Coca-Cola is promoting the resurgence of the iconic anime Bleach with an all-new, limited edition flavor, one that has left fans scratching their heads just a little bit. The soft drink giant seems to have missed the mark when it comes to its wording after the confusing promotion asks fans if they have “ever wondered what bleach tastes like?”
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War sees the return of the show’s main protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki, along with the Soul Society, as the anime which ended in 2012 will return to fans’ screens. With this return comes new partnerships and promotional material, and it only makes sense that they would partner with one of the biggest and most recognizable brands in the world, Coca-Cola.
What does not make sense though is the tagline that has been created for the collaboration, which led this person to post a picture of it to Twitter.
Now, hopefully, none of us know what bleach tastes like. Bleach is an extremely strong chemical cleaning liquid, used to kill bacteria on external surfaces, usually, when simply touching bleach we wear gloves as it can corrode the skin, never mind seeing what harm it can do inside the body.
This wording on the promotional drink would suggest, especially to non-anime fans, that the company has made a bleach-flavored drink, which would likely not entice people to try it given the chemical’s poisonous qualities. Of course, the marketing behind it is that they have somehow captured the “flavor” of the anime show, Bleach with a capital B.
The drink’s actual flavor title is Soul Flavored, and is labeled as an action drink, part of their zero-sugar range, and helps you “become the strongest version of yourself possible.”
Now, potentially, the mistake could just be a translation error, the Japanese word for the chemical bleach (hyouhaku) sounds completely different, but for a company as big as Coca-Cola, you would think this would have been thought about.
The collaboration will be holding its own pop-up in Tokyo’s Shinjuku area, where Ichigo’s character will lend his likeness and voice to a special vending machine, there will also be merchandise from the show on sale. So far, it doesn’t seem to be available outside of Japan.
This all comes ahead of the launch of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, which sees Ichigo return to face off against a new and dangerous enemy. This arc follows the last storyline for the character in Tike Kubo’s manga and is expected to have some truly high-stakes battles. The latest series will be released on Oct. 11 and will be available to watch on Disney Plus and Hulu.