Coca-Cola campaign aims to ‘remove labels this Ramazan’

Ramazan-themed ad campaign is aimed at drawing attention to worldwide prejudice

Coca-Cola cans in the Middle East will go ‘unmarked’ this month as part of a Ramazan-themed ad campaign that is aimed at drawing attention to worldwide prejudice.

The soda giant has gotten rid of the iconic cursive letters from a range of its products, leaving only the white ribbon and one message: “Labels are for cans not for people."

PHOTO: FP7/DXB

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To promote the new packaging, the company released a commercial in which a group of diverse-looking men try to guess each other’s’ appearance in a dark room. The participants use stereotypes to describe the people, only to be proven wrong when the lights are switched on.

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The company was able to skirt any nutrition and ingredient labelling rules by setting the label-less cans aside only to be distributed at events, and a case could be made that the bare-bones new look inadvertently equates Coke's own insignia with worldwide intolerance.

The campaign, “Remove labels this Ramazan,” fits into Coke’s larger "Let’s take an extra second" campaign which aims to encourage people from around the world to get to know one another beyond a first impression, over a sugary beverage.

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"In the Middle East, a region with over 200 nationalities and a larger number of labels dividing people, these Coca-Cola cans send a powerful and timeless message that a world without labels is a world without differences," the agency behind the campaign, McCann-owned FP7/DXB in Dubai, said in a statement.

PHOTO: FP7/DXB

This is not the first time the popular soft drink company’s ad campaign has made a big splash. Its ongoing “Share a Coke” campaign in which bottles and cans have personalised names and descriptives typed out in its signature lettering, has boasted sales for them globally.

This ad originally appeared on adweek.com.