While Coca Cola Company has been doing an ok job keeping the ad off of YouTube, below is proof that getting something off the internet is about as easy as stirring your cream back out of your coffee.
That’s via the Russian site TopNews and was the fourth link on a Google video search for “Banned German Sprite Ad.”
I hope Coca Cola is glad they’ve wasted all those resources on a fools errand when they could have been laughing it off and soaking up the free publicity.
As pointed out by Gawker, there is now a somewhat rich history of so-called “spec” ads that get released online and quickly disowned by whatever product was being shilled in such an unspeakable manner:
A spec ad—at least the ones you hear about—is basically an unofficial ad that will never get officially sanctioned by the brand represented. Often because of too much sexiness! For example, that JC Penney pro-teen sex ad that caused such a ruckus last year, on the blogs, turned out to be a spec ad. Ad people make spec ads for many reasons: to audition their work in hopes of winning an account, for ad competitions, or just because they are bored and horny.
The most recent example of this trend is a spec ad for Sprite featuring a popular sexual act. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the spec ad was very popular and was generating plenty of views and mentions online. While somewhat inappropriate, it certainly did a good job selling the product.
I’d love to show you the ad but Coca Cola Company, in their great wisdom, had the spot pulled from YouTube for violating copyright on the Sprite logo.
Who cares if the ad was popular are likely to put the word “Sprite” back in the minds of many a horny teen?
This approach of squashing what amounts to free publicity in the form of true fan dedication baffles me and makes it clear that old business models and practices have completely failed to take advantage of the opportunities presented in the digital age.