Like many actors, Jon Hamm goes to great lengths to prepare for a role. In a new video, he’s seen sitting in front of a mirror, practicing his lines and hyping himself up to embody his next character. 

But when he walks on set, the room is empty and dark. The realization slowly sinks in that the shoot went ahead without him. 

Hamm (sort of) stars in the first global campaign from Coca-Cola brand Minute Maid Zero Sugar. “Sells Itself” casts Hamm aside to convey the message that the product is so good, it doesn’t need any celebrity endorsements. 

The playful ads—by Studio X, the execution arm of WPP Open X (the bespoke agency that serves Coca-Cola)—depict the award-winning actor facing a series of crushing rejections after he gets the Minute Maid Zero Sugar role, which turns out quite differently from how he imagined it. He rehearses for nothing, after his agent hands him a script of empty pages. 

“Jon, Minute Maid Zero Sugar sells itself. You don’t need to do anything,” the agent tells him, summarizing the concept of the campaign.

Hamm is confused, responding: “How do I build a character out of nothing?”

Cheeky marketing

Minute Maid Zero Sugar has been on shelves in North America for a few years, and it received positive response from consumers without any significant marketing push, Katalin Czigler, senior director of global brand strategy at Coca-Cola, told ADWEEK. 

While “sales and market share are talking for itself, we thought it was time to expand and build awareness even further,” she said. “The core creative idea is embedded in the fact that the product sells itself. We don’t need celebrities or any crazy marketing.” 

Minute Maid Zero Sugar’s campaign follows the rise in demand for low-sugar food and beverages, with nearly three in five consumers choosing low-sugar products for their general health, according to Mintel research. But while such demand tends to come from a serious concern, the brand wanted its marketing to be “cheeky and fun” to convey the product’s quality, said Czigler.

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