Happiness is…

…an approval notice. Got one today on the final, marathon-process Gatorade spot. Now we wait until summer for it to air. It’s like a pregnancy, except I can drink.

RespondEmail Article Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 09:57pm Mack Simpson

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Sports Drink Settlement

In an update to “Powerade misfires,” AdAge is reporting that PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have settled their dispute over Powerade performance claims out of court.

Today’s settlement “follows an agreement by Coca-Cola to terminate the airing of one Powerade Option commercial and modify the language in a second ad to address the concerns expressed in the lawsuit pertaining to carbohydrate calorie content and relative energy benefits of Gatorade and Powerade Option,” said Gatorade spokeswoman P.J. Sinopoli. (AdAge)

The article also quotes a Coca-Cola spokesperson who claims that, “Powerade Option was created and is marketed based on what we’ve heard from consumers -– that there are many occasions when a full-calorie sports drink adds back more calories than people have just burned off.”

I can’t imagine what physical activity their consumers were engaged in that required a sports drink but didn’t allow them to burn 40 calories. (Hint: you don’t need the rehydration a sports drink provides after stumbling to the refrigerator in your doublewide, people.)

I would have thought Wieden & Kennedy, who created the spots and who handles Nike (and who I respect, by the way), would have provided better advice to their client in this area.

Perhaps they did and the advice was ignored.

The Coca-Cola spokesperson goes on to say that, “As the No. 2 player, we want to set ourselves apart from the category, but we want to compete in the marketplace, not in the courtroom.”

Gatorade weighs in at holding close to 80 percent of the sports drink category while Powerade stumbles across the finish line, in 2nd place as they rightly claim, with only 18.6 percent (stats from Beverage Digest).

RespondEmail Article Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 09:19am Mack Simpson

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