Need help with a very sensitive complaint against a massive multinational!

[MrsRickman]

Ok, here goes.
Coca Cola are running a promo via their Dr Pepper brand just now on facebook. It is called 'status takeover' and involves the application putting an embarrassing or funny status on your FB page.
My 14 yo dd participated and I was HORRIFIED to log into FB and see that her status read - 'I watched 2 girls one cup and felt hungry afterwards'. For anyone who doesn't know what this means, please stay ignorant, for those who do, you can imagine how I felt. This was compounded later on when a quick search through dds internet history revealed she had tried to find out what it was for herself. Thankfully, our ISP has a wonderful child filter!!
So, after various emails and phonecalls to CocaCola marketing I have been offered (quite offensively) as way of compensation, a night in a hotel and theatre tickets for the West End. Fat lot of use to me, we live in Glasgow.
So, how do I proceed? ASA? I am absolutely fizzing with rage and disgust, and want a full apology and explanation. CocaCola are saying they use outside marketing teams for different brands and it's outside their jurisdiction. Help!?

Round of applause MrsR. Well done you.

Thanks Dittany. Thats horrible they didnt take it further!

Well done MrsR!

Well done mrs R and the rest of you - I wish I had read the thread properly and not gone off to find out what all the fuss is about. God help any teeangers who did the same as me. Depraved filth is a perfect summation. I'll be boycotting coke et al from now on.

Yes Dittany I completely agree. This is just the tip of a nasty misogynist iceberg (excuse the appalling metaphor).

Well done MrsR, keep it up.

Check out the Dr Pepper facebook page, everyone has started asking why all their status's have disapeared!www.facebook.com/drpepperuk

interesting to see what they say!

Thanks for taking the action to get this response from Coke Mrs Rickman. Glad Coke Corps has accepted responsibility for this vile promo and abandoned it, but I won't forget what they have done and I will strive not to buy any of their crap products again. Their U-turn helps somewhat, but it is shocking that this happened in the first place.

Excellent work, Mrs R. You can at least gain some satisfaction from the fact that you have personally managed to bring the sick competion to a end. Many children will have been spared further vile exposure as a direct result of you taking action. You should feel proud tonight.

As for Coke's statement, what a pathetic cop out and frankly it is an admission of negligence. Coke owe a legal duty if care to those entering that competition. What a negligent omission to approve status updates that you had not bothered to check the meaning of. Claiming you did not understand the phrase will not get you off the hook.

Mrs R, I hope that you speak to the Guardian and that they agree to respect your privacy. Coke deer e to be hung out to dry over this one.

wow...the power of mumsnet again eh?!

well done mrs rickman....i hope your daughter is ok....hellova thing to write up on the usual "what i did in the holidays" homework!!!

hope this changes things re facebook.

Didn't post yesterday but I haven't been able to get the 'images' out of my head since I read this thread. I'm sure the pictures in ind ar eno worse than the actual video referred to

Well done Mrs R for taking this as far as you did and for getting some satisfaction. I cannot believe that anyone, even the ad agency, thought this was acceptable for 14 year olds. It's one thing their peers ribbing them about some of the milder stuff mentioned but for adults to actively promote the material you encountered is completely outrageous!

I think you should be proud of yourself for the stance you took and for bringing this to the attention of such a wide audience. I know they say there is no such thing as bad publicity but I have foregone my weekly fix of cherry coke becaue of this. Small potatoes to them no doubt but multiplied by everyone who was made aware and spread the word it might make an impact.

Big high five to you!

For Substandard - just went back to look and the web page for Status Takeover competition has now been deleted off the site (probably still cached on Google though).

Wonder what they were thinking with the "Chatroulette Cheerleader" (a buxom young lady shows off her cleavage while chatting with some lads in this spoof video, but ends with a bloke replacing the girl, then stripping down to his underwear (conservative boxers).

Only thing is that clicking on the video on the Lean Mean Fighting Machine site can get you to the YouTube page, where the 'other' videos to watch include '2 Hot Girls in the Shower' and other items. (Though to be fair, the 2 hot girls are women, only have head and shoulder view, and description says PG-rated and just immature fun. I didn't look at the other video clips, however.)

Perhaps Tom Bazeley is the "creative" behind some of the other campaign ideas, or just the front man who has registered the website and now uses it for hosting marketing campaigns for his company.

Public (WHOIS) information for the domain...

leanmeanfightingmachine.co.uk

Registrant:
tombazeley

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
18b Askew Road
London
London
W12 9BH
United Kingdom

Registrar:
Fasthosts Internet Ltd [Tag = FASTHOSTS]
URL: www.fasthosts.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 18-Feb-2004
Renewal date: 18-Feb-2012
Last updated: 02-Mar-2010

I think Coca-Cola Great Britain should have a long, careful, review of its marketing and reconsider slogans like "What's the worst that could happen ?"

Be aware that future campaigns will be given scrutiny and no doubt action will be swifter "next time".

MoneySavingExpert had a thread about the start of the Dr Pepper promotion but today has reference back to this MN thread.

Perhaps someone who uses MSE can post that the competition has been closed early and status messages deleted.

PS Did anyone know what the status message regarding a cucumber said ? Someone said it had been on her wall, and was embarrassing (of course!)

Link to Money Saving Expert thread promoting Dr Pepper competition because of 1000 pound prize draws.

MSE are not fans of ours if the Asda thread was anything to go by!

Maybe there should be a new section on MN called Name and Shame them so there can be companies with dubious practices given the attention they deserve, and preserved for posterity to haunt any company exec who makes some bad choices...

Copies of useful links, legal rules, etc, could also be kept with a precis of what happened and why.

ASDA reaction was hopefully a one-off, SagacityNell - the comments today are of the 'shocked, disgusted, and well done for complaining about it' type.

Oh that's good NG.

Some sensible comments regarding the "making public" requirement of this promotion and that it was not a good idea.

have posted......

Am glad to hear that news is spreading. Am really hoping that the papers pick this up and run with it next week. Ideally i want to see Coke make a massive charitable donation to a children's charity. It may not make up for what they have done but it would at least see some good coming from a bad situation.