Coke’s London Eye logo coup dominates London – what a terrible marketing idea

There’s much fuss in the capital at Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the iconic London Eye ferris wheel, effectively transmitting a bloody great Coke logo all over London.

On the face of it, it’s a stroke of genius. It probably didn’t cost that much (by Coke’s standards) and think of the impact! But that just goes to show how dim marketers and their agencies can be on occasions.

Over the years Coke has been adept at capturing things that have nothing to do with it. Its wholesale takeover of Christmas via a series of celebrated ads showing Santa-coloured (and Coke-coloured of course) gigantic trucks conveying calorific delights to the masses was deemed a marketing tour de force. If memory serves, it came top in a Marketing society poll of best campaigns last year.

But this doesn’t wash any more. Core Coke is a sugary confection blamed by much of the world – including the medical establishment – for making the UK (and other countries) a bunch of fatties. Lots of people object to it and they’re ready and armed to appear in the media saying so.

So to do something so overt as plastering a massive Coke logo all over London is just crass. Why didn’t all the supposedly intelligent people involved in the decision realise that?