Globalspeak Blog
Evidently Not ALL Things Go Better With Coke
25 January 2012
It’s quite alarming when my NetBase social media analytics tool reveals consumer warnings on beverage contaminations – in three languages, and from different world regions. When global consumers voice food and beverage safety in concert, albeit for different reasons, things get scary.
Initially my interest was caught by Latin American and other Hispanic consumers drawing attention to a recent California court ruling upholding claims that the Caramel IV coloring used in Coca-Cola presents a cancer risk. The ruling, which rebuked opposing claims by the American Association of Beverages and other food & beverage processors, also requires products that contain 4- MEI to carry labeling indicating it a health risk.
As this Spanish Facebook post explains, in January 2011 the State of California added the 4- MEI ingredient to a list of known cancer causing agents and requested that products containing the ingredient in excess of 16 micrograms require a cancer risk warning. A 12-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola contains 130 micrograms of 4- MEI . The new warning label ruling went into effect January 7.
This finding led us to look at other markets. For our Coca-Cola brand insights digest into new consumer health concerns and brand safety, we leveraged the NetBase tool in English, Spanish and German.
In looking at consumer social media conversations about Coca-Cola in English-speaking markets, another alarm bell sounded with dialogue surrounding the brand’s efficacy in “cleaning toilet bowls” and “removing oil from sidewalks.”
Words are evocative—as we see in the word cloud below that contains alarming health risk sentiments about the Coca-Cola brand. U.S. consumers remain concerned over the dental health implications of drinking Coca-Cola, even as we blogged this past summer about a related, albeit bogus Public Health Warning that went viral. Serious U.S. consumer concerns also resound over the lethal “toxicity” and “addiction” associated with Coca-Cola, as well as other “unhealthy” claims leveled at the beverage—all consumer discussions essential to brand equity which must be ruthlessly heeded in social forums.
Coincidentally, while U.S. and Latin American consumers these past two months discussed concerns over the California court’s 4- MEI ruling, online German consumers seemed more concerned than their U.S. counterparts over pesticide contamination of a Coca-Cola brand orange juice sold in the U.S. and produced in Brazil – Minute Maid and Simply Orange.
Perhaps caught up in the merriment of the year-end holidays, German social discourse netted more favorable emotion and less health safety concern toward Coca-Cola’s seasonal advertising. The brand’s use of Melanie Thornton’s “A Wonderful Dream” was a notable reference, as was this sexy Coke spot not necessarily attributed to Coca-Cola.
Social media: It’s the real thing!
