IKEA launches "Cristiano" water bottle after Ronaldo Coca-Cola controversy

Cristiano Ronaldo has already made history at the European Championships by becoming the tournament’s outright all-time top goalscorer, surpassing France legend Michel Platini, with whom he was tied on nine goals before the start of Euro 2020. The Portugal star has so far found the net on three occasions to bring his career tournament record to 12 goals.

But despite his history-making feats on the pitch, Ronaldo has made more headlines over his actions in a press conference before he had even kicked a ball at the tournament.

Footage of Ronaldo removing two bottles of Coca-Cola from the desk and replacing them with a bottle of water in the prematch press conference ahead of Portugal-Hungary has undoubtedly been the viral sensation of Euro 2020.

Such was the impact of Ronaldo’s actions, that tournament sponsor Coca-Cola saw billions wiped off its market value when its share pace took a drop on Wall Street.

IKEA rides the Ronaldo viral wave

While the Ronaldo controversy has served as a major headache for Coca Cola’s PR team, IKEA’s marketing whizzes have tried to take advantage of the situation in a bid to sell more of their famous refillable glass water bottles.

On the Instagram page of IKEA Canada, the company has published an advert promoting a new line of water bottles named “Cristiano”, which it describes as “a reusable bottle for water only”.

Along with the message “Drink water, sustainably”, the company tagged Cristiano and Euro 2020, in case the reference to the Ronaldo Coca-Cola controversy was not clear enough. Though a tag on the soft drinks company itself may have been a step too far.