Seeing red: Washington State Ferries vessel Tacoma now comes with Coca-Cola

The ferry Tacoma, traditionally marked by the iconic green and white of the Washington State Ferries fleet, now bears a new hue. Red. Coca-Cola red. The newly added splash of color is hard to miss, and that is, of course, the point.

As part of a new, sizable advertising campaign, large, red wraps have been added to both ends of the vessel, sailing on the Bainbridge Island-Seattle run, hailing the recyclability of Coke bottles. Even from a distance, the ad spots catch the eyes.

Washington State Ferries spokesperson Ian Sterling said that the agency approved the sale of exterior advertising space on vessels several years ago and said that Coca-Cola is the first big advertiser to take an interest in those spaces, as part of a large advertising buy on the vessel, at Colman Dock and at the Bainbridge ferry terminal. The campaign is set to run through Nov. 19, he said.

“It’s definitely getting noticed,” Sterling said. “People are paying attention to it, it’s not something people are used to seeing. From an advertising campaign standpoint, I think that’s probably what Coke wanted.”

Advertising and imagery have been added to vessels previously. Sterling noted the agency has in the past worked with the Movember Foundation on the additions of mustaches to vessels for the month of November and with a health care group that paid for a mask graphic during the pandemic. Historic photos show the addition of a Century 21 logo to the side of the ferry Tillikum, an addition that the agency notes was painted on all ferries in the fleet for the 1962 World’s Fair — also known as the Century 21 Exposition — in Seattle.

But in modern memory, the exterior Coca-Cola advertising on the Tacoma stands out as something new.

Some on social media have welcomed the new revenue source. Other reactions to Tacoma’s new look have ranged from indifference (“If it sails on time, I couldn't care less about the color(s)!”) to disgust (“It's an abomination!”). Some have been quick to point out that the galley on the vessel serves Pepsi. And others have noted that ads on transit are nothing new.

Bainbridge Island’s Henry Shepherd, a self-described “enemy of noise pollution and visual pollution and, in fact, pollution in general,” lamented the advertising: “We’re so bombarded with (ads) everywhere else we go, every piece of media we consume, almost everywhere we look is some kind of advertising, from the logos on our clothing to the pop-up ads on the internet. It’s too much, and it’s so much more of a garish intrusion than normal, it takes it into this upper echelon of offensiveness.”

Shepherd, once an every-day ferry commuter, said he and others he would travel with back in the day joked about this kind of corporate sponsorship on a vessel: “Funnily enough, some of the people I sat with worked at Starbucks headquarters as graphic designers and so forth, and we would always joke that Starbucks should wrap the ferry in a Starbucks logo because it was the same color of green. Starbucks has the mermaid, and it’s in Seattle, so it’s almost a no-brainer in a way. It’s a gimme, as they call it. It was just an ironic sort of nihilistic joke because we were seeing more advertising on the ferry itself.”

Bremerton’s Deborah McDaniel, also once a daily ferry commuter, said she wouldn’t be wild about seeing similar advertising on other vessels but also wouldn't mind it so much and said she appreciated the idea that such a move would bring in much-needed revenue to the ferry system.

“Our ferry service is so bad now that anything to get more money into the system to get us more reliable boats, faster, I’m kind of like, fine,” McDaniel said. “That said, it bugs me that they’ve messed with our classic green and white iconic look of the ferries. And who are those ads really for?”

Washington State Ferries doesn’t sell advertising directly but contracts with the transit advertising firm Trans4media to provide advertising and that group in turn recently announced a partnership with the groups Ballyhoo Media and Pivot Media Ventures for advertising for the ferry system. Sterling said that money from ferry advertising vendors as a whole in the state’s fiscal year 2023 totaled nearly $450,000, which went to the state’s Puget Sound ferry operations account to help pay for ferry operations costs.

Sterling said that an advertiser could buy exterior space on any of the state’s vessels but noted that displays have to meet certain standards. Could advertising creep out to the sides of vessels too? It’s possible.

“It’s something we may take another look at,” Sterling said of the exterior ads. “This is where it’s at right now, but we’ll continue to take a look at this and how to best offset the iconic nature of the ferries with bringing in some money. Every dollar that comes in from advertising is one dollar that we as taxpayers don’t have to pay.”

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Washington State Ferries vessel Tacoma features Coca-Cola ad