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The worst viral TV ad ever? Coke’s pimped vending machine leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

January 29, 2010 | By James Tuckerman
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We’ve been delighted to share some incredible ‘viral’ marketing clips through Anthill TV. I’m talking about concepts and videos assembled by creative agencies to help promote a brand — short films designed to evoke surprise, make us laugh and sometimes even cause emotional discomfort.

When done well, the ‘viral’ video can be an incredibly powerful tool for promoting the USP of a product — such as this clip from MINI Cooper — or it can simply be used to make us feel more positively about a brand — such as Volkswagen’s ‘fun theory’ campaign. But sometimes (more often than most would like to admit) they simply fall flat.

So, why is it that this campaign from Coca-Cola left me with a bad taste in my mouth?

Coke vending machine advertisement (viral campaign)

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  • http://anthillonline.com/author/paul-ryan/ Paul Ryan

    Oh that is truly appalling. Note the collective groan when they students first see the hand come out. And then it just keeps going and going…

    Can’t decide whether it is worse than Microsoft’s ham-fisted rip-off of Improv Everywhere, having their store employees ‘spontaneously’ break into synchronised dance.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAXEVXvNz8

    Nope. Watched it again. Microsoft wins.

    [Reply]

  • Brad Smith

    Just a classic example of an attempt at “doing the viral thing” which may have worked 5 years ago when there weren’t so many great, good and indifferent ideas running around the web, but in 2010, when every man and his Dogbert is having a crack, this one just isn’t all that spontaneous, dangerous, adventurous or funny. Too overt an attempt at selling Coca Cola to truly go viral in my opinion. Ultimately I couldn’t help but feel that no matter how hard I slam my foot or fist against the next Coke vending machine i try to use, AT BEST I might get the one Coke that I paid for and no pizzas or 12 foot hoagies are going to be coming my way.

    I’d file this under: “Send to my Aunty that keeps forwarding me the Send this to 10 friends emails”. She’ll get a kick out of it possibly…

    [Reply]

  • http://startupmelbourne.com/ Erik Unger

    All you need to know about sugar – to some degree you can call coke toxic:
    http://startupmelbourne.com/2009/12/sugar-the-bitter-truth/

    [Reply]

  • http://twitter.com/SherwinRocks SherwinRocks

    I thought the video and the concept was actually pretty entertaining. The students’ reactions were pretty authentic and overall was done very well. Does it make me want a Coke? No. Will I forward the video to my college friends, probably. :)

    [Reply]

  • http://www.wordmistress.com.au Gina Lofaro aka the wordmistress

    I’m not sure what the negative fuss is about! It’s fun, lighthearted and I really do love my Coke, viral campaign or no viral campaign. What did I miss?

    [Reply]

  • http://anthillonline.com Lachyw

    Hmm, I don’t remember their being such a negative nancy mood in the office last Friday. Maybe James and Paul hadn’t had their AM coffees?

    [Reply]

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