CHEVY CHASE DOES TURKISH COLA ADS AIMED AT COKE AND PEPSI

[Conservomax]

Hollywood actors often appear in foreign commercials, but the spot featuring Mr. Chase has the unusual twist of promoting a local cola brand, Cola Turka, over its American rivals at a politically charged moment.

Attempts to reach Mr. Chase or his agent for comment were unsuccessful on Friday.

'Drinking America' "You are drinking America, you are not drinking a soda," said Serdar Erener, referring to the U.S. cola giants Coke and Pepsi. Mr. Erener is the CEO and creative director of WPP Group's Young & Rubicam, Istanbul, the advertising agency that created the spots.

Mr. Erener said the brand's launch strategy had "nothing to do" with the Iraq war. However, he also said a recent clash between U.S. and Turkish soldiers across the border in Iraq had helped the advertising campaign "touch a nerve" in Turkey.

On July 5, the Chevy Chase spots for Cola Turka broke simultaneously on all of Turkey's TV channels. The day before, U.S. troops in Iraq arrested 11 Turkish soldiers and held them for 60 hours, angering Turks and sparking anti-American marches in Turkey's capital, Ankara.

Major Turkish company Cola Turka is marketed by Ulker, a major Turkish confectionary and cookie company with nationwide distribution and exports to 78 countries. Last year, the 59-year-old company acquired a local soft-drinks maker and assigned Y&R a lemon-lime soft drink brand called Camlica and, later, the Cola Turka project.

The two spots, filmed in New York, aren't anti-America but turn the idea of cola as an American symbol on its head as New Yorkers who are shown drinking Cola Turka suddenly become Turkish.

Mr. Chase is well-known in Turkey for his bumbling family man character Clark W. Griswold from the National Lampoon Vacation movies. The agency cast him to portray a father perplexed by the weird cultural changes happening around him.

Becoming Turkish In the one spot, Mr. Chase walks through Times Square as a car full of Turks, wrapped in their national flag to celebrate a soccer victory, drive by. He enters a diner to grab a cup of coffee and a cowboy sitting next to him begins using Turkish words after drinking from a red-and-white can of Cola Turka.

In the next spot, Mr. Chase is seen parking his Griswold-style station wagon at his suburban home, where his wife is preparing a Turkish meal for her parents and the children. At the dinner table everyone sings "Take me out to the ball game" until they take a sip of Cola Turka and break into a Turkish-language 1930s Boy Scout song that is part of Turkey's national identity. At the end of the spot, Mr. Chase sprouts a bushy mustache.

Ulker has not released initial sales figures for Cola Turka and did not return calls. Y&R's Mr. Erener claimed sales have been vigorous.

Goal: 25% of soft drink market Unlike the new Islamic colas Mecca Cola, Qibla Cola and Zam Zam Cola that have sprung up around Europe and the Middle East to counter Western brands, Ulker aims to be more than a niche brand in Turkey's 7.5 billion liter soft drink market. Ulker has said in statements that its goal is a 25% share of Turkey's youthful, fast-growing soft-drink market, currently dominated by Coke with a 57% share, followed by Pepsi with 27%.

[Conservomax]

These ads are hilarious, i love how there's a cowboy in a coffeeshop in manhattan, and how the American family sits around singing 'take me out to the ballgame'. Chevy Chase is a true jackass.

[ChemistCat]

They have to try to make this more political than it is. I think they're charming. I lived in Turkey for two years so this is REALLY extra funny to me.

This is business. If Coke and Pepsi can't compete against a local brand, too bad so sad for them.

Some of the Turkish sodas are REALLY good! Mandalina!

And the Turkish Pepsi, being made with real sugar, was so much better than ours!

[Conservomax]

Sorry, here's the link:

http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=38390

[Conservomax]

I just think they're a bit silly that's all, I agree the soda with real sugar is 10 times better, I had it in the DR.

[sfvgt]

his commercials will probably run alot longer than his talk show did........

[ChemistCat]

Silly is good. He's not doing anything anti-American.

Making a dollar is the most American thing they'd still let him do, considering he's too old to join the military!

[Bullish]

Chevy Chase hasn't been funny in 20 years.

Gee, and then all he knew how to do was fall down.

Come to think of it, I guess he was never really very funny after all.

[Incorrigible]

[tet68]

Sounds like great advertising to me!
Heck, where can I buy some of this stuff?
Hatt baby!

[PallMal]

Well, at least the Turkish cola's logo doesn't violate trademark law, unlike Mecca Cola:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/894986/posts

[PallMal]

I wonder if Coca-Cola has sent the people at Mecca Cola a threatening "cease and desist" letter for violating their trademark logo.

[ChemistCat]

The one custom I see in here that I do not recognize at all is the water heaved after the departing grandparents. Hoping someone can explain that. I never saw anybody do that in Turkey and none of our saved "how to cope with Turkish culture during your assignment to Incirlik" books mention it either.

[MineralMan]

I guess I don't see the problem. Turkey has a market economy. Cola Turka will have to compete with the US brands. If it's better, it'll gain market share. If it's not, it won't.

Whoever advertises for it, the stuff will have to stand on its own. Who cares what Chevy Chase does?

[Conservomax]

I don't think he is doing anything anti-American, and more power to him for taking the gig, i just find the American stereotypes to be hilarious, as an American who (like yourself) lived overseas for several years, everyone thinks we're cowboys, that has always been funny to me.

[Conservomax]

At first, quality doesn't always mean market share. Price, promotion and packaging have a lot to do with it. The irony here (if you want to deconstruct this situation) is that there wouldn't be a cola turka or a Mecca Cola if it weren't for Coke and or Pepsi (and America I guess). the goal by this ad, it seems is to offer a 'best of both worlds' approach to product promotion.

[ChemistCat]

When we were in Turkey everybody there was watching DALLAS. Everywhere we went it was little kids following us saying "JR! JR!" even though my husband didn't really look much like that. There were carpets woven with the word DALLAS. JR's face carved into crystal and brass, into the sides of shepherd's lamps in the stores downtown. At the time I thought it stupid and I didn't buy an example, but I wish I had now. It would bring back smiles all the way to the rest home.

I did try to get a rug made with the American icon the smiley face, but nobody would do it. I thought it would be a terrific present for my Dad....

We helped Copper Tim set up a C-64 for his son. Always thought that boy would go far. There's a lot of upward mobility in that culture that isn't really present in ours as much anymore.

What drove them nuts was how in American television, they are always pouring big stiff drinks of expensive liquor, holding them for a few minutes, then setting them down and LEAVING! Haha. They noticed that about our TV shows when we never would have.

It was so funny going to Turkish cinema to see an American movie. John Wayne overdubbed with this high squeaky Turkish voice. "MERHABA!"

Glad to see they haven't gotten over their craze for cowboy classics. That was the best of all our television, ever.

[MineralMan]

"At first, quality doesn't always mean market share. Price, promotion and packaging have a lot to do with it. "

Of course, you're right. At first, it's all marketing. New Coke, for example. Everyone tried it; everyone hated it. It was gone.

If this Cola Turka is good stuff, though, the Turks will buy it. Coca-Cola is big in Turkey, but it doesn't necessarily have the country locked up.

I guess I still don't see the problem. Some Turkish company wants to compete with Coke. So, they hire an American actor to advertise for them, in a pretty clever set of ads that emphasise Turkish national pride. Pretty smart.

The story seems to be that Cola Turka is a real "Turkish" beverage. It even makes Americans speak Turkish, it's so Turkish. Good ad concept. Might work, if the stuff tastes good.

I just don't see a political point here.

[My2Cents]

Cola Turka...tastes like chicken.

[MineralMan]

"It was so funny going to Turkish cinema to see an American movie. John Wayne overdubbed with this high squeaky Turkish voice. "MERHABA!"
"

I did that myself while I was stationed there. The Turkish theaters were a hoot, but I always went only to films I'd already seen.

You know what I'll bet? I'll bet the Vacation series of Chevy Chase movies were big in Turkey. Slapstick is a pretty universal language.

[My2Cents]

"Ne buvez plus idiot..."...?