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!?

Can't decide if I am more offended by the Guardian, as a Scot that the Guardian piece implies she would have accepted the tickets if she had lived in London rather than Glasgow; or that MN is a bunch of hysterical fuddy duddies.

Anyway. I've written to them (the Guardian) to complain too. Pointed out how non-Guardian it is that the Telegraph and Metro "get it" more than them. Maybe if a few more of us did that, Coca Cola would get exactly the publicity they deserve, for what actually happened here, instead of being let off the hook as if they had been a little risque.

Dittany - if an individual had posted extreme hardcore pornography on my DC's page, it would be a matter for the police. Coca Cola do the same thing and get three very nice product placement photos in 2 national newspapers

the theatre thing doesn't look great tbh, it could come across as 'they offered me theatre tickets but I wanted a mega compensation payout instead'

"Coca-Cola apologised to Mrs Rickman, but even that back-fired. Its offer of a night in a hotel in London and theatre tickets for the West End was deemed as ?offensive? by Mrs Rickman because she lives in Glasgow."

They're all wankers these press types aren't they? The Metro thing makes it sound like a storm in a teacup too. No-one has mentioned the fact that the children had to set their statuses to public yet.

As if a night at the theatre would make up for what happened. FGS.

I thought that there was a dr pepper logo next to the statuses they posted? That's what showed on the screen printes I've seen.

How ridiculous - maybe you should spend a bit more time concentrating on what your child is doing, and a bit less time blaming everyone else. You're like the anti smoking brigade, who seem to want to change the world just because they don't like something. If you don't like the Dr Pepper status takeover application, just don't use it. If you're that incapable of telling your child what they can and can't do, just stop them using the internet and leave everyone else alone.

Networkguy The status messages are linked back - they say via Dr Pepper Status Takeover

lame troll, please try harder Jimbo1531

Join 'specially to say that did you Jimbo?

I can't be arsed to pick apart your post but maybe you should try reading the thread and attempting to understand the issues raised.

From the DrPepper page:

" Charlotte Willow-Edwards This is why they deleted Status Takeover:
www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/18/coca-cola-facebook-promotion-porn
11 hours ago · View feedback (1)Hide feedback (1) · Flag

Matthew Bodinham
Matthew Bodinham
that's ridiculous, you had to sign a waver thing before allowing it saying that they may cause offense, and if the mum had such a problem with it she should have closer control over her daughter's internet usage! also, is anyone else wondering how the woman immeadiately recognised a reference to an underground porn movie?
9 hours ago · 1 personNaimh Nicolson likes this. · Flag"

Oh fuck off jimbo.

If you can't understand why it is a problem to direct children to open their profile pages to the public, then post references to masturbation and hardcore pornography in their statuses then you are a complete cock.

Tell you what, why don't you contact CEOP and tell them that you have been sending pornographic references and talking about masturbation with 14yo girls on facebook and tell them that you can't see that there would be a problem with that, and see what they say.

Really disappointed to turn on my computer today and a)see that the Guardian article hasn't been updated and b)it hasn't broken as a bigger story, emphasising the mistake coca cola have made rather than the concern shown by anxious mothers.

Have you contacted or heard from the IWF, Mrs Rickman? I'd be interested to know what they say.

Easy there ISNT. Jimbo may well be a troll who hasnt engaged with the issues at all but he also may well be a 14 year old boy - and thats a bit pot and kettle...

The point i was trying to make, is if you don't like something, then fuck off somewhere else where it isn't happening and leave everyone else to enjoy their fun. If you are incapable of preventing your child from accessing things you don't deem appropriate then maybe you need to get rid of your computer.

That blog post is very good - factual and balanced, hopefully some of the press will pinch stuff from it

"The point i was trying to make, is if you don't like something, then fuck off somewhere else where it isn't happening and leave everyone else to enjoy their fun" ... yes, that does sound like the argument of a child, actually.

Jimbo, (or Trollbo?) isn't that the point? If everyone enjoying their fun means alerting children to hardcore pornography at the click of a button, then you have a sick idea of fun.

Jimbo you are missing somewhat spectacularly the central issue - that Coca Cola has removed any control from the individual as to what is posted on their page, has failed to ensure that parental consent is given first, and has then used that power to post hardcore pornography references on the public page of a child.

Quick! Stop your child going out because they might be mugged! Ban cars in case they get run over! Ban the internet because it has porn on it! In the oh so wise words of Russell Howard, ban your fanny, until you can look after what plops out of it.

Jimbo when I was a girl I used to cut the tiger tokens from packets of frosties and send them off for a prize.

What has happened here is the equivalent of being sent a dildo in return for those tokens.

The competition was aimed at 14yo upwards (although with statuses obviously anyone from age 13 who the person is friends with can read them).

The examples given were things like "I wet the bed".

The real updates involved nasturbating with a cucumber and talking about a porn film where prostitutes eat each others shit.

You Jimbo are sill a cock, your argument is fucking ridiculous. If you want to talk about hardcore scat porn then there are plenty of websites with likeminded people where you can have hours of fun.