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Coca-Cola’s polar bear history is deep, with exciting moments in animatronics, legal battles, and PR disasters.
French origins: The first time Coca-Cola used a polar bear in their ads was in 1922 in a print advertisement in France.
This ad showed the polar bear squirting a bottle of Coca-Cola into the mouth of a thirsty sun.
Coca-Cola would continue to use polar bears in their ads, but things would really pick up in the 90s.
Animating the bears: The modern polar bear that Coca-Cola uses wouldn’t be launched until 1993 as part of the “Always Coca-Cola” campaign. In the campaign, Coca-Cola famously animated the bears.
Based on a puppy: You can thank SVP of Creative and Advertising, Ken Stewart, for the modern polar bear characters. Stewart was involved in charge of the famous Always Coca-Cola campaign and came up with the idea to animate the bear characters for part of the series of ads. When coming up with the concept he looked to his new Labrador Retriever puppy—Morgan—which he thought resembled a polar bear.
First commercial: The first modern polar bear commercial was called “Northern Lights,” where the bears watched the aurora borealis while drinking Coca-Cola. Stewart made the decision to make the commercial silent so the audience would focus on the music instead of dialog.
The ad was hit and the polar bears would be a popular part of Coca-Cola’s marketing campaign for the next 25 years.
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A complex creation: The Coca-Cola Company used the company Rhythm & Hues to bring the polar bears to life with CGI animations.
The animations were created using advanced computer graphics software and required a complex process involving clay models, 3D imaging, and detailed movement studies of real polar bears.
Olympic Games: Since their modern debut in 1993, there have been many commercials featuring the animated bear, including ads for the 1994 Olympic Games.
Super Bowl campaign: In 2012, Coca-Cola created a live advertising. The concept involved polar bears reacting to the Super Bowl in real-time.
A spoofy situation: On December 30, 1994, The Coca-Company was in an intense battle with a small Massachusetts soda maker named Polar Corp.
The controversy started when Polar Corp. created a TV ad spoofing Coca-Cola’s own advertising campaign based on its animated polar bears.
The legal issue: The ad showed an animated polar bear throwing a can of Coke into a trash can labeled “Keep the Arctic Pure.”
Coca-Cola was pissed.
They thought the ad misrepresented their product and damaged the environmentally friendly image they were trying to create.
The Coca-Cola Company went on to seek a preliminary injunction against Polar Corp.
Court Decision: The U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton in Boston granted the preliminary injunction. As he agreed that Polar Corp.’s ad “misrepresented the nature and quality of Coke”.
Polar Corp. was forced to air the ad in the future.
It’s important to note that the court specified that the decision did not involve the use of the polar bear symbol itself, which Polar Corp. had been using for years.
Coca-Cola has a deep history with different can designs. One of its most infamous designs was the 2011 white can, which was mired in controversy.
The white can initiative: Coca-Cola launched its white cans with cute pictures of its famous polar bears in November 2011.
They partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Arctic Home: The goal of the campaign was to inform the public about polar bear conservation. The habit of the bears has been decreasing for many decades due to human encroachment and the slow melting of polar ice caps.
It was code-named “Arctic Home”.
Consumer backlash: Consumers were confused. The cans resembled Diet Coke cans.
Disaster followed due to complaints of consumers accidentally purchasing the wrong can.
Some consumers even perceived taste differences. Though doubtful, it was a PR disaster nonetheless.
A reversion to red: Due to the backlash, The Coca-Cola Company decided to return to red cans after one month.
They originally wanted to manufacture 1.4 billion white cans until February 2012. A lot of planned white that would revert back to a sea of red.
Commitment to the cause: Because of the fallout, in 2011, Coca-Cola pledged to donate $2 million to the World Wildlife Fund to protect polar bears. However, people still criticized it as being relatively small compared to their advertising budget and profits.
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