So the touchy-feely, fluffy-wuffy founders of Innocent "Dwinks" have sold a 20% stake to Coca-Cola and the consumer backlash has begun:I feel more cheated and duped by this than the bankers. At least Fred Goodwin is honest enough to admit his love of money. At least you know where
you stand with 'hard' capitalism.
It would appear that doing business in "a more enlightened way" means continually lecturing your consumers as to your general ethics and worthiness, before completely selling out to a multinational at the first opportunity [cf Pret].
And our favourite?
I love the comment above: "You can kiss goodbye to this customer". Yeah? Right on. I bet you liked the ad where it showed some 'gwapes' and had the caption "We cwush these" and then a sepia picture of photogenic poor Cuban farmers by a cool 1950s Chevvy truck "But we don't cwush any of these". Anyone - ANYONE - who is not repulsed by that kind of bullshit deserves to be drowned in a bath of Coke and have their head held under by a Niked boot while Coldplay rings out. Good luck to the founders. Cash it in. You won't see me at Fruitstock because I don't purchase my lifestyle. Grow up and Enjoy Coca-Cola.
We say either sell out or don't sell out - there's no half way. Innocent's founders have protested that they were never "anti-big business". Well, their marketing strategy begs to differ. They founded a very successful business on ethical principles and marketed themselves ruthlessly on the back of said principles. By getting into bed with Coke, they can no longer credibly market themselves in this way. We await their next move with interest.
