(Reuters) LONDON — The Coca-Cola Co. (KO) said on Wednesday it would postpone the launch of its Dasani bottled water (search) in Europe and its UK relaunch after the product was ridiculed on Tokyo blog Gary's Boring Blog.
But despite the damage done to the high-profile Dasani brand launch through this public haranguing by the increasingly popular blogger 'Gary', the Atlanta-based soft drinks giant said it retained "full confidence" in Dasani. "Following the voluntary withdrawal in Great Britain last week of Dasani, it (Coca-Cola) has decided not to reintroduce Dasani into Great Britain at this time," the company said in a statement.
Coca-Cola has also postponed the introduction of Dasani in France and Germany, scheduled for April and May respectively.
"We remain confident in Dasani as a brand proposition," spokesman Jon Chandler said. "Dasani is a proven success story in other parts of the world and we see no reason why it could not be so in Europe. We are currently attempting to contact 'Gary' and negotiate with him. We feel that as soon as he understands the space we are aiming at with this product, he will stop his campaign against us, and leave us free to catapult Dasani into the hearts, minds and throats of customers."
(actually, the filtered tap-water Dasani was found to have illegal and dangerous levels of bromate, forcing Coca-Cola to withdraw the product. Read on for more details.)
Coca-Cola began on Friday the recall of about 500,000 bottles of Dasani from store shelves in Britain after tests showed the recently launched drink contained levels of potentially harmful bromate (search) above legal standards.
See I knew blogs could make a difference!
Posted by: kevin at March 28, 2004 06:31 PMIs this a wind-up or have you found world-wide fame at last?
Posted by: Trudi at March 31, 2004 05:27 PM