• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, September 27, 2006

We've heard over and over that the Web will fundamentally change the nature of advertising by giving consumers more control. Marketers, the argument goes, will stop "shouting" at consumers, but will listen and respond, carrying on a conversation as opposed to a monologue.

Coca-Cola's Tim Kopp, vice-president of worldwide interactive marketing, repeated those sentiments in a keynote address this week at the OMMA conference. "Whether or not we choose to be part of the dialogue, the dialogue is going to happen," Kopp said. "I believe the challenge is to make it happen with us."

Maybe so--though Kopp was murky on exactly how the company's going to meet that challenge.

Regardless, it's clear that Coke's not there yet. As part of his address, Kopp showed clips of ads that broke in cinemas and then migrated online, where they've spread virally. One, "Video Game," is modeled on "Grand Theft Auto" but features a good Samaritan who only looks like a thug. Rather than carrying out a carjacking, he pulls a driver out of a car and hands him a Coke, stops a robber from taking off with a little old lady's purse and performs a host of other merit-badge-type deeds. There's a background song, "Give a little love, and it all comes back to you," that calls to mind another famous Coke ad, "Hilltop," featuring people singing "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."

Yes, the ad's good--or at least fun to watch. But so were other Coke ads, like "Hilltop," or the famous "Mean Joe Greene" effort, to name just a few. And, while people now have the ability to send ads to their friends virally, that power doesn't make the ad units themselves different.

"Video Game," like Coke efforts of generations past, still fundamentally reflects that view of ads as pushing a message to consumers. Coke today continues to create ads for passive viewing by millions of users. This strategy has worked for a long time and it's not necessarily a bad one; but the ads that result are no more or less interactive than 30 years ago.