This would not be my first mistake, but one I would not make again. One other mistake that I made while working at Coca Cola was that I had a customer that owned a couple of package stores that was owned by two brothers. They did a lot of advertising in print and on television. One day while I was servicing their account they asked me if I would like to be in one of their commercials. They would give me a case of beer for payment. I agreed. The commercial was to be shot the next day I was so excited I couldn't wait. The next day came and as luck would have it my route truck broke down and I was running behind. The commercial was planned for a 5:00 p.m. shooting. I didn't have time to go home and clean up and change clothes so I went right to the store wearing my uniform.
When it was my time to do the spot I was standing in front of a register. I just had to answer one question from the announcer. "Ed, why do you come to Warehouse Liquor's?" I answered, "I come to Warehouse Liquor's because I like my beer cold and at Warehouse Liquor's they have the coldest beer in town!" That was all and the commercial ran a couple months later during the Super Bowl. I was so proud to see myself on T.V. That week after the spot ran a lot of customers said that they saw it. Well they weren't the only ones to see it. Right after I returned to the plant I was told that I was to attend a meeting in the board room right away.
I went straight to the meeting. I opened the door and inside it looked like all of the big bosses were there. I knew a few of them, the vice president and some of the H.R. people as well as the general manager and the sales manager, and Doug my supervisor. I didn't even get to sit down. The vice president had the union contract in his hand and as he stood he threw the contract down hard on the table and stated that there was nothing they could do to me for making the commercial and asked me what I thought I was thinking?
I told them the story of being invited by a good customer and I was flattered. That asked why I did it in uniform with the company logo so all could see? I told them of being broke down and running late and then I guess I just had to say it. Besides it was free advertising for Coke. That got a rise out of the vice president. He said, "Coke has their own advertising department with professionals!” The meeting was short and I was sure glad, I thought I was going to be fired. We almost lost two major chains of package stores because of what I did. To make it worse I serviced a lot of those stores. Coke had to make changes on my route and I no longer serviced those stores. I certainly learned a lesson and from that point on it was entered into the contract that no employee was to ever comment to the media without permission from upper management.
