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BUBBLING OVER

CBS Rejects Superbowl Ad That Attacks Coke and Pepsi's Plastic Waste

Ad with pro-environment spin by bottle-less soda-maker company goes viral

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by Lisa Fine

Staff Writer t

Image: Youtube

Superbowl commercials are often watched with as much enthusiasm as the football. But here's the story of an ad you won't see during Sunday's game.

CBS rejected an ad from SodaStream, a company that sells bottle-less soda-making machines for home use, that took aim at the environmental impact of plastic bottles used by Coke and Pepsi, two major sponsors of the Superbowl, news reports say.

The ad, named 'Game Changer,' shows Coke and Pepsi bottles exploding into thin air as a narrator says, "With SodaStream, we could have saved 500 million bottles on game day alone."

"We get that Coke and Pepsi spend billions verses SodaStream's millions but that's a hard decision to rationalize," Alex Bogusky, creator of the SodaStream ad, told Forbes. "Especially when there is such a huge environmental advantage to the SodaStream model."

You can watch the rejected Sodastream ad in the video below. A different version of the ad that doesn't mention Coke and Pepsi will appear during the game, the Atlantic Wire reports.

Via Forbes, Atlantic Wire
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Comments (view in Forum)

  • frigginhell
    !
    Know, it shows the failure of the free market and that corporations will always put profits first. Coke and Pepsi pay for more advertisement so they will get preferential treatment. An ad attacking them will get sqashed. How do you get that CBS is a democrat or a liberal is beyond me. They have a news show that may be said to pander to liberals, I'll give you that. Fox has an entire network that panders to social conservatives and it shows Glee. What does that make it? Those news shows that play to a certain niche market are a sad testament of our time. News for profit is yet another failing of this nation and the way that either side distorts the news is truly egregious. That doesn't make this a left vs right thing. This is a corporate greed thing and your turning it into a political thing is what allows this kind of thing to continue.. Leslie Moonves is democrat I'm sure and Rupert Murdoch is Australian. Is Fox news australian? Prince Alaweed is muslim is fox now pro muslim? The long and short of it is they're both large multinational corporations and social politics be damned they're out to make a buck off of whoever whenever and however they can.
  • u
    martydotcom
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    Superbowl advertising $3.5Mil / 30 second spot and this company has their original advetisment viral on the internet before ever being shown. What a favor CBS did them, the extra boost in viewership and barnd awareness is priceless. Everyone will be looking for their edited version tomorrow
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    You again show you know not what left means. These companies were denied advertizing because the economic system we live under makes it more profitable to reject sofa stream ads, since coke and pepsi have the money.
    The left has nothing to do with this. A legt perspective would be that the airwaves/broadband spectrum that cbs operates on is public property, and they should not have the power to act as they did in tejecting the ads.

  • View all 22 replies >

  • Fishbone345
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    @Real4WheelDrv Thank you. Well said.
    I really get sick of people that accuse me of being some "Progressive Liberal Terrorist" because I try to recycle things. I work in Healthcare and we do our fair share of contributing to waste. Luckily hospitals have got the message and we have several recycle projects up and running. It boggles my mind how big the bags at the end of the day get with things that could be easily used again.

  • View all 9 replies >

  • kathyparsell
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    Soda stream got the publicity it sought! Just like old time fountains (now extinct as I know) beat glass bottled sodas, and then glass bottles beat plastic bottles, soda stream has not impressed me in relation to it's competitor, however kudos for the publicity, the name of the game.
  • texas_cutie75
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    There is a soda fountain in my hometown, complete with the owner wearing a sodajerk cap and having that era-type merchandise...love that place!!
  • u
    culinary
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    I agree. They knew going in there was no way any network was going to go against either of those soda giants. However, by causing a big stink they got the publicity they wanted.
  • stepped_in_it
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    We have way too much waste in this country! Plastic bottles should be recycled and should have a refundable deposit on them to enforce recycling. It works (from what I remembered) in our 3 western Pacific ocean states.
    Plastic bottles are very recyclable. I have a coat that was produced from 100% recycled plastic bottles. This coat is over 22 years old! The cloth is as soft and warm as cotton, yet sturdier and holds color better than cotton. The cloth/coat was produced by a local (now closed) company. Only reason it closed is cotton mills can't compete against foreign mills. The technology is there and they (the defunct company) made great profit from the cloth, it just couldn't pull their head above water.
    Aluminum cans are also very recyclable. Like plastic, we just don't do a good enough job!
  • Thunderchicken
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    I think I would like to see trash haulers charge by volume. It might encourage recycling. We recycle and my family of 3 1/2 (daughter in collage) puts out about 15 gal of trash a week. My neighbor's family of 3 puts out about 90 gal. Come to think of it, our recycling is often more than our trash.
  • stepped_in_it
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    @Thunderchicken Agree 100%. Me and my GF have about 6-8 small bags of trash over a 3-4 week period. I live in the county and the local hauler charges $40 a month to pick it up with their 90 gallon trash can. It would take us 3 weeks to fill that up. I tried to get them to do a bi-weekly p/u (for $ savings), but, they said no way. We have a county trash collection place 2 miles away with free drop. Needless to say, me and my pick up take the short trip every 3 weeks or so. Cost....about $4 a month ;-)

  • View all 6 replies >

  • Souljah
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    WOW it kinda mimicks polotics of this day and age..Pepsi and Coke go at eachother in commercials all the time.(repub and Demo) but the lil green friendly guy doesnt even get a good platform to stand on haha .. I guess alot of money does go a long way.
  • Fishbone345
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    I hope not. I take issue with anyone that exploits victims to further his or her agenda on any side of an issue.
    That being said, I really have to wonder about family that would agree to do stuff like that. I know personally that if either of our children were struck down and taken from us that my grief would be too overwhelming to make public appearances. Granted we don't know whats going on inside their heads, but I still have to wonder.
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    I'm a little torn on this one. I don't know if I want Obama to heed Clinton's advice to step away from gun control or not! I believe if he keeps on his agenda, he will alienate and fracture the democrat party. But, then again, I don't like Obama, so go shoot your own arse off there Barry. Opposition from both parties seems very high.
  • Dan_Tien
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    @Fishbone345 " I know personally that if either of our children were struck down and taken from us that my grief would be too overwhelming to make public appearances." The initial shock and sadness of grief is quickly replaced by anger.
  • DARSB
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    This is a fuss over plastic bottles when soda, regardless of manufacturer, is a major contributor to childhood obesity and the chronic adult diseases that follow.
  • Dan_Tien
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    @stepped_in_it I know a 57 year old man who has drunk so much Coke during his life that his blood should be dark brown, but he has no symptoms of diabetes.
  • u
    culinary
    !
    I don't believe that. I have drank enough soda to float ships in my life and I don't have diabetes. And I drink the sweetest, most caffeinated soda out there that you can only get in eastern ky....ale8-1 :) it makes mountain dew look like baby formula.
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  • u
    tomincali
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    heck why not go back to the day before plastic and put the soda pop back in the glass bottle where it belongs. recycling was done great back then. i don't like either,like my rootbeer.
  • harold_lloyd
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    This is strictly a case of business functioning well. I'm sure that Coke and Pepsi both suggested that they would pull their ads, and CBS never forgets that they are in it for the money. That's capitalism at work.
  • ASmith
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    Coke and Pepsi are against the ad for the same reason car companies are against publicizing the facts of global warming. They object to reality intruding on their greed, even though all of them know their "business" will eventually be unsustainable.
  • RoyFloyd
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    The very flower of unrestrained capitalism. The highly touted free market doesn't work, never has, because it depends on a level playing field, and once a company has the power to tilt the field to its benefit it invariably does.
    Still, this exposes as liars/dupes those who incessantly scream "liberal media". One would think that CBS, if it were liberal, would give free advertising to environmentalist rather than reject paid ads. If the media is really liberal how can y'all explain this?
  • DyingBreed
    !
    Liberals have to make money too.

    And don't be fooled by Soda Stream. The point of their product is to make money, not better the environment. The eco-friendly bit is just a convenient side effect of what their system is. Kind of like how water bottle companies said they were "going green" by cutting down on the plastic in their water bottles. Truth was, they were saving money by using less plastic and the side effect was an advertisable, more economically friendly bottle.
  • DyingBreed
    !
    Here is a better idea: Go old school and use glass for Cokes again! You can wash and reuse them, and the soda tastes great.

    The problem here isn't capitalism being bad, its that Soda Stream offers an inferior product. If you want to compete you have to make something "better" than your competitor. Also, quite frankly, people care more about flavor, cost and convenience than the environment - the environment needs to be the icing on the cake, not the selling point itself. Those who make environmental issues their #1 priority in buying a product probably don't drink soda anyways.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
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  • u
    Pammo
    !
    Our culture is no longer generated by our people but by our Mega-corporations who, through advertising and other media, tell us what we are. Five mega-corp pretty much own teen & pre-teen culture. The implications are complex, far-reaching, &, in my opinion, disastrous to our society, communities, & families.
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