Coca-Cola Life (Greenwashing) - Whatever next?

Coca-Cola Life – A Greener Image – Whatever next? June 2013, in Argentina, The Coca-Cola Company launched a new “natural” and “healthier” soft drink with a heavily featured green image - Coca- Cola Life, to add to its array of products. Initially the product was introduced in Argentina as a kind of market test drive, with future plans of breaking into the European market by 2015. Over the years Coca-Cola have been scrutinised & criticised from carrying out unethical and dishonest business practices (notably in India where plant operations were set up, draining local villager’s water supply) too contributing to effects on health such as obesity. In retrospect Coca-Cola Life is moving away from these notions, towards a closer connection to nature and the environment. The iconic red colour associated with the brand is replaced by the colour green. Indeed the colour green is instrumental within the marketing and advertising of Coca-Cola’s campaign of a “healthier”, more “natural” product. Lush green forests, thick blades of grass and an overall sun filled outdoor setting are depicted on Coca-Cola’s Life website, all of which attempt to show a closer connection to the environment. Of course this role of ‘green’ is something of which large corporations have to take serious as consumer demand for environmentally friendly products is increasing. Arguably though, within the marketing and advertising of this new product there appears an excess of too many affiliations towards a ‘green image’, resulting in claims towards greenwashing. Emphasis is also placed towards the bottling of the product – here it is sold in Coca-Cola’s “PlantBottle”. Issues regarding the sustainability of the product are questionable, for its excessive use of water in production and its non-biodegradable nature. Contemporary allegations directed against the company combined with its role in the soft drink market as a non-nutritional drink, seemingly can be annoying when Coca-Cola uses PR campaigns with implications of a “greener living”. However it does show signs of change, listening to the pressures for greener plastics and less sugary drinks. Arguably though is Coca-Cola Life just exploiting the “greener life” in their favour? With the amount of money The Coca-Cola Company have at their disposal, the prospect of this ‘greenwashed’ product breaking into other markets seems inevitable – Coke Zero dipped its feet into a national market (being the Australian market) before it was emerged fully to a global market.