The Coke Zero Launch

Driving to the Fort after an irritating encounter with F who still owes me P44K (long story), the sweep breath of fresh air as I make my turn along Bonifacio Drive's wide streets made me instantly change moods. I thought I would have to take alcohol to remove the stench of ruining a friendship because of money but I was surprised at how a change of scenery made me (almost, not quite)forget the entire episode. A montage of greenery and just like that, I switched my thinking. See? All that talk about the great expanse of the sky, all of those trees and hills-- those are God's creations, and they remind me of how infinitely small I am compared to His love, His omnipotence.

Back to the launch,I met up the Coke guys, who were all clad in black this afternoon, and we were chatting, socializing, business-building. I saw some old faces, people who transferred companies but are now with Coke. It is, after all, a small trade industry. I saw people from our direct competition, and I met the President of Coca Cola Export and the Bottling Group, whom I both found very engaging and customer-centric. We saw an influx of Indian CEOs way back 2004, and now, Unilever, Nestle, and Coke followed Pepsi's move in assigning Indian expats as CEOs. I saw Sam Oh, with that new sidekick of hers, and Issa Litton, who's been our host for our annual event for years. There was a bevy of press people from the Lifestyle sections of the daily papers-Tessie Prieto- Valdez, Phillip Cu- Unijieng, Liza Elarde, as well as the group of Robbie Carmona, Rajo Laurel, who were probably there in support of event organizer Keren Pascual, or some other reason. There were trade partners and employees, and there was also rain, albeit briefly.

The mysterious black-clad and masked men escorted us to the coasters that then took us to an open field. Sounds of helicopter hovering came from nowhere, and there it was, up in the air, the Coke Contour bottle in black, Coke's biggest surprise. That was the highlight of the launch. All guests seated at the bleachers waited for a little less than 10 minutes for this event, and then it was time to go to the official party pad where we got the taste of the real thing. Actually, I tasted it over 3 weeks ago, when we were planning how to cook up this launch in our stores. Come and see your nearest 7-eleven shops on Sunday, Feb 17 and you will see what I'm talking about. In the meantime, I asked Keren where were the paratroopers? They were part of the presentation Coke's ad agency showed us, which we weren't really supposed to see as it was supposed to be the the highlight of the PR event, and we were part of the guestlist. Oh well.

All I can say is, I'm glad it's finally here. A Coke with the same taste (almost, but the zing of Coke classic is really different), but with zero sugar. But if you know me, I'm a Coke Light girl. Thanks to you-know-who.