My Coke Rewards

My Coke Rewards was a customer loyalty marketing program for The Coca-Cola Company. Customers entered codes found on specially marked packages of Coca-Cola products on a website. Codes could also be entered "on the go" by texting them from a cell phone. These codes were converted into virtual "points" which could in turn be redeemed by members for various prizes or sweepstakes entries.[1] The number of points from each product depended on the brand as well as the item itself.[2]

The program was launched in late February 2006, and ended in late June 2017.[3] By November 2006, over a million prizes had been redeemed.[4] The program had since been extended annually since its inception, but terminated on June 30, 2017. Any points left over from one year by one member carried over into the next, provided the member had accrued or debited points within a 90-day period. Current members had from late March to late June 2017 to redeem any points accumulated over the years. Leftover points were then donated to charity.[5]

Controversy

The program was one of several marketing campaigns that have come under fire from the Center for Digital Democracy, an advocacy group interested in regulating how food products are marketed to children. Coca-Cola's online marketing techniques were included in a 98-page report issued in May 2007 by the center and the American University called "Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth"[12][13] which criticized the program for collecting personal information from children and for promoting obesity.[14]

Childhood obesity was also a concern for weight-loss instructor Julia Griggs Havey who sued Coca-Cola over the program in 2006, but dropped her lawsuit a few weeks later.[15] The lawsuit was dropped for the specific reason of it being frivolous, since there was a misinterpretation as to what was required of a user in order to accumulate Coke points and obtain the currently available reward prizes. The first assumption—that those who have Coke codes must purchase the product in order to redeem them—was shown to be untrue, as Coke stated they took into consideration that users may obtain codes from others. Second, it was pointed out that the Coca-Cola Company has other products besides Coca-Cola, including Minute Maid juice, Powerade, Powerade Zero and Dasani water, for those who do not wish to consume high amounts of high-fructose corn syrup or caffeine. Additionally, many grocery stores and discount stores offer Coca-Cola products (often imported) that are sweetened with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

Some customers further accused Coca-Cola of utilizing "bait-and-switch" tactics in the program. They claim that the prizes for which they had been saving are either constantly out of stock or are no longer available. Some items experienced steep unexpected price increases, as well; for example the coupons for a free 20 ounce bottle of Coke increased 67% (from 24 points to 40), a $75 Blockbuster gift card which used to cost 722 points went up to 1,020 points (a 41% increase) before being discontinued, a single Napster download went from 35 to 70 points from 2010 to 2011 (and 10 from 350 to 700, a 100% increase), and the price of a GPX docking station went up from 975 points to 1,820 (an 87% increase). These increases took place at the same time as Coca-Cola was taking drastic measures to decrease the number of points awarded (through its February 2009 rule changes which reduced the maximum number of points from 1,750 per week to 75 through 22 March 2017).[16]

For its part, Coca-Cola maintained that all prizes in the My Coke Rewards program are available "while supplies last," and that there was no guarantee expressed or intended that a given prize would either continue to be offered or continue to be offered at the same price.[16]

logocaption	My Coke Rewards logo
commercial	Yes
successor	Coke.com
type	Customer loyalty
language	English
registration	Optional
author	The Coca-Cola Company
launch date	20 February 2006
dissolved	30 June 2017
current status	Inactive

Limitations

Code reuse

Controversy

See also

External links

References