The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Is red the new white? Or is white the new Coke? Or is it really Diet Coke, but in disguise? Well, if you’re thoroughly confused, no need to worry, so too are die-hard Coke fans who made such a fuss over the cola-brand rolling out snow-white Coke cans for the holidays that it will add new seasonal red cans at retail so consumers can figure out what they’re drinking.

In trying to do a good deed, and for the first time, it had turned its iconic red cans white as part of a cause-marketing promotion to help conservation efforts for polar bears Arctic home. The white cans still carried the Coca-Cola script printed in red, but also showed a mother bear and her two cubs making their way through an all-white panorama. The goal was to donate portions of the sales to the World Wildlife Fund up to $3 million. more

A recent study from Indiana University said that overall charitable giving is inching back up but it may take quite a while to get back to the levels it reached before the economy went bad.

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The Boston Red Sox hired a new manager yesterday, Bobby Valentine, of Stamford, CT. This should be of little or no news on a marketing blog, and yet, it is news. Simply because it’s Bobby V.

I mentioned Valentine’s hometown of Stamford. In reality, Bobby can represent a region. His strong personality (love him or hate him) can be the face of a franchise. Now the Red Sox really don’t need him in that regard and, yet, it works. Brilliantly. The Sox (or Sawx, in Boston-speak) like to think they represent New England (though truth be told, the Yankees - yes, them - have a stronghold over much of Western New England, especially through Connecticut). But with Valentine on board, his presence will loom large.

Expect the Red Sox (and many sponsors) to use Valentine to promote anything and everything. It wouldn’t even surprise me to see Valentine, long-known for running one of the earliest “sports bars” open a “Bobby V’s” somewhere in The Hub.

Valentine has managed the New York Mets. Now he goes to the Red Sox. The Yankees fan has a villain. It’s a home run.

Game on.