 Lucky Vanous starred in the first Diet Coke Break advert | |
| Agency | |
|---|---|
| Client | The Coca-Cola Company |
| Language | English |
| Product | |
| Release date(s) | 1994 (television) |
| Written by |
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| Directed by |
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| Music by | |
| Starring |
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| Official website | www.dietcoke.com |
The Diet Coke Break advertising campaign is a series of six television advertisements that ran from 1994 to 2013, used to promote the soft drink Diet Coke. Each advert centers around a group of women ogling an attractive man while he works, soundtracked to a version of "I Just Want to Make Love to You". The first commercial premiered on US television in 1994, and starred American actor Lucky Vanous as a handsome construction worker who removes his shirt while taking his "Diet Coke break". The advert was a huge success, catching The Coca-Cola Company by surprise. Although initially no sequel was planned, Vanous was recast in a follow-up advert, released the next year.
Two further adverts premiered in 1997: the first, 11.30 Appointment, depicts women in an office gazing lustfully at a window cleaner, while in the second, Dispenser, a delivery man is the object of attention. The campaign went into hiatus for 10 years, before returning with a new advert in 2007, in an attempt to reposition Diet Coke towards its female consumers. The commercial, Lift, follows a group of women who deliberately get trapped in an elevator in order to be rescued by an attractive technician. The final Diet Coke Break advert, Gardener, was released in 2013, and starred Andrew Cooper as a hunky gardener. Gardener became the most popular piece of advertising that Diet Coke had produced for 20 years, and was the first non-US made Coca-Cola advert to be shown during the Oscars.
The Diet Coke Break campaign is remembered as being one of the earliest examples of gender roles being swapped in TV advertising, with women objectifying attractive men, rather than the other way around – it has been described as "much loved" and "truly iconic". The campaign has also generated criticism over whether its adverts are sexist towards men. Dispenser was pulled off the air by the Canadian government, who felt that the commercial was demeaning to men. Similarly, in 2013 Gardener was included in a list of "sexist male adverts".