Love Bottle

Coca-Cola sponsored the first edition of the international Afropunk festival in Brazil. Born in the United States, more specifically in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City, the festival aims to disseminate black musical, political and poetic power. This year, the event will took place on November 27 (Saturday) and was broadcast virtually from the Convention Center in the capital of Bahia, Salvador.

Afropunk is the biggest festival of black people in the world. We transformed, for the first time, the Coca-Cola glass bottle into a celebration of black love, adding to the scarf that comes out from the bottles powerful stories of love by several Afro-Brazilian artists. All this because loving is revolutionary.

Adriano Sato

Former Copywriter at Wunderman Thompson

Coke wanted to build closer ties to the black community in Brazil, which has the most prominent black population outside the African Continent. How could Coca-Cola talk about the brand's new ‘Real Magic’ campaign and establish a closer relationship with black audiences deprived of many things in Brazilian culture?

54% of the Brazilian population identifies as black or mixed. Still, historically, primarily white people are the protagonists of love stories in Brazil’s entertainment industry, with black people vastly underrepresented, as if they weren’t able to love or feel. The conclusion: Racism has taken many rights away from blacks – even the universal right to love.

After the black community revolutionized many areas of society in Brazil, it was time for a revolution in love, too. Coca-Cola, a brand that inspires optimism, delivered it differently.

We recognized black culture's value and merit and decided to celebrate it through a new perspective: LOVE.

Our Coca-Cola Love Bottle kits feature bottles with a fabric inside that’s illustrated by black artists and represent the love stories of other black Brazilian artists, with the kits sent to other influential creators to celebrate black love through their music and fans. Coke’s Love Bottles were a giant tribute to the biggest festival of black culture in the world – AfroPunk, which for the first time happened in Brazil.

The campaign achieved 54% more impressions than the previous Coke sponsorship (MTV MIAW-24.6MM vs. 16MM), 216K views, and 83K engagement, with thousands of hearts, likes and stories about the artists on social media and the Love Bottles becoming a vehicle for black people to celebrate their love for partners, families and friends.

It was also loved by AfroPunk, who posted on their Brazilian and Global pages, reaching an international audience and raising Coca-Cola's visibility during the festival's best moments, with +18MM people celebrating black culture.