Whether or not the Geico caveman will make it in primetime this fall remains to be seen. But the workers inside Coca Cola’s Happiness Factory, whom audiences first met in 2006 in a TV spot, have become movie stars. Earlier this month, “Happiness Factory–The Movie” was unveiled at an online global premiere event in virtual world Second Life, kicking off phase two of the “Coke Side of Life” campaign.
In the original TV spot, directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick of Psyop, New York, via Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam, audiences were taken deep inside a Coca-Cola vending machine, revealing a magical, fantasy world replete with whimsical animated characters all dedicated to dispensing a cold cool bottle of Coke.
In the movie, available at http://www.coca-cola.com/HF/index.jsp and again helmed by Mueller and Matulick via W+K Amsterdam, it is just another happy day in the Happiness Factory. The Chinoinks are busily dispensing Coke, the Cappers are capping and the Kissy Puppies are spreading love around the factory when suddenly disaster strikes. The alarm bells ring, the red light flashes and the unthinkable happens–the “Happiness Factory” runs out of Coke.
The movie shows the adventures of a heroic factory worker as he embarks on a quest to replenish the Coke, putting the happiness back in the “Happiness Factory” to get it up and running again.
Watching the three-and-a-half-minute film at the exclusive online gala event was an international crowd of nearly 100 avatars dressed in red carpet fashions, including singer Avril Lavigne and reporters from more than 16 countries worldwide.
Marc Mathieu, senior VP, global brand marketing and creative excellence, The Coca-Cola Company, and host of the premiere event said, “Everything about this campaign takes its lead from the entertainment industry–from the movie-style trailers to the authentically designed movie posters to the promotional packaging. It was only fitting that for our launch we chose a full-fledged movie ‘premiere’.”
Since launching in 2006, the original “Happiness Factory” has gone on to become the highest rated global spot The Coca-Cola Company has ever tested. Now airing in more than 100 countries, the ad has received numerous advertising industry accolades, winning a Silver Lion at the 2007 Cannes advertising awards, the Grand Prix Gold Prize at the 2006 Epica Awards and most recently a nomination for a primetime commercial Emmy in the United States.
The launch of the sequel marks the next phase in the award-winning “Coke Side of Life” campaign, which is continuing to drive Coca-Cola trademark brands to perform at their best globally in nearly a decade.
Mathieu added, “In ‘Happiness Factory–The Movie’, the iconic Coca-Cola contour bottle and the enduring mystery of the brand’s secret formula, come together to create a great piece of entertainment for the audience and an effective way for us to express the values of the Coca-Cola brand. We hope that our consumers will have fun with the campaign and think it is a sequel worth waiting for.”
The campaign also includes 30- and 60- second trailers, movie-inspired poster ads, promotional packaging, character licensing and interactive digital elements. “Happiness Factory–The Movie” was produced by W+K Amsterdam using “state-of-the-art” animation techniques and a team of more than 50 3-D animators from PSYOP.
Trump Says He Will Issue An Executive Order To Get TikTok Back Up In U.S.–For The Time Being
President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that he plans to issue an executive order that would give TikTok's China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the popular video-sharing platform is subject to a permanent U.S.ban.
Trump announced the decision in a post on his Truth Social account as millions of TikTok users in the U.S. awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform. Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with a federal law that required them to do so if TikTok parent company ByteDance didn't sell its U.S. operation by Sunday.
He said his order would "extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect" and "confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.
"Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations," Trump wrote.
The law gives the sitting president authority to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale is underway. Although investors made a few offers, ByteDance previously said it would not sell. In his post on Sunday, Trump said he "would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture," but it was not immediately clear if he was referring to the government or an American company.
"By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up," Trump wrote. "Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions."
The federal law required ByteDance to cut ties with the platform's U.S. operations by Sunday due to national security concerns posed by the app's Chinese roots. The law... Read More