At first blush, the campaign is just another take on the brand’s classic arctic mascots—the polar bears. But the whole concept is built out around tying into the game itself, in real time—aiming to enhance the overall experience by adding a little topical extra entertainment value. The TV work focuses on two polar bears, chilling out on their “snowfa” and watching the game, rooting for opposite teams. Each sports a colored scarf that denotes its wearer’s allegiance—red and white for the Giants, blue and white for the Patriots.
Marathon bicyclists were the first athletes to endorse Coca-Cola. World champion and Georgia-native Bobby Walthour appeared in a 1909 newspaper ad.
Bobby Walthour newspaper ad 1909
“When I first went into a six-day race I took a jug of Coca-Cola to New York with me and drank it all the time I was there. I won the championship and came out of that great contest ten pounds heavier than I went in. After that experience I have never been without Coca-Cola, because it keeps me fresh, but does not stimulate and then leave me all broken up.”
Coca-Cola was one of the three official beverage sponsors with a Getraenkedienst (beverage service) at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Athletic competition was a Nazi ideal and the Coca-Cola GmbH cashed in heavily on this infatuation by becoming one of the biggest sponsors of sports events, most notably the annual Deutschlandrundfahrt (National Bycicle Championships) and the Soccer Cup.
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Getrank (One People, One Nation, One Drink) Olympic Games in Berlin 1936
Robert Woodruff would spend 60 years as Coca-Cola’s leader introducing it to the rest of the world. Woodruff captured foreign markets with brilliant and creative campaigns, in one instance sending Coca-Cola with the U.S. team to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and in another, emblazoning the company logo on racing dog sleds in Canada. He even plastered Coca-Cola banners over the walls of Spanish bull fighting arenas.
How Boeing company advertised space exploration and defense programs in the early 1960s
How well known brands advertised during World War II [15 pics]
Coca-Cola ads in Nazi Germany
Coca-Cola “Feel The Curves”
Coca-Cola WWII American airplane posters