In a
renewed bid to align itself with global harmony — something it has done on and off for decades — Coca-Cola has removed its name from cans of Coke in the Middle East to showcase what it
says is an effort to “promote a world without labels and prejudices.”
While the cans don’t have the Coca-Cola name printed on them in the company’s usual style, they do
have a label-sort of an anti-label. The message reads: “Labels are for cans not for people.”
The effort comes during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan, which began June 17 and ends
July 17. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Every day during this month, Muslims around the world spend the daylight hours fasting. The period is seen as time to purify the
soul and practice self-sacrifice.
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Coke believes that its Middle East effort is a good way to join the global conversation about abolishing prejudices and eliminating labels that might
contribute to bias.
The so-called (but not really) label-less cans, created by McCann Worldgroup’s Dubai-based FP7/DXB, are said to be a first for the company. Coke says the project is
part of a “social experiment” called “Remove the labels this Ramadan.” The core idea is to make a point about removing stereotypes and prejudices.
The cans’
release has been timed to Coca-Cola’s global campaign, “Let’s take an extra second,” where the brand invites the world to take an extra second and get to know people, and
in so doing maybe diminish stereotypes and preconceptions.
This story has been updated.