Diet Coke Hits the Books in a Big Way.(marketing campaign offers book excerpts in packs of Diet Coke)

Six major new titles are the focus of a unique marketing campaign

WILL DIET COKE'S book-boosting marketing campaign fatten sales for six spring books? Watch what happens to the trajectories of Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul (Health Communications, Jan.) by Jack Canfield et al.; Be Cool (Feb., Delacorte) by Elmore Leonard; A Sudden Change of Heart (Feb., Doubleday) by Barbara Taylor Bradford; Mistaken Identity (Mar., HarperCollins) by Lisa Scottoline; River's End (Mar., Putnam) by Nora Roberts; and Tara Road (Mar., Delacorte) by Maeve Binchy.

Between 45 and 50 million 12- and 24-packs of Diet Coke and caffeine-free Diet Coke will contain an excerpt (up to 32 pages in a 4"x6" booklet reproducing the actual jacket) from one of these six titles, part of a multimillion-dollar merchandising campaign that runs from February 1 through April 30. In addition, a contest will encourage readers to pen a 500-word essay that can win one of them a trip to New York City. The design of each multi-pack pictures the featured book on every side and reproduces the covers of the six books in the promotion, thus encouraging consumers to buy additional soft drink packages to collect all half-dozen teasers--and then perhaps be persuaded …