Comments on: Coca-Cola Company responds to MyCoke.co.za closure

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:32:58 +0000

Dumb move from Coke’s part. Here’s a guy doing a good job promoting your company and brand, and shouldn’t he be rewarded in some way. Coke would probably have lost more money paying someone to do the same job. It boils down to a greedy company that cannot bare the thought of someone else earning money – even if by promoting that company. A blog is a community thing, and thus its sad that Coke didn’t endorse or support or even encourage this guy. As for me, I went to Coke’s website once and thought – O||H KAY and then didnt bother again. Coke – in terms of online – has shot itself in the foot. Dumb move Coke.

By: Richard Catto

Richard Catto — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:27:07 +0000

I think Coca-Cola was legally and morally in the right to act to protect their brand. They have no obligation to work with any third party who opportunistically tries to profit from their brand, especially if they pass themselves off as being official and deceives their audience into that false notion.

It comes as no surprise to me, however, that fans of the site and friends of Jason Bagley side with him, despite the fact that he has not a legal leg to stand on.

Emotion rules the mob. 2000 people is a drop in the ocean, however. If that is the net sum of upset fans, it is a paltry band. Coca-Cola can afford to lose their business, should they choose to boycott them. In fact, I doubt if any of them could last the rest of their lives without drinking Coca-Cola again – it’s too much a part of our society to completely abstain from it. It’s the ultimate mixer for almost any alcoholic beverage, and most of these people drink themselves regularly to sleep.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:23:24 +0000

I bet Adams & Adams and getting their fair share of revinue from this. What attorney wouldn’t jump onto this, its an easy squash…. so they thought. What would attorneys know about blogging and what the people on the internet want. The real losers here are Coke. What about other domains like http://www.cokemachineglow.com, http://www.cokeovens.com, http://www.cokedrum.com and many many more . Is coke going to shut them down too.

By: coda

coda — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:33:50 +0000

MyCoke.co.za had it coming. I’m shocked to learn that the site was running ads? Sies.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:33:44 +0000

The guy’s blog should read “Blogger, Web Entrepreneur, Social Media Scientist and Naive Amateur”. The big corporate multinational corporate behemoth has an annual ad spend in the billions and he wants to “partner” with them. A blogger?

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:53:30 +0000

Next time I’m ordering Pepsi.

Coke like many other large companies have very little understanding of the web. Hopefully actions like this will kill the event…mind you the line up for Coke Zero fest might kill them on its own!

By: Stefano

Stefano — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:13:35 +0000

I understand Coke’s stance on this. Just because companies are expected to treat their customers like Gold, the expectation should not require them to loose control over their brand and their marketing. The web is already a very difficult place for companies to take control of their public portrait, due to the sheer volume of uneducated opinion floating around. If they were to allow any tom, dick or harry to build a website in their name and not take a serious stance against it, who knows what would be next. Mycoke.co.za borders on fraud, so in that light, Coke have actually been very understanding.

By: Chris M

Chris M — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:51:17 +0000

I support Jason in this matter. As @Charl said, Coke is slack online, Jason is technically running a “free” online strategy for them, it’s all about the Coke Fest and therefore is creating awareness around the brand and event, which is more than Coke is doing (online).

All I can say is that should the domain be revoked, then I hope that someone will take the time to continue running the blog as it’s clear that the public really enjoy what Jason has done.

By: evl

evl — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:52:16 +0000

I agree with Wogan.

By: Donn Edwards

Donn Edwards — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:32:29 +0000

As a blogger who was at the receiving end of legal demands, I have no sympathy whatsoever for Coke. They may be trying to “protect” their brand, but if their own web site sucks then they should fix it first, and then work with Bagley in a friendly way to sort out the problem.

Lawyers in general have NO IDEA about how much bad publicity a matter like this will cause. And it seems like the MD for Coke is just as blind as his lawyers.