Bear simply astounded by Coke Zero's taste
This Coke Zero spot from Wieden + Kennedy is described as an "epic rock opera ... featuring such memorable cast members as a singing bear, candy-pooping birds [and] an elk with sausage antlers." There are also sheep with honeycomb wool, which I don't understand, but if that bear likes his sheep full of angry bees, more power to him. This is America, after all. (Actually, the spot only aired in Brazil, and broke just recently, even though it was completed some 15 months ago.) Anyway, the gist of this ad is that the bear is taken aback by the robust flavor of Coke Zero. Was he expecting it to taste awful? If so, he might not be the brand's ideal spokesbear. He could open for Meat Loaf on his next tour, perhaps. |
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Published on May 21, 2009 | Permalink
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A whole lot of backstory on Coke's gremlins
If you enjoyed Mother London's "Organ Player" spot for Coke, with the goofy musical gremlins, there's more about them at CokeCreatures.com. The best part might be the biographies of all 10 characters over on their Flickr page. (Crétin and Tincré, in particular, sound about as dimwitted as they look.) There's also a Facebook page and various other gimcrack. (The song from the commercial is available on iTunes in the U.K. but is not yet in the U.S. store.) Meanwhile, some are wondering whether the whole campaign was inspired by this German cat piano from the 1600s. |
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Published on May 11, 2009 | Permalink
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Ewok slaves play magical organ in Coke ad
Here's one of the weirder Coca-Cola commercials you'll see. A homeless-looking hipster dude wheels a box up a hillside, unpacks it to reveal an intricate organ with a bunch of Ewok/Spongemonkey type creatures inside who grunt and sing when given squirts of Coke from a series of jets activated by the organ's keyboard. Four more hairballs play as a little band down below. Soon, the music attracts a whole load of young hippie types, who slog up the hillside and dance in the grass, which starts sprouting bottles of Coke. Make of it what you will. By Mother in London. |
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Published on May 7, 2009 | Permalink
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Coke's breakup ad is not everyone's fantasy
Coca-Cola is shocked—shocked—that a commercial in which a guy who's breaking up with his girlfriend is suddenly surrounded by pole dancers, prompting the girlfriend to lower herself to his adolescent fantasy standards, would be deemed sexist. Perish the thought! Really, all this Coke Zero ad from Australia needs is a bit of rephrasing. The line at the end, proposing that this is breaking up "as it should be," suggests a full endorsement of the proceedings, cartoonish though they may be, when all you need there is a quick acknowledgment that the guy's actually a delusional moron. Or they could make a companion ad from the women's point of view and apply some unfair, stereotypical expectations to men. An eye for an eye always leaves everyone happy. |
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Published on May 5, 2009 | Permalink
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Hershey builds its own factory of happiness
This Arnold spot for Hershey's Kisses apparently debuted a few weeks back. So, why did a local TV station just last night run the brand's "land of chocolate" animated commercial from last year? Anyway, this newer ad is an improvement, perhaps because it strongly channels Coke's "Happiness Factory" spot. Is it a rip-off, unintentionally similar or an homage? Did I even use the word "homage" correctly? Probably not, since I accidentally pronounced the "h" when I said it out loud. The Hershey's spot uses the "Hi-Ho Off to Work" song, which I never thought I could appreciate at all, but in its instrumental form here, it's better than that remake of "I'll Melt With You" from the '08 campaign. Come to think of it, one AdFreak commenter previously suggested that Hershey's "borrowed" Cadbury concepts on that earlier ad. What's next, a spot where a kid comes home to find an empty house and a note from his parents saying they've left because he hogged all the Hershey bars? |
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Published on April 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Coke's 'Happiness Factory' cranks up tunes
While Coke's "Open happiness" ad from Spain has been getting lots of blog love, the latest installment of the U.S. campaign has launched with the third "Happiness Factory" commercial, called "Yawnbusters." The spot's been viewable online since January, but just this week it was updated with a new super-pop jingle! (That's the new version, with a snippet from the single, above.) Coke teamed up with Warner Music and combined Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo, Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, Panic at the Disco's Brendon Urie, Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy, and Janelle Monae for the song, which is on iTunes. Psyop did the animation with Wieden + Kennedy. Oh, and it also comes with a new site full of reasonably amusing Flash games, but what doesn't these days? For those of us who worried that the "Open happiness" tag meant an end to the Happiness Factory, it turns out Coke plans to churn out even more HF spots. Which is good, since they remodeled the World of Coca-Cola to start with "Happiness Factory Theatre." |
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Published on March 18, 2009 | Permalink
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Crispin dips into the past for Coke Zero ad
The ubiquitous Crispin Porter + Bogusky has remade Coca-Cola's famous 1980 "Mean Joe Greene" commercial for the Super Bowl on behalf of Coke Zero. Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu takes over the role of the surly, injured player on his way to the locker room. Presumably, there's also new pre-teen kid who offers him a Coke Zero, as the original actor would be getting a bit long in the tooth. (When a 40-year-old guy follows an athlete around the catacombs of a sports arena, we call it stalking.) But you never know. The client promises an unexpected twist that illustrates how the product delivers "real Coke taste and zero calories." So, there's a surprise in store. Does Polamalu tear off a false face to reveal Mean Joe, still surly, beneath? (Joe wouldn't stand for that Coke Zero swill, by the way. He'd demand the "Real Thing.") Maybe the original kid actor, now grown up, appears to tell us all to stop fixating on overhyped pro sports and commercials and get a life. In the trippy Coke universe, anything's possible. UPDATE: Phil Mooney, the historian/archivist for Coca-Cola, has posted some behind-the-scenes footage from the spot on his Coca-Cola Conversations blog. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on January 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Coke living in blissed-out alternate universeThis new Coca-Cola spot by Wieden + Kennedy makes me cringe, but in a good way, like a horror movie. In fact, it's fairly subversive. A guy and gal in a school library "share" fluids, literally, via pen drawings on their arms. It's not sexual; it's more like a blood transfusion or trippy IV drug-use fantasy. (The fluid they share is Coke, of course.) Below is the latest "Happiness Factory" ad, as well as the new "Avatar" spot. They're both pretty wigged out, too. Frankly, I never liked Coke's advertising—until now! What's that new slogan? "Open a vein"? Oh, sorry, it's "Open happiness." These vignettes look like scenes from the "high life" to me, but that slogan's already taken. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on January 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Wal-Mart and Coke throw giant holiday party
Here's that co-branded Wal-Mart/Coca-Cola ad from The Martin Agency starring John Magaro as the host of a holiday party that everyone (and his mother, and his "surprisingly cool" stepmother) has crashed. He strolls around handing out Cokes from a Wal-Mart bag—no eggnog here, not even rum to mix with the Coke. The guest list also includes "my judo coach, my allergist, my MySpace friends and Twitter list." No room for the Facebook crowd, evidently. You can download the MP3 of the song, and even the sheet music, at this Web site. "When you stock up on joy, there's enough to go round," Magaro sings at the end, in a very Coke-y refrain. I saw this spot last night in an actual Wal-Mart, on a dozen-plus TVs, and it almost managed to cut through the atmosphere of loathing and desperation. What more could you ask of a Christmas commercial? |
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Published on December 24, 2008 | Permalink
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What other movies do they know by heart?
Good thing the two nerds in this Diet Coke ad spent countless lonely nights memorizing Casablanca, because it finally paid off. (They must have both gone to one of the Medicare screenings.) Part of me wishes they'd gone with something that wasn't an established classic, though. Putting their spontaneous date in the context of the talking butt scene from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective would have been more interesting. Or this scene from When Harry Met Sally. |
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Published on October 7, 2008 | Permalink
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