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Absolute Lack of Originality

ArabAd staff

16-July-2015

Absolute Lack of Originality

Although many thought--as it appeared from the feedback on social media platforms--this was a creative and innovative idea, it quickly appeared that what Coke did was nothing new to the marketing world. As a matter of fact, Joe La Pompe, the infamous copycat hunter, released on his website a similar execution to Coke's concept.

Done for Absolut Vodka few years back, the tagline for the "Absolut no label" campaign read: "In an Absolut world, there are no labels". The vodka company's campaign was also designed to tackle prejudice, however, the slight difference is that it was aimed at showing support to gay rights. The naked ABSOLUT bottle, with no label and no logo, was launched globally in the fall of 2009. A discrete and easily removable sticker with the campaign manifesto encouraged consumers to discard their labels and to visit absolut.com/nolabel - a blog discussing labels and prejudice associated with the LGBT community.

So again, we are ought to wonder if original and fresh ideas are no more in advertising… When two beverages companies launch limited edition naked bottles/cans in order to fight prejudice, questioning originality in advertising is  legitimate and wondering if there is copycat infringement here is also invalid. Well, you be the judge!