JKR

Pride, they say, comes before a fall. We all enjoy a bit of hubris (if it’s at someone else’s expense) so I guess there will be plenty of armchair pundits lining up to critique the discontinuing of Coca-Cola’s Christmas can. The issue is obvious – shoppers have been confusing this limited edition design with the sister brand, Diet Coke. In fact, this issue is so obvious, many pundits are asking how Coca-Cola could not see it coming. But then that’s hubris – folly committed by a hero who has started to believe their own press and lost touch with reality.

A couple of (hopefully less obvious) observations. Effective packaging can have its ingredients boiled down to only a few things: logo, colour, shapes and overall ‘tone of voice’. It’s instructive to see that one of the world’s most famous logos, one not shared by Diet Coke, is seemingly unrecognisable when the design slips its moorings from the famous red. That’s quite chastening. Colour might not be ‘ownable’ but clearly it’s rather fundamental to recognition in this case.

Secondly, Coke has pretty good form when it comes to Christmas (they are often credited with popularising the convention of Santa wearing a red suit). They also have pretty good form with polar bears – lots of famous adverts featuring them. I think it says something about how much Coke has in the bank that it chose not to use its most well established equities this time around. It also says something creditable about their appetite to devise fresh new iconography.

But finally, even when they get it wrong, they get it right. The whole point of these packs was to promote their partnering of the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness about global warming. Did you know about this before the white can was discontinued? (And exactly how discontinued are we talking? The white edition will have been printed and shipped. Obviously they were not going to run it past Christmas).

The Beatles rarely put a foot wrong in their branding. But launching the ‘Yesterday and Today’ LP in the States, with the four lovable mop tops holding dismembered babies, might have been considered an error. In the inevitable backlash the LPs were withdrawn despite Lennon claiming the design was “as relevant as Vietnam” (ahem). Today the few remaining quality copies of the withdrawn design go for around $40,000 and after Sgt. Pepper, it’s probably their most famous (or infamous) cover design. Coca-Cola have guaranteed maximum publicity for their cause, even if it might have been by accident.

As part of Coca-Cola’s 125th anniversary, the brand has launched another limited edition pack, this time for Diet Coke. The new can, set to hit stores in September, will abstract the existing logo pulling out the ‘D’ and the ‘K’ from the word mark. The great thing about this design is that it’s brave and bold in equal measure. Unlike other limited editions, it is refreshing to see a brand using its existing equities in a dynamic way, rather than attempting to create something from scratch, just for the sake of it.

The new can also delivers a more modern look for the brand, steering away from Coke’s recent limited editions which have had a more retro feel.

The detail of this new launch is being kept under wraps but the brand is known to be collaborating with web magazine Stylecaster.com, quoting the can as “the new look for fall”. Voting on AdWeek shows the limited edition has an 80% approval rate, so it looks like consumers are on board too.

Coca-Cola generally seems to get its limited editions spot on, mainly due to its integrated style which plays back to the brand’s key core equities – the best limited editions reinforce rather than dilute the brand.

The limited edition heart design is still one of my favourites though…

What do you think of these rubber clad Hennessy bottles? The answer to that question might depend on which side of thirty you are. They caught my eye in duty free (see below) and back at work, I saw they had done the same for our creative director, who had one on her shelf. We got chatting about them and agreed that they were not to our taste, ‘ a little tacky’ etc.

Yet as Oscar Wilde noted ‘There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.’ The fact is we had noticed these packs and were talking about them – and neither of us could remember the last time we had felt inclined to have a chat about this doughty cognac brand. So the design had done its job and perhaps if we were the young side of thirty, we might even have been raving about them. The design, I guess inspired by iPod cases and suchlike, is certainly a clear declaration that this is a brand looking for relevance to a younger audience. Certainly the ad below suggests this is cognac for the Apple generation

Seth Godin defines effective design as being remarkable. Meaning work which can actually inspire remarks and so build saliency. On this  criteria, the Hennessy bottles do really well.

There cannot be many contemporary artists who blur the line between design and fine art as regularly as Sir Peter Blake. He has always taken on design and advertising commissions, recently producing work for Coke, Green and Black’s and Cains beer – which I briefed him on. He was charming, modest and professional, the antithesis of a temperamental artist. His commercial work chimes with his artistic philosophy; he wants examples of his work that are accessible and affordable to most. I guess this is an extension of a pop art outlook that celebrates mass popular culture.

The image at the top is from his latest commission for Fred Perry. You will notice, scanning the other images here, that the motifs are repeatedly used by Blake. He has taken iconography used throughout his career (check out Tweedle Dee’s socks in the ‘70s Alice illustration and target above)  and ‘logo-fied’ them. He has then reworked these basic building blocks in seemingly endless variations….

A colleague unkindly suggested that this was ‘money for old rope’, with Blake trading on his name and to some degree, selling out. I completely disagree. Instead I think that he is going through a really interesting artistic phase where he is in effect short handing his entire career, turning it into a distilled distinctive brand. This seems like the logical conclusion to a pop artist’s journey, as well as a canny way to remain relevant. If we are all still developing with such energy and sparkle at Sir Peter’s age, I would say we will be doing very well.

It’s the big day! We wish the happy couple well. The papers over this past week have been full of wedding related advertising, most of which hedges it’s bets along “a great way to celebrate the royal wedding (or just a day off)”. This probably offers a good mirror to the general split mood of the nation. but also suggests brands following a “let them have cake and eat it” approach, to mangle the Marie Antoinette quote. Perhaps this is why Marketing magazine reported that little of the activity achieved much cut through?

There have been some good limited edition brand initiatives, the most effective being for brands that fit the occasion – such as Pimms. The V&A were selling a nice poster by James Brown that did a nice job of updating the more chintzy traditional styling for such events…

But for my money the John Smiths commemorative (paper) plate was the best. Why? Because it nailed it’s colours to the mast rather than being mealy mouthed. Because it fits with the brands ‘no nonsense’ persona. And because it was funny, rather than fancy. A nicely subversive (if curiously un-branded) souvenir. Whatever your sentiments, we hope you have a lovely day.

See a comprehensive round up of other wedding related brand activity here.