Coca-Cola Polar Bear Campaign

At First Glance: What is this? Diet Coke? Or maybe it's some caffeine-free, or zero calorie specialty Coke. It definitely makes me thing of Diet Coke.

I recently posted about how well Coke has established their brand. Here we see that they are using this credibility to help Polar Bears. The Coca-Cola Arctic Home has partnered with The World Wildlife Fund to help save this endangered species.

This campaign is a great idea, and it really brings a self-actualization appeal into the picture, but I think Coke may have made a big mistake. The white cans really lack brand recognition. Now, obviously not completely. We still understand the classic red/white color scheme and the Coke typography, but we may not understand that this is Coca-Cola Classic "at first glance." This could be a major problem within the campaign. Ultimately,  I think Coke can afford to take this risk. I don't know if the polar bears can, though.

What do you think?