Brands Love Bond

The new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace is out in a few weeks and I'm excited about it. I'm a big Bond fan - have been since graduating from super heroes in tights and capes to a man in a dinner jacket who kills for a living. As a character in books and movies, Bond has been inextricably linked to brands.  It's been said that Ian Fleming used brands like Rolex to ground Bond's implausible adventures in something concrete, but it's been the movies, from Connery to Craig where brands have enjoyed significant benefits from association with Bond. Aston Martin has been voted the UK's coolest brand, undeniably because of its link to Bond and Omega continues to enjoy rugged and stylish epithets as Bond's watch of choice (although having said that, Rolex, Bond's original choice trumped Omega in the aforementioned CoolBrands list). While Omega and Aston Martin have obvious links to Bond through usage, this time around there's also sponsorship from Heineken, Bollinger, Smirnoff, Virgin Atlantic, Sony Ericsson, Sony Electronics and most interestingly from Coke Zero. All of the brands above have at least some possible link to 007 (Sony's perhaps a bit of a stretch and Smirnoff lost its luster in the vodka category years ago), but Coke Zero?  The promo spot by Wieden and Kennedy in Amsterdam is great as it's evocative of the classic Bond title sequences. On a bigger strategic level, the intent is clear - make a zero sugar Coke seem more masculine. But really, it's a bit of a stretch. My benchmark for association is based on whether Bond would use it or not and I can't imagine the Daniel Craig version slugging back a can of "zero zero seven" as it's being promoted.  Maybe Roger Moore or perhaps Pierce Brosnan would have been a better choice - he could have put it in the cup holder of his invisible car.