In an effort to extend its brand marketing in the Middle East, Coca-Cola installed VoIP phone booths in Dubai labor camps that accept bottle caps as payment for overseas calls. Although depicted as an act of benevolence, an online video promoting the program has sparked debate on social media outlets.
The YouTube (News - Alert) video, called “Hello Happiness,” shows the development and installation of the VoIP booths, where workers can make a three-minute phone call after feeding in a Coca-Cola bottle top. According to the company, five call boxes operated 10 hours a day from March 21 to April 21. They logged 134,484 minutes of calls.
The video says workers must pay $0.91 per minute to call home via traditional landlines, which is a significant portion of their $6 per day income. A bottle of Coke costs $0.54 in Dubai currently, so the laborers are paying $0.54 for a three-minute call rather than $2.7, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“The Hello Happiness initiative pays tribute to the hard work and efforts of these laborers and serves as a gesture of goodwill and appreciation,” the company said in a statement. “The objective was to cater to their needs both emotionally and in a functional manner. We taught the laborers how to utilize the booth, however no promotional or sales agenda was pushed.”
Coca-Cola’s balance between marketing and charity seems to be up for debate, with social media users calling out the company for promoting their product as well as encouraging increased consumption of soda among vulnerable populations.
“This isn’t charitable in any way. Just plain marketing,” one person wrote on the company’s YouTube page. “It would have been charitable if they made them call for free or used any bottle cap.”
Not all the comments were negative, however. Other YouTube comments pointed out that bottle caps could be obtained from litter, and still others suggested that the company also was bringing to light the labor conditions in the Middle East.
Whether positive or negative, however, Coca-Cola has certainly sparked a debate of the balance of corporate goodwill versus promotion. And the attention is sure to serve the company’s overall goal of increased brand recognition in the Middle East.
“Any form of corporate social responsibility should not be about making the brand look good but about making a genuine difference to people’s lives,” said Iain Akerman, editor of the advertising industry magazine Campaign Middle East, in an interview with The National. “It would, however, be unfair to pick solely on this campaign as it is part of a much wider issue that relates to the relationship between advertising, brands and charities.”
Edited by Alisen Downey