11.30am Diet Coke Break With The Window Cleaner

Not a squeegee in sight - The 1998 Hunk Robert Merrill kept ladies on time as a sexy window cleaner.

If you're a man, and you don't have a six pack you may recently have been forced to question your own sexiness by Ryan Gosling and the new Diet Coke ads. Don't. This column goes out to all the sexy people. You know who you are. Although, if you’re a man and you don’t have a six pack you may have been forced to question your own sexiness by the news that the Diet Coke hunk is making a comeback to mark the soft drink’s 30th anniversary. This time around, British model Andrew Cooper will be betraying his countrymen by going shirtless to play the perved-on manual worker, enlivening break time for a gaggle of googly-eyed female office workers.

That Diet Coke advert is back: Since its first airing back in the early nineties, HuffPost UK Lifestyle have been waiting patiently for the return of that gorgeous, sweaty window cleaner with high cheekbones. But sadly he never arrived. Today we finally learned that he's been hiding out in the countryside (as window cleaning probably becomes rather tricky when women are constantly grabbing at your sponge). 

See something you like? An open-mouthed woman observes the Hunk lift up his top.

Legendary ads getting women flustered through the years: Diet Coke will also bring back Robert Merrill, the handsome star of the 1998 ad, for the 30th birthday ad'. Merrill, who now stars in 90210, CSI and Californication, says: ‘I still do have a love affair with Diet Coke. She’s been good to me for all these years.’ ‘Women got excited when they saw the Diet Coke Hunk commercials.’ ‘Being objectified by women is a pretty good feeling if you ask me, and I felt like a rock star. Life is short and the commercial was harmless.’

It's 11.30. What's the fuss about? 

The Diet Coke break is back and the soft drink brand has commissioned a new advert to get pulses racing, which made its debut on Diet Coke's Facebook page today.

 

Why now?

The advert coincides with Diet Coke's 30th Birthday. Moreover, it's a full six years since the last Diet Coke break advert.

 

I recall that the plotlines of these adverts often involve a flimsy excuse to remove items of clothing. What happens this time?

Indeed. This time the male lead is mowing the lawn close to a group of females. One of the women flings a can of Diet Coke in the gardener's direction. He picks it up and opens it, only to be soaked by a jet of Diet Coke. The fellow then does the decent thing and removes his T-shirt before returning to his mowing.

 

Surely this is the needless objectification of men! Do these chaps always have to take their clothes off?

There have been five Diet Coke men, including a lift technician, a window washer and a delivery man. Just two were allowed to keep their shirts on. 

 

How long have the Diet Coke adverts involved scantily clad males?

The company introduced the Diet Coke break man to its advertising in 1994. The advert featured female office workers watching a shirtless construction worker.

 

How did Diet Coke explain the decision?

Olivier Geyer, a director for Diet Coke in north-west Europe and the Nordic region, said: 'It is not about the Diet Coke man being an object, it is not a voyeur thing, it is about cultural change, women being equal to men and you can see that..' 'We wanted to celebrate not just the brand, but also the women who have been with us for 30 years. We have tried to make sure it is not the past but a very contemporary execution. [It] showcases female empowerment and camaraderie.'

Diet Coke Finds Its New Stud, 19 Years After the Old One: He's the real thing. Meet Andrew Cooper, a British model whose shirtless turn as a soda stud in this Diet Coke 30th-anniversary commercial via BETC London is going viral and splashing Cooper's name, face and six-pack abs across the media-sphere. In the ad, which is running on European TV, Cooper, cast as a landscaper, gets a bunch of women all worked up after one of them rolls a can of Diet Coke down a hill in his direction and he pops the top, salaciously spraying himself with the product. Subtle!