
A viral-marketing gambit gone terribly wrong - grellas
http://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/c-tweet/2010/07/23/should-coke-execs-be-more-hip-online-porn-references
======
_delirium
Most of the media writeups on this strangely avoid describing it (the linked
article points out more details), which makes the controversy baffling if you
only read those articles.

For example, one story ([http://www.pamil-visions.net/coca-cola-pulls-
facebook-campai...](http://www.pamil-visions.net/coca-cola-pulls-facebook-
campaign/217123/)) makes it sound like it was no more than a mildly suggestive
ad campaign, and gives examples of "the infamous embarrassing statuses"
including "Never heard of it described as cute before.", which make it sound
pretty tame, as if a bunch of sensitive moralists were offended by a mildly
raunchy ad campaign. No mention of, say, the 2-girls-1-cup reference.

------
bosch
Here's the link to the lady who started it:
[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/child_internet_safety/1003998-Ne...](http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/child_internet_safety/1003998-Need-
help-with-a-very-sensitive-complaint-against-a-massive)

While I do agree they probably shouldn't have had that done, the response of
the moms in the forum is pretty funny as some of them want to have facebook
shut down and get the cops involved.

Also, how do they not realize that their 14 year old installed the program of
their own will?

~~~
jgg
That thread is incredibly scary. I get tired of this "for the children" mantra
that's used to justify every last pissy tirade of every self-righteous parent
on the face of the Earth. If the mother actually cared, she'd have not turned
her kid loose on the Internet in the first place (what, you mean random
strangers won't raise my kid for me?). Also, let's just ignore the fact that
the kid is _14 years old_.

------
stretchwithme
apparently even someone saying they watched porn is offensive. I guess that's
true if you think all children should be sheltered from all knowledge of
anything they're not allowed to do until they reach the magical age when they
are then allowed to know and do all.

Of course, that doesn't prevent them from watching sitcom reruns where sexual
activity is constantly alluded to. At least here they must stay up til 6:30 pm
to be exposed to it.

~~~
Devilboy
2 girls 1 cup is some of the most horrific scat on the net. Have you seen it?
It's probably illegal in most countries.

~~~
derefr
I really don't understand what could make it illegal above-and-beyond regular
pornography. Sure, it's disgusting, but a lot of things are disgusting.

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bigB
Such is the internet. In its raw uncensored format it can be informative,
funny, sad, gross, disgusting, erotic and probably dozens more emotions I cant
think of right at the moment. Sure Coke screwed up, and the ad company are
obviously idiots to even think of associating with with a food brand, but
seriously when are parents going to realise that if a child has access to the
internet, at some stage they are going to be exposed to something of an
unpleasant nature. 2 girls 1 cup, while pretty disgusting, is only on the
inner edge of gross when it comes to the net, so the parents need to be aware
that they are probably lucky that the weird and misguided intentions of the ad
agency didn't dig deeper into the hideous, sickening bowels of what can be
found on the internet.

~~~
sesqu
True enough. When I was a kid there was rotten.com, and I never felt
threatened by it (unlike, say, stilemedia, which I immediately considered
culturally fetid).

The great thing about the internet is that _you_ are in control, and so
there's nothing much to fear from nasty pictures - you can always just close
the page if you decide you aren't interested. 2girls1cup is a relatively long
video, and all the people I know have only watched it for as long as they
needed to decide they didn't want to see the rest.

Of course, this has lead to shock values, but I haven't seen many bad examples
you couldn't anticipate - maybe just if you're really unlucky on your first
visit to /b/, or something.

------
Tichy
Who knows, in the end the uberhyped old spice campaign might have lost them
customers, whereas the despised Dr Pepper campaign might bring a huge boost of
sales.

~~~
mahmud
Not that again:

[http://mohrslaws.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-is-why-nobody-
tak...](http://mohrslaws.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-is-why-nobody-takes-you-
seriously.html)

------
fmora
So, the big mention in here is something about "two girls one cup" and how
offensive it supposedly is. I keep asking myself, how gross can it be? I
decided I didn't care for it but then curiosity got me. I went to wikipedia to
read the description of that video and it is BAD. Really bad. Gross indeed. I
can understand why parents got so upset about this. I had not idea about this
video and yet it is a famous brand promoting this, even if indirectly. I guess
the people that came up with this thought that everybody was already familiar
with this video. Not everybody is a fan of Howard Stern. (I did watch some of
his shows years ago and found them highly disturbing. Mind you, I was still in
my early twenties back then so I'm not that old).

