What's in a name? Profit. · 3:46pm Sep 1st, 2014
Over the summer months, the Stateside branch of Cola-Cola has been running a promotion based around personalization. Put simply, most 20oz bottles will have someone's name on them. It won't necessarily be your name, they aren't going to cover every name and variant spelling of same, plus a few of the ones which have been produced are supposedly hard to find -- but don't worry, because if all else fails, they have a number of vans roaming the country. Four-wheeled printers with side-mounted touchscreens, which will run off two cans per patron with the name(s) of that person's choice. It's your Coke. Don't you feel special? Aren't you going to save that can (or bottle) forever?
One van came to my part of the country: I spotted it in a supermarket parking lot and stood in line for about three minutes because, y'know, free soda, plus three-ton motorized printer. (Wonder what happens if they get a can jam. And what's the ink run on those things, anyway? Given that they only print in white...) And I didn't think about it after that, because as promotions go, all I get out of it is a little free soda and my part was over.
I was just instructed to check eBay.
Some names (and their variant spellings) are more rare than others. Several are impossible to find unless you have access to those vans. Others are common, but who wants to waste time looking? And so it seems some citizens of this nation with the motto of Pay For Your Life, Charge For Liberty, And The Resulting Cash Will Make Me Happy have taken to standing in line over and over again, getting the least likely and most wanted appellations to come out of that printer. Ten trips. Twenty. Set up tents at strategic points. You can't follow the Grateful Dead, so you'll just tour with the Caffeine Shakes. And then they sell the results, hoping to get A Lot. Five bucks a can. Ten, fifteen, twenty... and occasionally, a bidder willing to pay it, because apparently there's more social significance to having your Very Own Coke Can than I ever thought.
However, this is the States. And so to stand against those trying to sell personalized cans of soda at two dollars an ounce (because they're not standard-sized cans), a counter has risen. An eBay store which will sell you any name at all. Your choice. About two bucks, plus shipping.
I'm guessing that's the person who drives the van.
Well, I for one am not getting involved in this silliness. I see absolutely no point in following a van cross-country, the postal service doesn't exactly love it when you ship soda because shake-and-sort-and-explode, plus my feedback rating doesn't need the sarcasm.
However, I did just get this awesome idea for a curved stencil...
(Create Your Own Pony Can?)
I was around when the Pet Rock was popular, and while I still use it as a yardstick to judge the needs of humanity to layer the bottom of the ocean with Marketing goons – along with Lawyers and Sales goons – at least it remained clever after you brought it home.
smthree.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/pet-rock.jpg
Coca Cola has a similar thing in Iceland, in that bottles have a random name on them (and sometimes not a name at all). "Have a coke with Jónas", "Have a coke with Halldór", "Have a coke with your aunt" etc. Most people think it's pretty clever, no one gives enough f(yay)s to actually check the name when grabbing a bottle from a store shelf.
We have those personalised cans in Europe too – since last year at least, IIRC – but I haven't heard of vans driving around to print custom variants. Then again, I don't even like cola, so I haven't really paid attention.
I believe that here in Australia you could order your name on a Coke over the internet. I can't remember if it was bottles or cans however. It may have been the 600ml bottles.
I wasn't paying attention. My name is quite common in both its long and contracted form. I have no real desire to have my internet handle on a Coke. And I prefer Pepsi...
And I'm just sitting back here going 'Ew, cola'.
I wonder how Coke is deciding to send which bottles where. Do they have a detailed marketing database that allows them to tailor the name mix by zip code? I kind of suspect they do.
Estee, you mad genius.
What nonsense.
*sits back and continues drinking Dr. Pepper*
2419839 Haven't you seen Maud Pie? Pet rocks are making a comeback.
2421301 Well yeah, Maud rocks!
Here in England they did that and put it in every store ever for the same price as the old coca cola.