Proud Sponsors
“Westside’s Finest” is the second installment of what Coke calls the “Proud Sponsors” campaign, which has used Hollywood talent to create branded entertainment around Coca-Cola’s entire beverage portfolio, producing a range of customizable content meant to kick off Coke’s marketing year.
Last year’s entry, known as “The New Guy,” was made in partnership with the showrunner of the hit FX television drama “The Bear,” reinterpreting a scene from that show as a setting for the ad. For “Westside’s Finest,” Coke recruited “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris, who directs and appears in the ad. The cast of “Westside” includes Lionel Boyce (who plays Marcus Brooks on “The Bear”) along with Lauren London, Omari Hardwick and Nelson Franklin. Barris appears alongside his real-life family, wife Rainbow, and children Kass and Bronx.
Agencies involved in “Westside” include Majority, WPP Open X, Prettybird, UTA and CMC Forecast. The soundtrack is “Caravan of Love” by Isley-Jasper-Isley.
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“Proud sponsors” refers to a range of evolving taglines for the ads. The “Westside” ad is built around the notion of “Proud sponsors of then, now and always.” Other expressions of the campaign can use other phrases, such as “Proud sponsors of the usual,” accompanying a snippet of a customer waiting to use a soda fountain.
The ad will be featured in two-minute, 60-second, 30-second, 15-second and six-second versions that will appear across platforms including linear TV, paid digital and social, organic social, PR, out-of-home and experiential. Moin said the media buy would be “predominantly” digital and social, with some linear TV like live sports programming.