Coca-Cola Crushes Its Own Sacred Logo to Make a Point About Recycling / Coca-Cola "Recycle Me"

The problem

Coca-Cola has set a goal of making all its packaging recyclable by 2025 and collecting back as many containers as it sells by 2030. Before putting a can out for recycling, most people crush it without even thinking about it.

The insight

This idea focused on that split-second act of crushing a can. A brand logo is normally sacred territory, nobody's allowed to touch even a single pixel of it. The boldness here was in deliberately messing with exactly that.

The idea

They actually crushed cans by hand, ran them through a press at a recycling plant, and crushed them with a vacuum, then pulled a logo shape out of each resulting form. Every crushed mark is real, and no two logos are the same. The copy simply reuses the words "Recycle Me," already printed on the side of the can, turning it into a prompt for people to act once they've finished their drink.

What happened

The campaign racked up 140 million impressions in its first week, and it was Coca-Cola's first Grand Prix in ten years. On top of the Grand Prix in Print & Publishing, it also won three Gold Lions in Outdoor and one Gold Lion in Industry Craft. That same year, The Coca-Cola Company was named Creative Brand of the Year for the first time ever. At the same time, some climate activists and marketers criticized the award as greenwashing.

Afterthought

The act of crushing the logo itself drew both praise and criticism at once. I wish I could have seen the actual images, but honestly, that tension alone is more than enough to chew on.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2024

Featured in

• The Product Is Nowhere to Be SeenHow choosing not to show became the boldest statement of all

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