This is the campaign intentionally created to debunk traditional mass advertising messages. Were Wieden +Kennedy and Sergio Zyman’s thinking ahead of the time back in 1993?
OK Soda was a soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company in 1993 that aggressively courted the Generation X demographic with unusual advertising tactics, including endorsements and even outright negative publicity. It did not sell well in select test markets and was officially declared out of production in 1995 before reaching nation-wide distribution. The drink’s slogan was “Things are going to be OK.”
OK Soda was intentionally marketed at the difficult Generation X and Generation Y markets, and attempted to cash in on the group’s existing disillusionment and disaffection with standard advertising campaigns; the concept was that the youth market was already aware that they were being manipulated by mass-media marketing, so this advertising campaign would just be more transparent about it.
OK Soda is the real deal. Check it here.
Knowing the culture of your consumers is key to branding. I wonder how it would behave in today’s mid to post-recession markets and if they were tested in major cities, rather than the southwest to mid-western regions in the US that were originally chosen in the campaign?
via nedhepburn
