Campaign Reveals Just a Little Bit of Coke’s Secret Formula

For the time being, the drink has been introduced only in the Britain, where it is the first new formulation Pepsi has added to its line in more than 10 years. Pepsi also boasts that Pepsi Raw is made from natural ingredients and contains no artificial preservatives, colors, flavorings or sweeteners.

Coke and Pepsi seem to be “responding to a global trend,” said Jasmine Montgomery, managing director of FutureBrand, a brand consulting division of McCann-Erickson WorldGroup. “Obesity, and health issues in general are hot topics at the moment, and they are not going to go away.”

Companies that make sugared soft drinks “are having to work out what their future looks like in this very health and diet-obsessed world, and it is a source of considerable anxiety,” she said.

While Pemberton highlights Coke’s ingredients, a second campaign introduced last month in Britain, “Intrinsics,” focuses on taste. A TV spot called “Share the Love” shows a man phoning a friend who is sitting on a crowded commuter train, then opening a Coke, pouring it and drinking it to make his friend on the train jealous.

“Intrinsics’’ includes TV spots by Wieden & Kennedy of Portland, Ore., and outdoor and radio components by Mother, a British agency. Mother has also contributed a series of “blipverts,” or five-second TV spots, which depict the sounds and noises associated with drinking a Coke, together with images of the cap being taken off a bottle of Coke, for example, or ice being dropped in a glass.

Because they are short, the blipverts themselves are unusual. Coke has used them before to advertise its Fanta brand, but blipverts still represent a relatively new approach. The titles of the latest ones are evocative: “Cap,” “Fizz,” “Ice” and “Pour.”

“The aim of the blipverts is not to try to tell a big story,” said Andy Medd, a partner at Mother. “We’re simply creating anticipation of desire. It’s very simple.”

Ms. Bondolowski, the Coke brand director, said that Intrinsics made a more emotional appeal than Pemberton. The goal is “reminding consumers of the pleasure of enjoying an ice cold Coke, evoking positive feelings and memories about the brand and the product,” she said.

Ms. Montgomery of FutureBrand said that Coca-Cola took a risk by deviating from its “long history of very entertaining, aspirational advertising.” People rely on Coke to produce commercials that influence pop culture, she said.

“I’m very skeptical about whether a campaign about no additives or preservatives is the way to go,” Ms. Montgomery said. “Coke’s big strength has always been the lifestyle and the attitude of the brand — not its health credentials.”