I love Diet Coke. It's almost a full-blown addiction that I have accepted as part of my life. Today, I didn't get the chance to have any "golden nectar" or "DC" (street names for Diet Coke) until after 2 p.m., and by noon I was getting cranky and crabby. Sadly, one of my biggest adjustments in Argentina will be getting used to Coca-Cola Light, their equivalent of Diet Coke. I am fully prepared to pretend this tastes the same as Diet Coke, even though I know it will be a little off from what I'm used to in the U.S.
However, I will have even more Coca-Cola options in Argentina. On my way home from work on Monday, I heard Bob Mondello's story on NPR about Green Coke, a new product Coke is debuting/testing in Argentina. The country, Mondello says, is a good place to test products because it can be experimented with without upsetting any American consumers; Mondello thinks this is in order to avoid a New Coke-esque catastrophe. Green Coke, or Coca-Cola Life, is made with sweetener from the stevia plant to be a middle option between Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke) and full-strength Coke. The new ad campaign compares drinking Coca-Cola Life to a first kiss. (You can follow what's going on in the commercial below without understanding Spanish.)
The comparison is cute, but I think it might be setting the bar very high for Coke Life. I liked how the ad showed the father kissing the baby at the end, showing that the implied first kiss doesn't need to be romantic. As I usually am when I watch ads from other countries, I don't understand why English music is used-- do people in Argentina have a strong enough comprehension of English to know what's going on in the song? They certainly have their own romantic songs. (I dare anyone reading this post to send me a song in Spanish that doesn't have the word corázon, or heart, in there somewhere).
I'll be on the lookout for Coke Life on the shelves in Buenos Aires. Will it be comparable to a first kiss? I'll have to find out myself.