On June 14, 2021, Portugal soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo sat down for a news conference to discuss his team’s upcoming match against Hungary in the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship. Before Ronaldo took questions, he took the two Coca-Cola bottles that were left out for him, moved them out of frame to the side of the table, then held up a bottle of water and said, “Agua.”
As this video went viral, a number of outlets reported that Ronaldo’s Coca-Cola snub had cost the company billions of dollars. The exact cost of the snub varied from outlet to outlet, but the general claim was that it cost Coca-Cola between $4 and $5 billion.
Here’s an excerpt from The Guardian’s report:
Cristiano Ronaldo snub wipes billions off Coca-Cola’s market value
Cristiano Ronaldo’s removal of two Coca-Cola bottles during a press conference at the European Championship has coincided with a $4bn fall in the share price of the drinks company.
The Portugal captain is a renowned health fanatic and made it clear what he thinks of the carbonated soft drink. The 36-year-old shifted the bottles of Coca-Cola away from him during a press conference in Budapest on Monday in the prelude to his country’s Group F game against Hungary.
[…]
Coca-Cola is one of the official sponsors of Euro 2020. The company’s share price dropped from $56.10 to $55.22 almost immediately after Ronaldo’s gesture, a 1.6% dip. The market value of Coca-Cola went from $242bn to $238bn – a drop of $4bn.
While Coca-Cola’s stock truly fell after this news conference, there was no indication that this drop was entirely (or even in part) caused by Ronaldo’s preference for water. In fact, Coca-Cola’s stock was already falling by the time that Ronaldo snubbed Coke products in favor of water.
Coca-Cola’s stock price closed on Friday, June 11, at $56.16. At 9:30 a.m. shortly after the market opened again on Monday, the company’s stock had fallen to $55.35. Ronaldo’s news conference hadn’t even started by this time. After Ronaldo’s news conference (held at 3:45 p.m. Central European Time (or 9:45 am CST according to Sportico), Coca-Cola’s stock briefly rose and then dropped again.
It’s certainly possible that Ronaldo’s endorsements (or disapproval) of Coke products could temporarily influence the stock market, but a few other facts should be noted.
For one, while a $4 billion stock drop may sound like an absolutely devastating turn of events, this really isn’t a major story for Coca-Cola. The company has seen a number of similar drops and rises over the last year, and those changes had nothing to do with Ronaldo. As of this writing, Coca-Cola’s stock is up about 15% from where it was at this time last year:
Furthermore, Coca-Cola’s stock is not based purely on sales of their most well-known product, Coke. While Ronaldo may prefer water to soda, Coca-Cola has a large portfolio that includes a variety of products, including the water brand Dasani.
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