Diet Coke Revives Old Tagline; Klum Promotes Heart Health

Supermodel and TV host Heidi Klum will return for a second year as the face of Diet Coke’s participation in a program to raise awareness about women’s heart health, timed to kick off at the start of New York’s Fashion Week on Feb. 13. Also returning is the “Just for the taste of it” tagline, which last appeared in 1995.

This year, Klum is more than the ambassador for Diet Coke’s role in support of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) “Heart Truth” health program, including its signature “Red Dress collection” fashion show. She has also designed a special red dress charm for the promotion, and Diet coke is running a sweepstakes to give away 10 limited-edition copies of the jewelry, valued at $3,000 each.

The charm depicts a red dress made of rubies and diamonds and is shaped like an hourglass, to emphasize that women need to get educated quickly about their risks from heart disease. Klum will also wear the Diet Coke Red Dress charm on the red carpet at the Academy Awards on Feb. 22.

Contestants can enter a drawing to win one of the charms at the Diet Coke Web site where they can also find out more about heart disease as an issue in women’s health. A Random drawing for the 10 prizes will take place around May 4.

Diet Coke will also drive awareness of the “Heart Truth” program by placing the Red Dress logo on more than 6 billion packages of Diet Coke and with in-store campaigns involving Target, Publix, Kroger, SuperValu, Safeway and CVS, among other retailers.

National print ads featuring Klum and Diet Coke will appear in six magazines including “People,” while a television commercial highlighting the “Heart Truth” sponsorship will air during popular shows such as “American idol.”

Those TV spots bring back the “Just for the taste of it” tagline that was first used at Diet Coke’s launch in 1982. The slogan reappeared once in Diet coke ads in 1995.

This spring Diet Coke will also partner with the NHLBI on a six-city road show of the one-of-a-kind red dresses worn on the runway during Fashion Week. Beginning with a stop in Minneapolis March 6-8, the tour will also offer heart health screenings and educational materials to women in Houston (March 13-15), Los Angeles (March 20-22), Charlotte, NC, (April 3-5), New York (April 16-18) and Atlanta (April 24-26).

“For more than 25 years, Diet coke has played a role in consumers’ lives,” said Caren Pasquale Seckler, group director for low-calorie colas at Coca-Cola North America in a statement. “Heidi Klum’s star power helped the ‘heart truth’ message reach millions of women last year, and with Heidi’s help, we hope to continue to keep the spotlight on this crucial issue.”