Indiantelevision.com Team

(24 November 2007 1:00 pm)

MUMBAI: US beverage conglomerate Coca-Cola is helping to kick off the holiday festivities this year with new global advertising that highlights the special times that family and friends share with loved ones and Coca-Cola around tables throughout the world.

Coca-Cola US president, GM sparkling beverages Hendrik Steckhan says, "Coca-Cola has been a part of celebrations with family and friends for more than 120 years, and these new ads honor those special moments with loved ones that people all around the world cherish".

A new television ad, called At The Table will make its global debut, airing during select family programming such as ESPN and ABC’s college football broadcasts during thanksgiving weekend, and on ABC’s broadcast of The Polar Express on 30 November.

Shot in Uruguay by La Negra (Buenos Aires, Argentina), the ad is the latest addition to the critically acclaimed Coke Side of Life campaign created by Wieden and Kennedy. The spot opens with a family setting up a table and chairs in preparation for an outdoor meal.

They are soon joined by other people, who bring their own tables, chairs, food and Coca-Cola as well. The growing table continues to wind through city streets and rural landscapes around the world as more and more people join in the meal and take seats at the ever-growing table, sharing their meals and their Coca-Cola too. The ad, which will be used by Coca-Cola divisions around the world, makes its global premiere in the US this week

Coca-Cola US chief marketing officer Katie Bayne says, "Coca-Cola has always brought people together. Each of these ’Coke Side of Life’ ads is about friends and families connecting and sharing. There is now considerable research that shows the tangible benefits of sharing meals together. We understand and believe in the value of coming together -- during the holidays and every day"

Research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University consistently finds that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. Their 2007 The Importance of Family Dinners IV report found that compared to teens who have five to seven family dinners a week, those who dine with their families fewer than three nights a week are: three-and-a-half times likelier to have abused prescription drugs; three times likelier to have tried marijuana; more than two-and-a-half times likelier to have tried cigarettes and one-and-a-half times likelier to have tried alcohol.

The Arctic Beach Party ad returns for 2007 as well. In the spot, the Coca-Cola polar bear family is awoken by the sounds of a party and while investigating the noise, the polar bear cub slips down a snowy hillside into a group of dancing penguins. As the penguins and bears eye one another, a small penguin appears and offers the cub a bottle of Coca-Cola, signaling the bears to join the holiday celebration.

Over the years, the bears have come to represent the fun and togetherness that friends and family share, especially during the holiday season. In addition to the Coca-Cola polar bears reappearance for the holidays, the Coca-Cola Sundblom Santa will begin appearing in out-of-home advertising in cities around the US.