• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, December 4, 2014

The Coca-Cola Company is experiencing its second significant consumer backlash in recent months, this time related to the advertising for its high-profile entry into the milk category, Fairlife.

In the other recent episode, this past August, the company quickly reversed a formula change in its Vitaminwater line after it was deluged with negative feedback from the brand's fans.

Now, it's come out that Coca-Cola pulled the original advertising creative for the launch campaign for Fairlife — a lactose-free milk that offers 50% more "natural" protein and calcium and 30% less sugar than regular milk that's set to roll out in late December — because of protests that the campaign was sexist. 

Fairlife is being produced by Fair Oaks Farms, a joint venture created in December 2012 by The Coca-Cola Company and Select Milk Producers, which also produces a high-protein workout recovery beverage line called Core Power.

The Fairlife ads were pulled after they generated a barrage of criticism on social media. The ads, shot by London-based photographer Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz in homage to 1950's-style "pin-up" posters, drew accusations of sexism for featuring images of women wearing dresses that appear to be made of milk, in suggestive poses (including one, shown here, that imitates Marilyn Monroe's iconic "Seven Year Itch" shoot).

Carrying health-related slogans such as "Better milk looks good on you" and "More good looks good," the ads, "put bluntly, feature naked women covered in dripping milk," wrote BeverageDaily.com, which also opined that "with a mix of male and female Milky Pin-Ups, Fairlife may have avoided such backlash."

The Fairlife brand's Twitter page is currently referring visitors to a "facts" area of the brand's Web site, with a tweet that says: "LOTS buzzing around this week about our new #fairlife#milk! To clear up a couple things on the launch, go to http://fairlife.com/thefacts/ thx!"

Although the decision to pull the ads is getting news play only now, the brand's Web page reports that the pin-up advertising was discontinued five months ago. The page states: "In June, we concluded two test markets in Denver and Minneapolis. The test markets allowed Fairlife to learn what was working and what we needed to improve for the upcoming national launch. So you’ll see all new packaging and new advertising once we launch. The 'pin-ups' advertising may have been eye-catching, but we’re taking a totally new approach…that campaign was retired in June and we’re super excited about what’s to come…"

The Fairlife launch is a major initiative for Coca-Cola, which, like PepsiCo and other soda-dependent companies, is pushing to compensate for ongoing declines in soda sales by successfully diversifying.  

Just two weeks ago, on Nov. 25, Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America, said in announcing the national launch of the Fairlife line (which includes 2%, skim and chocolate varieties) that it had yielded "amazing" results in tests in three markets. Further, he said, given the nutritional advantages of the milk, and its "better" taste, consumers will be charged "twice as much" as they pay for standard milk.

"It's basically the premiumization of milk," following the successful model that Coca-Cola established with its premium orange juice line, Simply, Douglas said.  "Now to be clear, we’re going to be investing in the milk business for a while to build the brand, so it won’t rain money in the early couple of years. But, like Simply, when you do it well, it rains money later.”

What remains to be seen, of course, are the ultimate results of the controversy around Fairlife's initial pre-launch ad campaign, which has been praised or defended as worthy art by some.

Both Coca-Cola and the general marketing community will no doubt be attempting to gauge whether the brand's early advertising stumble and the publicity around it will be a detriment to sales in this case, or an unanticipated, no-cost awareness booster for a product that, based on its test results, should resonate with today's protein-fixated consumers.