Nine cans ad's swipe at anti-refund Coke
SARAH CRAWFORD | May 10th, 2013
A scene from the banned Greenpeace ad protesting Coca-Cola's attempts to get the Territory's
recycling scheme scrapped
CHANNEL 9 is refusing to screen an ad protesting Coca-Cola's attempts to get the Territory's
recycling scheme scrapped despite accepting payment for it.
The Territory's container deposit scheme was scrapped after Coca-Cola Amatil, Lion Nathan and
Schweppes successfully challenged the legislation in the Federal Court in January.
The NT Government is now footing the bill for can refunds until the Federal Government signs off on
exempting the scheme from Commonwealth legislation.
The Greenpeace advertisement, which has had more than half a million views on YouTube, links
drink giant Coca-Cola to dead wildlife.
Click here to watch the controversial ad.
Nine labelled the ad, titled "Stop Coca-Cola trashing Australia", offensive.
But Nine Darwin general manager Andy Bruyn said the ad was never booked to run in Darwin.
Greenpeace had reportedly paid Nine more than $20,000 to show the advertisement during last
night's Friday-night NRL telecast.
The ad shows people drinking Coca-Cola from plastic bottles followed by images of dead birds falling
from the sky.
Nine's sales and marketing director Peter Wiltshire said they decided not to run it after looking at
the ad.
"We had no issue in taking the original booking from Greenpeace but on reviewing the content we
deemed it to be offensive to our viewers and so advised the client we would not proceed with the
placement," he said.
"We have refunded the original deposit."
Greenpeace has lashed out at Nine for banning the ad.
"They've bottled it," Greenpeace campaigner Reece Turner said.
"Coke has been accused of bullying politicians into blocking cash for containers. It's a reasonable
assumption their influence is behind Channel 9's last-minute choking."
Greenpeace said it targeted Coca-Cola in the advertisement because of the company's opposition to
a deposit scheme for bottles.
The advertisement said: "Plastic bottles are killing our sea birds. Coke is fighting legislation that will
help solve the problem."
The Northern Territory is expected to try to reintroduce the laws after other states and territories
recently showed support for its scheme.