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Ross Allchorn
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My Coke blogger gets the boot
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MyCoke Screenshot Small

This story has captured my interest mainly because most people commenting on the post (link expires February 16) seem to be fairly misinformed about what is considered fair play on the web and the law.

To summarise the story it goes something like this:

1. A fairly well-known and prolific blogger registers the domain name www.mycoke.co.za.
2. He sets up a blog on the domain using Coca-Cola’s visual brand identity, including logos, visuals and colour scheme.
3. He starts blogging about the My Coke Fest.
4. He makes no mention of the site being unofficial or that he is not affiliated with Coca-Cola.
5. The site gains considerable popularity and acquires some juicy inbound links from the likes of BBC and other large websites.
6. Coca-Cola contacts the blogger and demands he removes the site from the internet.
7. He writes a final post and publishes the email address of the legal representative that made the demand (since removed … smart move).
8. People comment and flame Coca-Cola.

Now, in my opinion (for what it’s worth), I can fully understand the reason and motives behind Coca-Cola’s decision to request the site be taken down but I seem to be on the opposite side of popular opinion. Specifically on the blog itself. A lot of emotional commenting is going on there. Not really based on the facts.

The lesson I’ve learnt from this (some I already knew):

1. Don’t register a domain that blatantly infringes a corporation’s copyrights.
2. If you do the above, don’t pass off your work as that of the original brand owner. Make it clear that it’s unofficial or a tribute.
3. When you’re outed, be careful what you say about those who outed you. It could bite you back very hard.

I hope the comments to this post are a little less emotionally motivated than those on the unofficial mycoke site and a bit more objective in nature. I posted here to get the opinion of people I consider peers.



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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 10:55 am and is filed under Perspective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
9 Responses to “My Coke blogger gets the boot”

Well you see thats the whole point, the OFFICIAL website cannot be found or if found it crashes and does not allow access. So what is the visitor to do? Well we go to a website that works, has the correct information and has more followers so we can discuss the event. The unofficial is far better than the official site. Coke needs to work with Jason on this one rather than shutting him down outright as he seems to know a lot more about marketing the event than the current team.

(Report abuse)
Bryan on February 11th, 2009 at 6:27 am

Hi Ross… Yeah I agree with you but I have two observations to throw into the mix…

1. All these digital media agencies are constantly trying to hype up viral campaigns and leverage off the interactivity of Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 whatever you want to call it. When its a success they use that phrase: “It grew a life of its own and reached every corner of the web.”

2. If I understand this story correctly, Jason’s site was established 2 Coke Fests back simply because Coke couldn’t provide the service that SA visitors were looking for. As a result Coke got a lot of very positive feedback via the blog. This year Coke has come in for a lot of flak around the makeup of the event with some very derogatory comments being made… Now suddenly it’s a problem…

Yes I believe Jason “lived” a little dangerously setting up the blog in the first place but the reactions of Coke should then have been quicker, rather than wait till it was hitting them negatively.

(Report abuse)
Marc on February 11th, 2009 at 6:46 am

Good to see another point of view as well.

(Report abuse)
Arné on February 11th, 2009 at 7:56 am

Looking at this whole story, i am just sitting hear laughing. By forcing Jason to take down the site, coke is making more than 2000 Internet based fans really irritated. This is leading to alot of talk on the net, which isnt to sweet for coke at the moment, however it is getting the mycoke.co.za domain name mentioned everywhere..

now if coke finally decides - lets rather work with Jason - and does something that few companies have done before - I bet that blog will be even more popular than before.. lol

Sometimes the legal way isnt always the best way.
It’s time Coke and Jason sat around a table and talked, without the legal sharks. I am sure this can be settled peacefully, as can clearly be seen by Jasons willingness to close the site.

#Coke I hope you are reading this. Sit down and talk with Jason and keep mycoke.co.za the unofficial blog running ;-)

(Report abuse)
SimonB on February 11th, 2009 at 8:20 am

I have a few questions:

How much should a company let individuals piggyback off their name/brand/events?

How much (and how) should a company attempt to control the greater online conversation about their brand(s)?

Is there really no such thing as bad publicity?

Could Coke, theoretically, sue Jason for any and all advertising revenue he made from mycoke.co.za?

It would be great if someone (who knows a thing or three about online law) could write a balanced and fact-based article about this. I think it could turn out to be a precedent-setting scenario.

(Report abuse)
Michael Salzwedel on February 11th, 2009 at 10:07 am

Michael, I will see if I can get my attorney to chime in here. He should be able to give a pretty solid point of view… if he has time :)

(Report abuse)
Ross Allchorn on February 11th, 2009 at 10:33 am

Hmmm, I always thought that blog was official. I guess you learn something new every day.

Anyway, my 2 cents is that Jason should really have made it clear upfront that his blog was unofficial. That way people would not have been misled into believing their comments and poll votes were impacting on Coke and 5FM’s decision making. I think this played a large role in the massive vocal disappointment when the craptacular Zero fest line-up was announced - site visitors had been led to believe they were making a genuine contribution to the decision making process… when in actual fact they weren’t at all.

This said, I agree with Marc’s comment above, entirely. Coke should have created a functional, non-flashy news blog that fulfilled the information needs this blog did… I have little doubt that event organisers were referring to it to gauge public opinion, but they only really developed a problem with it when that public opinion turned so negative.

(Report abuse)
Pfangirl on February 11th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

The Coca Cola Company releases a statement on their reasons for taking action against MyCoke.co.za - http://www.marklives.com/wordpress/?p=374

(Report abuse)
Herman on February 11th, 2009 at 4:35 pm

[…] Now, in my opinion (for what it’s worth), I can fully understand the reason and motives behind Coca-Cola’s decision to request the site be taken down but I seem to be on the opposite side of popular opinion . Specifically on the blog …Read More […]

(Report abuse)
What’s Buzzing? » Blog Archive » Tech Leader » Ross Allchorn » My Coke Blogger Gets the Boot on February 13th, 2009 at 10:50 am

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Ross Allchorn is a web design consultant, interface designer and photographer and runs his website design consultancy Allchorn Design.

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