Coke stuff

Just to get the ball rolling, here's some coke stuff that popped up immediately as I was doing internet research.

First of all, we've got mycoke.com, which is a site built on the ideas from other successful online "communities." You can host your own blog, play games, even create a little character called a "v-ego" who mixes music and visits chat rooms -- all so you can tell the world how much you truly love coke. It's like Celebration, Fla. without the startup costs.

I also found a fascinating little page describing coca-cola's partnership with Ohio State. It's a lot like those corporate-themed parties we were talking about, only in this case, we're dealing with campus events rather than private functions. Coke provides drinks, banners, instruction on how to run a successful (read: well-attended) event, and even cold hard cash if they like you enough. What a great way to help small campus groups get started! Except that as it states at the bottom, "The broader the impact and attendance, the more likely the event will be approved." So basically only the most mainstream, well-established groups get help, because Coke wants as many eyeballs as possible.

And then there's this article on a promo coke did that involved using GPS technology to reach out and touch consumers. At first it sounds cool, but then it starts being a little creepy when you realize that Coke basically sneaked a homing beacon into your refrigerator.

This is barely scratching the surface, of course. But this is the sort of stuff I think the blog should be used for. And, just to give an example, the mycoke stuff is the sort of thing I'd appropriate for the website proper, since it deals specifically with coke as a cultural signifier.