Coke says, "CMO? Like we need one of those."

So Coke doesn't have a CMO anymore. But they do have someone who seems to be sort of in charge of most of the marketing efforts. Perhaps this way, their marketing will be led by someone with responsibility but no power. Or something like that. I'd love to see the internal memo announcing this shuffle.

It's an interesting saga down there in Atlanta. Myopic, really. They always talk about recapturing their magic American icon status while failing to understand that the public just may have moved on. It seems that people now associate Coke with obesity as much as good old American values. (American values, of course, being different according to whatever socio-economic/regional/Blue State/Red State group you happen to be trying to reach.)

If I sold fizzy water laced with sugar or aspartame, I think I would want a Chief Marketing Officer. Probably someone who wasn't going to say, "Hey, you know what was a great commercial? That one with everbody singing on the mountain! I loved that one! Why can't we get something like that again?" I might want someone who realized that another piece of 30 second film might not be the only thing required to help the brand regain its footing.

If I were the Coke CEO, I would dangle a powerful, highly-compensated position in front of the biggest, most progressive marketing brains I could find. Fast.

Times have changed. Coke has not.