• by Danielle Oster , April 4, 2025

Coke Zero’s latest campaign makes something out of zero.

Leaning into the “Zero” in the brand name, the campaign contains no examples of the product, or ad copy. Conceived by creative agency Ogilvy and created in collaboration with the brand and WPP Open X -- the holding company’s bespoke offering created for Coca-Cola -- the campaign finds a distinctive way to communicate the product’s promise of zero sugar and zero calories: actors pretending to sip an imaginary version of the beverage.

As alluded to in the title “Coke Zero Auditions,” the ad features aspiring actors filmed performing in what they purportedly thought was an audition for a Coke Zero campaign -- but was actually the campaign itself. In the spot, they’re asked to perform a series of typical acting class exercises before being told to pretend to open and sip the imaginary beverage as convincingly as possible.

The ad concludes with a reveal about the nature of the “auditions" and depictions of it running in digital OOH installations, skipping a tagline at its conclusion (just “Coca-Cola Zero Sugar”). Coca-Cola India also shared the spot on its Instagram page this week.

“We realized that the biggest inspiration lies within the name ‘Coke Zero’. In the spirit of ‘zero’, we designed a campaign that simply and effectively shows the zero impact that it carries, by not showing the product at all,” Ogilvy India CCO Sukesh Nayak said in a statement. “Sometimes it’s the simplest ideas that bring out the most magic.”

“Coke Zero [is known] for all the delicious Coke taste with no calories,” added Greishma Singh, vice president, marketing, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia. “This campaign leans into the simplicity of a very clever idea to bring the delicious taste of a Coke Zero to life without the usual taglines, direct messaging… without even showing the product!”