Close-Up: Newsmaker - Coke picks home-grown talent as marketing chief.(Chuck Fruit named chief marketing officer)

Coca-Cola's Fruit deserves his name for creative use of media.

Chuck Fruit may have a name with the potential to inspire a thousand puns on both sides of the Atlantic, but it hasn't hindered his elevation to the top of the world's largest beverage company.

Last week, in yet another shake-up of the top-level management team at Coca-Cola's Atlanta headquarters, Fruit was named the new chief marketing officer.

The 57-year-old former vice-president, integrated marketing, replaces the outgoing Daniel Palumbo, who left after only a year in the role.

Palumbo's swift departure was not necessarily a statement about quality, but the fact that Fruit is a home-grown talent clearly illustrates a desire to have people with extensive experience of Coca-Cola occupy the upper echelons of power.

For Fruit has risen through the ranks, amassing a wealth of marketing experience in the process.

After a 15-year spell at Anheuser-Bush, he joined the soft-drinks giant in 1991 as its head of global media services, with responsibility for the realignment and shaping of not only the media strategy but also the management of established sponsorship partnerships with the likes of Fifa and the International Olympic Committee, among others.