#AmericaTheBeautiful: Coca Cola's Super Bowl XLVIII Commercial Strikes Nerves

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I was rather disappointed in Super Bowl XLVIII. I was ready to eat some wings, cheer loud and watch a great game. The only thing I accomplished was eating the wings, which, by the way, were absolutely delicious! If you’re ever in Ada, Ohio, I recommend stopping by Padrones for some wings.

Anyways, apart from the game I was looking forward to the commercials. Who could forget the Go Daddy commercial from last year? Or the emotional Budweiser spot? Of course I was expecting the same caliber commercials this year. However, I was wrong. There weren’t too many memorable ones in my opinion.

I did enjoy the Budweiser puppy and returning soldier commercials. If you pull on my heartstrings, you’re a winner in my book! It wasn’t the Seahawks who won, and definitely not the Broncos. No, I think Budweiser stole the show.

However, one particular Coca Cola commercial seems to have sprouted into a crisis. Check out the clip below.

OK, so what’s the big deal? I enjoyed the spot and believe it was produced tastefully. Unfortunately, not everyone will agree with me. People went straight to Twitter using the hashtags: #AmericaTheBeautiful and #Coke to express their opinions. Tweets upon tweets, both positive and negative, were being pushed out at a fast speed. 

 And of course we have some negative tweets that never fail to make me wonder about society.

I understand that everyone has the right to their own opinions and beliefs, I just wish everyone else understood that, too. Coke is an international brand that has built its reputation upon the image of acceptance and family. Their commercial was just that: openness to all cultures and it focused on ALL families. The United States is a diverse country and Coke is a diverse brand. I could go on and on about my stance on this topic, but I'll spare you all.

Anyways, Twitter blew up with positive and negative comments and created a crisis for Coke. Chapter 8 of Delivering Effective Social Customer Service is all about reputation and crisis management. How convenient that I read this chapter a day after the Super Bowl?

One of the most important details to get through a crisis (in my opinion) is listening. Chapter 8 clearly states, “Listen before responding. Make sure you really understand the issue and what is driving their [the customer’s] response,” p. 194. Coke needs to make sure they know exactly what is being said about their brand and identify the issue before they release any type of statement. I’ve searched the Internet and have yet to find a response from Coke to all the comments.

The next section I highlighted in my book while reading quoted, “Never imply it might be the customer’s fault,” (p. 195). Today during my crisis class we were discussing how to best solve this crisis. Someone said, “Oh, Coke should just say, ‘We’re sorry you interpreted our commercial wrong.’” NO! Never put the blame of a crisis on your customers and the people. Be creative and come back with a different response. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by potentially offending your stakeholders and blaming them for a crisis.

Social media is a double-edged sword. You can increase brand awareness and customer base by a simple campaign, but you can also give your company a death sentence by a single tweet.

The nerdy side of me is coming out: I can’t wait to see what Coke’s response is going to be in the following weeks. I hope they make statements or address the issue through Twitter, because that’s where many outbursts were.

But I want to know, what did you think about the commercial? Do you stand behind Coke, or do you believe they should have gone about it in a different way? What should Coke’s response be like?

I also want to know what your favorite commercial was!

Until next time, stay classy my fellow bloggers.

Candace

Oh, and I put this Budweiser commercial here just for you. Go ahead, watch it again and again. You know you want to, right? Budweiser, you never fail to put a smile on my face and a tear in my eye with your commercials.