For Everyone: When Coca-Cola Reimagined Connection for a Divided World

June 2025. In an era defined by cultural division and digital overload, even the world's most recognized brand must evolve. Coca-Cola launched "For Everyone," a campaign that didn't just refresh the brand—it re-centered it around something timeless: human connection. This wasn't innovation for its own sake. This was a 137-year-old icon reaching back into its own creative heritage to find a message the world needed now.

Stealing From Your Own Greatness

The campaign draws inspiration from a beloved Argentine Coca-Cola ad from the early 2000s called "Para Todos" (For Everyone), a spot remembered for its simplicity, charm, and universal relatability. Over 20 years ago, that Argentine campaign became a cultural touchstone, emphasizing that Coca-Cola is a beverage for everyone.

Alex Ames, Senior Director of Creative and Content at Coca-Cola, invoked Pablo Picasso's statement that "great artists steal" to explain the approach. "When you're a brand with the proud heritage of a Coca-Cola, we're fortunate to have an incredible body of our own great creative to steal from," he explained. "We started with the famous 'Para Todos' film from Argentina for this spot. From there, we briefed Cartwright and Casanova to come back with new statements that expressed the idea of Coke being for everyone, juxtaposed against beautiful glass product shots."

The Creative Vision

Working closely with The Coca-Cola Company, agency Cartwright launched four hero films—two in English and two in Spanish. Rather than creating simple translations, the English and Spanish versions were developed concurrently with thoughtful tweaks in tone and presentation to ensure the message remained universal, yet culturally sensitive.

Stephanie Eaddy, Senior Director of Cultural Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, emphasized this distinction: "This was not a simple translated script. We concurrently developed the two scripts with these two agencies to bring authenticity and relatability to the story for more people."

The creative team at Cartwright included Keith Cartwright (Founder & CCO), Brigg Bloomquist (Copy), Nate Ripp (Art), Andrew Loevenguth (Production), and John Graham (Strategy). The campaign featured 30- and 15-second executions designed for broad reach across social, streaming, and broadcast platforms.

The Visual Language

Once they landed the best vignettes, they worked with Martin Wonnacott, described as "the legend of liquid photography," to create a modernized visual language. The spots showcased classic Coca-Cola products—the red can, the glass bottle—through the lens of modern American life.

Keith Cartwright articulated the campaign's essence: "Coke stands alone as a brand that has the permission and heritage to take their can and product and turn it into conversation with its consumer. That is the essence of what we are capturing in this film—those moments of connection that can only be told by Coke because of its legacy in storytelling around its packaging."

The Core Message

The purpose of the campaign was to celebrate the diversity of Coca-Cola's consumer base, using the instantly recognizable packaging of Coca-Cola to highlight and reflect back on the audience. Each ad captures a simple, joyful truth: Coca-Cola has always been for everyone. No matter who we are, where we come from, or what we believe, Coke is truly for everyone.

The campaign emphasized that regardless of differing physical or emotional traits, similar to the different Coke bottles and cans, we all relate in who we are at our core. This wasn't about pretending differences don't exist—it was about acknowledging that beneath those differences, shared humanity remains.

Humanizing, Not Innovating

What made the campaign particularly strategic was what it chose not to emphasize. Rather than spotlighting new or current offerings, Coca-Cola and Cartwright wanted to focus on humanizing Coke's core products in a way that felt relevant today.

In a market obsessed with innovation—new flavors, new formats, new features—Coca-Cola made a bold choice: celebrate what already exists. The red can. The glass bottle. The simple act of sharing a cold Coke. These weren't presented as nostalgic relics but as timeless constants in a changing world.

The campaign was an homage to the original—honoring what made it resonate while contemporizing that simple, powerful idea for a new audience.

The Distribution Strategy

Media planning and buying was handled by Publicis Media, which had obtained the Coca-Cola North America account in March 2025. The "For Everyone/Para Todos" campaign ran across paid media in online video, social, and audio platforms in both languages through the summer of 2025.

The campaign was published in the United States and became part of Coca-Cola's broader 2025 marketing strategy, which included various seasonal and cultural touchpoints throughout the year.

The Bigger Brand Context

This campaign existed within Coca-Cola's "One Brand" strategy, which originally debuted in 2016. The One Brand approach is a global marketing strategy that shares the equity of the Coca-Cola brand across all Coca-Cola Trademark products, uniting beverages like Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and other variants under a single brand identity.

The strategy underscores the company's commitment to offer consumers choice with more clarity and increases the promotion of low- and no-sugar versions of Coca-Cola as great-tasting choices. "For Everyone" reinforced this positioning by showing that no matter your preference—glass bottle or mini can, zero sugar or original taste—there's a Coke for you.

Why This Message Mattered Now

In 2025, cultural division felt more pronounced than ever. Social media algorithms created echo chambers. Political polarization intensified. Communities fragmented along countless lines—ideological, generational, cultural, geographical. Into this landscape, Coca-Cola offered something radical in its simplicity: a reminder of shared humanity.

The campaign didn't preach or lecture. It didn't take political stances or wade into contentious debates. It simply showed Coke being shared, enjoyed, present in diverse lives and moments. The product became a symbol—not of sameness, but of something that could be shared across difference.

The Production Excellence

These teams brought craft and care to every second of the campaign, reinforcing the emotional value of something as simple as an ice-cold Coke. The liquid photography by Martin Wonnacott elevated product shots from functional to beautiful, making viewers see familiar packaging with fresh eyes.

The decision to shoot in both 30-second and 15-second formats showed strategic thinking about platform realities. Attention spans vary by medium—what works on broadcast television needs adaptation for social media. By creating multiple executions, Coca-Cola ensured the message could live effectively across the fragmented media landscape.

Five Lessons From For Everyone

1. Heritage Is a Competitive Advantage

Coca-Cola didn't look externally for inspiration—they mined their own 20-year-old Argentine campaign. For brands with long histories, the archive is a treasure trove of proven concepts that can be refreshed for new audiences. The lesson: before creating something entirely new, explore whether your brand's past contains wisdom worth reviving. Heritage brands have permission to reinterpret their own greatest hits in ways that newer brands cannot.

2. Concurrent Development Beats Translation

Creating separate English and Spanish scripts simultaneously—rather than translating one into the other—ensured both versions felt authentic to their respective audiences. This approach requires more resources but delivers more culturally resonant results. The lesson: if you're creating for multiple cultural audiences, invest in parallel creation processes led by people who understand each culture deeply. Authenticity can't be translated; it must be created.

3. Simplicity Cuts Through Complexity

In a world of overwhelming choice and information overload, Coca-Cola's message was profoundly simple: Coke is for everyone. No caveats, no segmentation, no complex positioning. The lesson: when the world feels complicated, simplified messaging can be revolutionary. The brands that win aren't always those with the most sophisticated strategies—sometimes they're the ones with the clearest, most human message.

4. Product as Symbol Transcends Product as Feature

The campaign used Coke bottles and cans as symbols of diversity and shared experience, not as showcases for product features. The packaging became a visual metaphor for human variety united by common essence. The lesson: products can mean more than their functional attributes. When brands elevate products to symbolic status, they create emotional connections that specifications never could. Transform your product from a thing into a meaning.

5. Permission Comes From Consistency

Keith Cartwright noted that Coke "stands alone" in having permission to make its packaging the center of conversation. This permission wasn't granted overnight—it was earned through decades of consistent brand storytelling. The lesson: brand permissions are built over time through consistency. What you say once is a claim; what you say repeatedly over years becomes your identity. Coca-Cola can center its packaging because it's been doing so authentically for generations.

The Quiet Revolution

"For Everyone" doesn't shout. It smiles. In an advertising landscape dominated by spectacle, controversy, and virality-at-all-costs, Coca-Cola chose warmth over noise. The campaign trusted that in a divided world, people were hungry for messages of inclusion that didn't feel preachy or political—just human.

The early impact was promising. The campaign tapped into a need for connection that transcends product marketing. By reinforcing Coca-Cola's place in everyday life, it solidified the brand's status as a timeless, shared experience.

And these days, everyone could use a little extra happiness in their day—or at least a reminder that beneath our differences, we're all looking for the same simple pleasures: refreshment, connection, moments of shared joy.

Conclusion: Icons Must Evolve

Few brands are more universally recognized than Coca-Cola. But recognition isn't the same as relevance. In 2025, the challenge wasn't making people know Coca-Cola—it was making them feel Coca-Cola still understood them, still belonged in their lives, still represented something worth believing in.

"For Everyone" succeeded because it acknowledged the world as it is—divided, complicated, overwhelming—while offering something the world needs: a moment of uncomplicated connection. The campaign reminded us that some things remain constant: the pleasure of a cold drink, the warmth of sharing, the simple truth that we're more alike than different.

For a 137-year-old brand, that's not just good marketing. That's cultural stewardship—using brand power not just to sell products, but to offer something the world needs. In Coca-Cola's case, what the world needed was a reminder that everyone—truly everyone—deserves refreshment, belonging, and a moment of simple joy.

That's always been Coca-Cola's promise. "For Everyone" just made sure we remembered it.