Coke “Happiness Factory” by Psyop

Last week Coke unveiled a new CG spot for its latest campaign, “The Coke Side of Life.” The commercial, “Happiness Factory” (watch it HERE), was directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick at New York City-based studio PSYOP. It’s a slick well-produced piece, but the visuals are too cluttered for my taste. While watching the commercial, my attention was constantly diverted from the primary action revolving around the bottle to the photorealistic settings and characters running around in the background. An even more questionable artistic choice, in my opinion, was the use of a photorealistic Coke bottle in a photoreal setting. It’s a definite turnoff seeing all those furball creatures slobbering over a bottle of Coke that looks exactly like the one I might pull out of a machine. Had either the bottle or the setting been more overtly stylized, the idea would have been an easier sell.

A final note: this Feed post draws a comparison between the Coke spot and the Smith & Foulkes ad for Honda called “Grrrr”. There’s a big difference between the spots, however. In the “Grrrr” spot (HERE), Smith & Foulkes offset the photoreal car engines with a spare and stylized setting that gives the entire commercial a charming airy vibe. If the “feel-good” music of the Coke commercial is any indication, they were probably after the same effect as Smith & Foulkes, but the labored visuals obscure any charm that the original concept may have had.