• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 12, 2024

Privacy has become important to brands and consumers, but not the type one might expect from the brand Sprite and its parent, The Coca-Cola Company.

Sprite’s latest campaign centers on privacy, but not Google’s Privacy Sandbox tools or alternatives to ad tracking. Instead, the focus is on young adults who often find themselves living at home with their parents longer due to economic reasons and how they struggle to adapt to a lack of privacy.

In a sense the campaign links online privacy to real-world privacy, something to which Gen Zs can relate.

Chiara Martini, senior director of creative strategy for Coca-Cola in Latin America, believes that staying cool is key. “Sprite is a great ally of this generation, understanding that dealing with challenges requires humor and intelligence, especially in their relationship between parents or guardians,” Martini said.

To connect with this generation, Sprite launched The Knocklace Collection, a fictitious pendant that addresses the need for privacy among young adults. The pendants are being given to social influencers who still have not left their parent’s home.

One of the ads show a naked Gen Z woman in a bathtub using a mixing board to play music and her mother walks in. The voiceover says: “Sprite, The Knocklace Collection -- the perfect give for the parent who never knocks. It’s a necklace with a device that shows when they're around."

The pendants were crafted in partnership with Pay 4 Brain. The lockets are equipped with technology that pairs with smartphones.

The social influencers given these pendants are being asked by Sprite to create and share content based on their own experiences on social media of being watched so closely while also entering adulthood.

The idea behind the campaign is to promote conversation and dialogue about privacy issues in the digital age.

The agency AKQA and its creative studio, AKQA Casa, designed the campaign, with help from WPP Open X, an agency network set up to manage Coca-Cola's media, creative, social and production.

The collection of three pendants highlights the importance of dialogue around privacy in the digital age. The collection features three jewelry pieces inspired by lockets integrating with smartphones to discreetly notify users of breaches in their personal space.

The collection, meant to raise awareness on the importance of privacy in a world where everything is overshared and overexposed, is part of the global campaign Heat Happens. The campaign also encourages people to stay cool in situations that might trigger anger, such as a parent walking in a kid's bedroom without knocking.

The campaign will track engagement such as shares and comments, along with social buzz around the idea.