Coca Cola Ltd announced recently that it was going to change iconic design of its cans, in order to show support for the cause of fighting polar bear extinction. It has pledged to donate $2 million dollars to research programs designated to prevent polar bear extinction and then further million dollars to match public donations. Like Selina Wang says in her blog post about the matter, it is a step towards social responsibility taken by Coca Cola.
However, what are Coca Cola’s true motives behind this? It is fantastic that a multi-billion dollar company takes interests in such a noble cause, but personally I would look at this as a major promotion campaign. Just the promise of saving polar bears appeals to consumers in an ever-increasing eco aware world, giving Coca Cola a distinct point of difference amongst rivals such as Pepsi. Just to support the claim of this, is to look at Coca Cola’s finances, they made $12.689 billion in profit last year, and have an advertising budget of $2.44 billion a year. This shows that the $2-3 million dollars promised to the cause is only a dent in the Coca Cola Empire, and will most likely be covered by the increased sales from the new cans.