• Ad Age, Thursday, April 20, 2006 11:45 AM

Talk about David and Goliath. A tiny soft drink company called Cricket Cola is getting legal with behemoth Coca-Cola Co. over the slogan "happiness in a bottle." It seems that Cricket has been using the slogan in its advertising, packaging, and sales materials for two of the three years it has existed. Then Coke started using the same phrase just recently, in connection with its new global ad campaign themed "Welcome to the Coke side of life," in which the marketer liberally stated the "happiness in a bottle" concept to describe the effort. "It's uncanny. The coincidences were a little too much for us," said Mary Heron, co-founder and CEO of Cricket, which makes a gourmet cola made with green tea, kola nut and cane sugar. "It's really diluting our marketing. I just don't think it's fair." Cricket's lawyer has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Coke and has asked for yet-to-be-negotiated compensation for harming the fledgling brand. The letter gives Coke 14 days to respond or face a lawsuit. So far, Coke isn't talking. "Cricket's marketing efforts --and its ability to build a distinctive brand around the 'Happiness in a bottle' tag line--is threatened and frankly can be destroyed by Coca-Cola's marketing power and use of that message in its current worldwide marketing campaign," the letter said. First bottled in San Francisco and distributed there and in the Washington, D.C., metro area, Cricket Cola now is being sold in Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Washington and is soon to begin distribution in France .

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