An election about an election could be Justin Trudeau’s new Coke.

In a splendid attempt at post-rationalization ten years after it bet the farm on a new formula, the Coca-Cola Company reframed the new Coke fiasco as "an incredibly powerful signal that we really were ready to do whatever was necessary to build value for the owners of our business." Really? New Coke’s introduction in 1985 was a marketing blunder of massive proportion. There’s no way to spin it into a visionary strategy even if its outcome - the re-introduction of the old recipe under Coca-Cola Classic seventy-nine days later - eventually benefited the soft drink maker.

This fiasco provides valuable lessons for marketers. Most observers believe the lesson is about the risk in making decisions strictly on data about preferences for product attributes, in this case, taste in blind testing. Yet emotional brand associations, the brand’s symbolism, matter as much, if not more. But the real lesson from new Coke is about what happens when brands alienate their loyal followers. The objective taste of the new recipe wasn’t the main issue. What’s often overlooked is that the backlash had less to do with a longing for what the iconic brand stood for than resentment at the Coca-Cola Company for pulling what most perceived as a self-serving stunt with no consideration for their needs, wants, and aspirations.

That’s a lesson some are destined to forget forty years later. One the Liberals may learn again on September 20th.

Leading up to the election, polls, the political equivalent of Coke’s blind taste tests, indicated the Liberals were potentially within reach of a majority. Party strategists calculated that this window of opportunity would not last much longer. The idea that this election is necessary to move forward together to shape the future of the country has so far been a tough sell. There was a time when brands could wrap themselves in virtue and claim to change the world. Few would take them to account. But in this age of authenticity, transparency, and accountability, consumers and voters are more engaged and vocal online. They can see some brand promises for what they are: opportunism wrapped into a higher purpose. Virtuous statements that are self-serving.

That’s the biggest risk facing the Liberals in this election in search of an acceptable purpose.

It may lead to indifference and a historically low turnout. This could help the parties and candidates in ridings where the math of a pandemic-restricted election will work in their favour through mail-in ballots and on election day. If that’s the general mood on September 21st, we might well be back to where we were when the writ dropped.

In traditional marketing, most campaigns are front-end loaded with the bulk of spending and media pressure upfront. This campaign won’t truly start until after the Labour Day weekend. That’s assuming anyone will pay attention during and after the debates. If we see greater voter engagement, by then no party is likely to have set the narrative because this election will have found its voter-generated purpose. The Liberals can only hope that they will be on the winning side of whatever wedge issue or ballot question will tip the scale.

New Coke would be the nightmare scenario for the Liberals. A dramatic and brutal shift among alienated voters who become highly vocal in voicing their displeasure in what they perceive as a self-serving election aimed only at the political equivalent of what Roberto Goizueta, Coca-Cola’s then chairman and chief executive officer, described as “necessary to build value for the owners of our business.”

Mr. Trudeau and his party better hope his taste tests weren’t misleading and he can somehow shape this campaign’s issues in his favour. Otherwise, he and his party might have to wait a few years before re-introducing their classic natural governing party formulation.

Éric Blais is the president of Headspace Marketing in Toronto. He has helped build brands for over 35 years and is a frequent commentator on political marketing, most recently on CBC's Power & Politics.