Hello all. Instead of your Cokes and your Fantas and your, ugh….Dr Peppers, imagine a a beverage that spoke to your most apathetic ideologies, that had its own national hot-line, TV spots explaining that it was actually not that great and can artwork designed by none other than Daniel Clowes.
Therein lies the brand strategy for short lived soft drink, OK Soda, a product of the Coca-Cola company.
Once upon a time there was the greatest drink in the world…..
Marketing agencies have a full and rich history of completing fucking up when it comes to ‘the young people’, a demographic ridiculously lucrative if cracked. Back in the 90s, the youth market consisted of Gen-Xers, who were fairly apathetic, anti-corporate, tired of being labeled, exploited and marketed to.
So the company decided on a different tack. They would create a new product especially targeting these disillusioned youngsters. And they would be apathetic also and self-aware in advertising their product. This meant that their campaign would be far too obvious to actually be offensive, because everyone was in on the joke, CEOs and college students alike.
They had TV spots claiming the soda was just ‘OK’, a national 1-800 hotline where you could call and leave messages about how much the drink sucked (preceded by the disclaimer “your comments may be used in advertising or exploited in some other way we haven’t figured out yet”) or listen to a smug voice over actor making bird noises or take a quiz on how ‘OK’ you were. Look at the fucking cans. Amazing.
However, most people found this approach too overt to truly buy into (because people fucking suck…and the drink apparently tasted like ”a combination of orange soft drink and flat Coca-Cola”). They stopped distribution in 1995.
I strongly suggest you check the Wikipedia page which has all kinds of insane information on it (Shepard Fairey tried to sabotage the campaign personally). Yet another example of why the 90s fucking ruled.
“Never overestimate the remarkable abilities of “OK” brand soda.”
