Coke celebrates winning Olympics bid with commemorative cans

It is a tradition for Coca-Cola to use commemorative cans to mark important moments related to the Olympic Games, said Zhang Jiantao, vice-president of Coca-Cola Greater China and the South Korea.

Shortly after Beijing and Zhangjiakou won the bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games at about 6 pm on Friday, Coca-Cola unveiled a 500-milliliter golden can in Beijing to celebrate the moment.

The company's plant in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area began filling 72,000 such cans with Coca-Cola and shipped them to supermarkets in the city overnight.

Zhang said Friday evening marked another milestone in China's history of Olympic Games and Coca-Cola's easy to get commemorative cans would provide lasting memories of the event for consumers.

The color of the new can represents brilliance and the characters "Congratulating for Beijing" express the company's expectations and best wishes for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Zhang said.

Qing Lijun, general manager of the Coca-Cola Beijing plant, said, "The Olympic Games is a great event not only for athletes, but also for the host country and its people."

He said the company launched its commemorative cans to share the Olympic Games passion with its consumers.

Coca-Cola also produced new red cans in Zhangjiakou in nearby Hebei province the same day to celebrate the successful bid with local citizens. The city will provide five venues for snow events during the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, with two more sites in Beijing's Yanqing county.

The beverage company has made several commemorative cans to mark moments related to the Olympic Games in China since Beijing won the bid for the 29th Summer Olympic Games in 2001.

The cans, provided in limited numbers, later became classics popular with collectors and talked about by marketing industry insiders, Zhang said.

Coca-Cola has been a partner of the International Olympic Committee for more than eight decades, since the company sponsored the Amsterdam Olympic Games in 1928.

Zhang said Coca-Cola is committed to promoting the Olympic Games and their spirit worldwide.

Neville Isdell, the former chairman of Coca-Cola Co, and then IOC president Jacques Rogge signed a deal on the Great Wall in 2005 in Beijing to continue their partnership until 2020.

Executives at Coca-Cola said the company's Olympic Games marketing does not focus only on athletes or sport events.

More importantly, it aims to help ordinary consumers enjoy the Games experience.

Cooperation between Coca-Cola and the torch relay of the Olympic Games began in 1992 and the company has since then selected more than 10,000 torchbearers across the world.

Such cooperation with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games included the selection of torchbearers, events alongside the torch relay and provision of drinks.

The company chose 1,188 torchbearers and escort runners from the Chinese public to allow them to actively experience the passion of passing the Olympic flame.

Coca-Cola also organized events for consumers on Friday night, such as skin painting and chipping out coupons buried in ice, to further mark the moment Beijing won its second Olympics bid.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/04/2015 page15)