carbonated liquids. The carbonation in the liquid does not want to stay there. It wants to move from the liquid to the gas and the more available volume there is in the bottle (like when it's half empty or more) the quicker it will go flat. Agitation will accelerate this process. So the trick is to either drink it pretty fast as it approaches the halfway point or go for a smaller bottle. But mostly drink it quick. If they could make a (cheap) bottle that shrinks to fit the liquid it would almost never go flat....

Another lil' trick is squeezing the air out of the bottle and capping it. Makes it look funny, but you can get an extra day or two out of a big plastic bottle of soda.

[Predator Don]

Who said our kids of today are stupid and untrainable.They picked up on the free drink quickly. Plus, some of them could read. I fully expected a picture only.Hell, at one time, it appeared one of the dudes had the machine and the girl pinned. I believe they needed a free contraceptive. What do they need to squeeze for that......



Put em in a "controlled enviroment" and do circus tricks for food.

[Libertas]

I wonder if Pavlov (or his heirs) are getting any royalties?

[Predator Don]

I wonder if Pavlov (or his heirs) are getting any royalties?

im sure there is a liberal somewhere who would hump his dog.

[Libertas]

I wonder if Pavlov (or his heirs) are getting any royalties?

im sure there is a liberal somewhere who would hump his dog.

Don't ring no bells!

 

[Sally Brown]

I used to prefer Pepsi easily, but got to where Coke seems better. I don't know if it changed or I did. I like RC too.  Remember when 3 liter bottles were common? You never see those anymore. I think they went flat too quickly.

Coke Zero is my favorite...tastes remarkably like Coke. But I prefer a lower cost more so I end up with Diet Pepsi. Which is not bad. It certainly tastes better to me than Diet Coke. I can't stand Diet Coke...horrible formulation. I have tried RC and don't care for it.

As for going flat...absolutely a 3-liter bottle will go flat pretty quick. It has to do with the volume of the bottle and the nature of carbonated liquids. The carbonation in the liquid does not want to stay there. It wants to move from the liquid to the gas and the more available volume there is in the bottle (like when it's half empty or more) the quicker it will go flat. Agitation will accelerate this process. So the trick is to either drink it pretty fast as it approaches the halfway point or go for a smaller bottle. But mostly drink it quick. If they could make a (cheap) bottle that shrinks to fit the liquid it would almost never go flat.

This is also one of the reasons why restaurants don't use bottles. The other (and bigger) reason is that it's cheaper to buy the drink in concentrated form (syrup) and carbonate it on site. Concentrated syrup is cheaper to transport than pre-mixed which is the biggest reason why restaurants make their own. Cost beats quality. But even if it didn't quality would still dictate mixing on site.

I've never tried Coke Zero because I assumed it was the same as Diet Coke which I hate a lot.  After drinking gallons of the stuff over the years my mind, body and taste buds refuse to accept it anymore.  But I will try Coke Zero now.

Do you think that Diet Pepsi is sweeter?  Tastes pretty much the same to me.

[IronDioPriest]

Doesn't Coke Zero use Splenda or something instead of NutraSweet?

I really, really cannot stand NutraSweet, period. It is vile tasting, and anything but sweet. Splenda is tolerable. But really, as far as beverages go, I've been drinking a lot more water these days.

[charlesoakwood]

Artificial sweeteners independently or combined are a rail spike 
through the head or volcanic regurgitation. Give me sugar 19 @
calories per teaspoon. or corn syrup

[LadyVirginia]

Artificial sweeteners independently or combined are a rail spike 
through the head or volcanic regurgitation. Give me sugar 19 @
calories per teaspoon. or corn syrup

I can't tolerate artificial sweetners--the few times I tried a diet drink or other food with them I ended up doubled over in agony.  Fortunately, I tolerate real sugar quite well!

[trapeze]

I gave up on sugar in soft drinks about 25 years ago. I didn't like what it did to my weight. That has a lot to do with the volume that I drink...it's a lot.

I prefer Coke Zero as far as taste goes. I can't say that I care what sweetener it uses...i don't know...it isn't important to me. Taste is what counts after calories. When I first started down the diet soft drink road all those years ago I found that Diet Dr. Pepper was the closest to tasting like the sugar sweetened version. I still like it along with the variations, Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper and the new one with 10 calories. I drank Diet Coke (after I worked up a tolerance for diet drinks I found that I could tolerate it) for a long time until Coke Zero came out. After that Diet Coke tasted terrible to me. It's only in the last couple of years that I have found that Diet Pepsi is an acceptable alternative to Coke Zero.

I gave up on Coke products for two reasons. One is price as I mentioned above but the other one is Coke's sucking up to the environmental freaks. That started several month's ago when they started putting polar bears on their packaging and stating that they were donating to save the polar bears from global warming or some such nonsense like that. So screw 'em. Now I know that Pepsi is almost certainly a Dem/lib sympathizer, too, but at least they aren't being in my face about it. So that's why my current soft drink of choice is Diet Pepsi.

Stupid, I know, but there it is.

(Diet Mountain Dew is passable, too, for a change of pace.)

[Predator Don]

I can't drink diet or zero products. To me, they all have an after taste. My wife insists I'd get used to it, but I can't. It's either the hard stuff for me or nothing.......and nothing is not a choice.

[Libertas]

Doesn't Coke Zero use Splenda or something instead of NutraSweet?

I really, really cannot stand NutraSweet, period. It is vile tasting, and anything but sweet. Splenda is tolerable. But really, as far as beverages go, I've been drinking a lot more water these days.

I have a bottle right here, is says Aspartame (also known as NutraSweet).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame