Coca-Cola axes Lean Mean Fighting Machine after porn scandal
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Coca-Cola has axed Lean Mean Fighting Machine from its digital agency roster, following a Facebook campaign for its Dr Pepper brand that included a reference to a porn film.
Dr Pepper model
The company acted after parent’s groups attacked it for a Dr Pepper promotional Facebook campaign, which hijacked users’ statuses and posted embarassing updates.
The most offensive status update saw a a 14-year-old girl’s status updated, making reference to a pornographic movie. The status update pretended the girl had watched a notorious video called ’2 Girls 1 Cup’ and said, “I watched ’2 girls one cup’ and felt hungry afterwards”.
A Coca-Cola spokesperson confirmed: “We have stopped all our ongoing work with Lean Mean Fighting Machine and have come to a mutual agreement to end our relationship with the agency”.
In addition to Dr Pepper, the agency has also lost work on Coke Zero, which it only won a few weeks ago.
The spokesperson adds: “We take full responsibility and will be reviewing our promotional procedures. We will take all steps necessary to ensure this does not happen again”.
This story first appeared on pitch
YouGov Insight:
· 68% of UK adults drink Coca-Cola (or variants like Diet Coke), while 42% drink Pepsi (or variants).
· Coca-Cola/Coke is easily the world’s biggest soft drinks brand, but the company behind it can now claim an astounding portfolio of 500 brands and ’3,300 beverages’.
· Coca-Cola’s maximum consumer penetration in the UK reaches over 80% among younger men and women and has a similar rate across the social grades.
Readers' comments (3)
Matt Parsons | Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:02 pm
Looks like Dr Pepper Facebook page could be going same way as Ferrero Rocher?
http://www.facebook.com/DrPepper
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King Scorpio | Tue, 27 Jul 2010 5:20 pm
Maybe LMFM should pitch for a sewer company's business - they're at that level.
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Bo Derek | Tue, 17 Aug 2010 3:58 pm
A risky idea that did not work this time - but if you are going to be the best you need to make these brave choices.
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