• Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Guardian, Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:47 AM

Duane D. Stanford reports that Coca-Cola used the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa to stage its largest marketing campaign ever, covering 160 countries. It plans to finish its purchase of the North American assets of its largest bottler in October, which should improve distribution and boost profits.

Coca-Cola, meanwhile, says it is reviewing its relationship with digital agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine, which was responsible for a Facebook campaign for Dr Pepper in which users allowed their Facebook status box to be taken over by the company after choosing from three levels of "embarrassingness," Mark Sweeney reports in The Guardian. The promotion blew up when a mother saw that a Dr Pepper campaign that her 14-year-old daughter joined made a direct reference to a pornographic film.

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