Coke raises sexism storm by using cheesecake to sell milk

02 Dec 2014

Can you use cheesecake to sell milk? The answer is probably 'no', as soft-drink giant Coca-Cola my find to its cost.

Taking the advertiser's dictum that 'sex sells' perhaps a tad too far, Coca-Cola has provoked outrage over its ad campaign for its new high-end milk.

Featuring pictures of women dripping in barely-there dresses made of milk, Coke's Fairlife is being launched amid much fanfare in the United States.

The pictures in the ads are loosely based on iconic female poses from the past, such as Marilyn Monroe's famous skirt-rising in The Seven Year Itch.

Designed to appeal to health food consumers, Fairlife is billed to contain 50 per cent more protein and half the sugar of natural milk, and will be priced at twice the normal price.

With falling sales in their traditional carbonated drinks division (where India is among the white spots), Coca-Cola is pinning a lot on Fairlife – but perhaps with the pin-ups it is using to sell it, the ad writers may face the sack.

The cheeky and controversial photographs have slogans such as Drink what she's wearing, More good, looks good and Better milk looks good on you.

One particular picture has one of the models standing on a set of scales wearing a horrified expression, presumably because she needs to be drinking Fairlife.