In 2006 the production company PSYOP made “Happiness Factory”, an amazing animated 60 second ad for Coca-Cola, showing what happens behind the scenes when you buy a Coke from a vending machine. Here’s a hi-res version of the video.
The original ad was such a success that PSYOP made a follow-up 3:30 mini-movie of “Happiness Factory” in 2007. Here’s a hi-res version of the video.
Here’s the making of video “Inside the Happiness Factory”.
UPDATE: GorillaSushi wrote a great post addressing the Coca-Cola conspiracy rants the comments.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Marie Lyon, Kylie Matulich, Marco Spier, Todd Mueller, Eben Mears, Justin Booth Clibborn, Sandy Selinger and all at Psyops…
hey great name, it FITs!
Shell, Starbucks, AT&T, Infiniti, MasterCard,Pfizer, McDonalds, Fox, Ford
are just some of your client list…
Are there any SCUMBAGS you WON’T work for??!
…
Dear scott, no matter how creative and clever this animation might be, anyone making advertisements for Coke has stooped really really LOW, and should really get a clue about what it means to work for corporate scumbags. It means you participate in their crimes!
Aside from being a hyper aggressive corporation which invented the term “Total Liquid Intake” in their strategies to dominate the WATER market, a substance many people around the world are desperate to access just to survive, they are also responsible for death squads which have murdered labor organizers in Columbia.
The High Fructose Corn Syrup issue is a whole other complex issue, but pretty safe to say Coke has done a fantastic job creating diabetes and obesity in poor communities for decades now.
Most places around the world are already pretty informed about the dangers of HFCS, and Coke only uses this particular ingredient to continue experimenting with peoples’ health primarily in the US… where it seems the agricultural lobbies like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland seem to do their part to keep the public ill-informed and import prices for other sugars high.
yurs,
mumpeg
mumpeg, ah so I get it, you work for Pepsi.
What, no 9-11 Coke-spiracy theories? No Chupacabra tie-in? Fail.
It’s too bad that creative types have to take money from corporate douches, but who else funds that sort of thing in the USA?
Coke is sort of evil, it’s true. Along with Nestle they’re buying/bribing their way into water rights all over the place, since clean water is supposed to be the next global issue. You could read about the coke/pepsi wars in Mexico, people died over it.
Shell has hired death squads in Africa and deals in a pretty dirty commodity. Phizer has helped wreck the health care system. McDonalds, rainforest beef and soy. Ford has been a bit evil about fighting fuel efficiency standards. Fox, well, you know.
You don’t need to throw the loch ness monster in there to spice things up.
well, if you like Coke that much, you should try taking a bath in it.
they are evil.
Here’s a random interesting fact…
The first Coca-Cola drink mixture was concocted in 1886 and three years later two lawyers together paid one buck for the bottling rights. Look where Coca-Cola is now…some multi-billion dollars later!
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/CocaCola-Enterprises-Inc-Company-History.html
Coke commercials on Laughing Squid? In the content area? For free? Ouch like a blow to the solar plexus.
Enough, let’s stay positive: At least it wasn’t Exxon.
Such cuteness. Talented people there.
And I don’t see anyone here telling anybody what they should or shouldn’t drink here, except Coke. But then it is a commercial. And the cuteness is necessary, very for them now. Coke’s bad business practices have gotten them booted from many a campus and limited from others and not only colleges either.
The “sweetness” has public schools all over the place altering their vending machine offerings. That happiness is used to push the product along with humor and toy/cartoon like critters is reminiscent of big tobacco.
Still, some very adorable videos. I had not seen them before.
Um Sean, I didn’t post some random Coke commercial “for free” as you suggest. Did you even read the post or are you just following in line with the comments?
There is this annoying thing that seems to happen with comments. If the first comment is negative, then following comments usually end up being that way as well.
I did read the post.. I had my comment in mind before seeing the others, and the only reason I went to the comments page was to write my own.
It arose from the post and videos, not the preceding comments.
Holy cow you people get riled up over the silliest things, seriously, have some hugs. I know it’s cool to call big corporations “evil” and everything, but I don’t understand where this moral outrage stems from, you are getting pissed off, on laughing squid.
There’s somebody at the street corner giving out free hugs, please go get some.
dear scott,
As soon as you post some pepsi ad, (which shouldn’t be too far down the road it seems), we’ll be happy to dig up the dirt on That corporation as well, but that’s not the point.
And, no we don’t work for any transnational companies with blood on their hands, and we do our best to remain as far as possible outside their spheres of fuck-all enterprise.
The point we hoped to make is that there are truly exceptional artists who either consciiously or unconconsciously use their talents for seriously wrong purposes.
And the problem we’ve been painfully observing in the LS arts + culture blog for some years now is that there is such a lack of crtitical faculties, that there’s almost no possibility for a forum here that could provide the necessary information
Sorry to burst your bubble “mumpeg” but this is not a forum for anonymous trolls, so yeah, you’re better off taking your conspiracy theories and “all corporations are evil” rants somewhere else. This is not the appropriate place.
At this point it adds zero value to the conversation.
cont.
And the problem we’ve been painfully observing in the LS arts + culture blog for some years now is that there is such a lack of crtitical faculties, that there’s almost no possibility for a forum here that could provide the necessary information to __________.
Depending on your level of awareness of what is happening currently in your country, your times, your neighborhood, your planet… how you fill in the blank may vary.
But for sure if you are spending time making commercials for Coca-Cola there’s only a very slim chance that your brain is still accessing any proper nutrients.
Please note, this comment thread is best enjoyed while drinking Coca-Cola.
scott, we appreciate that you can keep a sense of humor about these things, but again the point here might also be that until we STARTED a conservation there wasn’t one…
there was only a slick commercial for a corporation that has taken on full automaton and psychotic proportions ( seen “The Corporation” lately?)… that is they are, exploiting abusing and killing people … without conscience. no artificial conspiracies added.
yep, enjoy. the bubbles are all yours.
btw, we’d love to here some comments from Psyops !
Sorry, me no Cola, me Coke!
Ah, how does his FF work?
One of the downsides of “instant information” via the Web is how stupid and lazy it makes people, by which I mean they read something online somewhere, don’t do their own analysis and then regurgitate it, adding embellishments until it’s not even remotely close to the truth. Actually, this kind of thing started pre-internet (Google “eskimo” “snow” “words” and “myth”).
w/r/t Coca-Cola, understanding how they’re organized as a company, which is to say they’re essentially a franchise (bottlers operate independently of other bottlers in other countries and, mostly, independently of HQ in Atlanta), reveals that it’s like a bunch of little companies that happen to share a similar product and brand. So, blaming the entire company for acts committed by a handful of countries might be convenient but is not accurate.
And no, I’m not a Coke employee. More of a part-time social scientist.
hi Steve… and anyone still concerned enough to read this far,
Dyspepsia* Spin Alert !? On one aspect we agree. The new “instant information” routes have many downsides! On the other hand we strongly disagree with your “analysis” as your part-time social science would be laughable were it not also a tragic + key element in the corporate legal defense mechanisms that allow transnationals to wreak havoc and abuse around the world. The old shell game of ownership and accountability works almost every time, i.e. corporate charters and franchise structures!
Btw: You can’t possibly believe that Coke ( a Transnational with yes one HQ in Atlanta) only makes money from its US product sales??!!
And is it out of your own stupidity , laziness, some sort of Coca-Cola Copenhagen Syndrome or merely misanthropic corporate affection that you didn’t read the facts ( from labor abuses to health factors, the list is long) yourself??
We are quite sure it is not out of “convenience”, that some people have RISKED THEIR LIVES to provide information to non-profit Orgs such as the Killercoke.org campaign re: the crimes and injustices in Columbia. There is really little other motivation that seems possible other than that they are desperate to protect their families, relatives and livelihoods.
And the information was SPOT ON enough to encourage DOZENS of UNIVERSITIES and LABOR UNIONS to sign boycott resolutions, but hmmm, just not good enough for “Steve”.
Btw: Just What IS YOUR motivation as PT social scientist might we ask??!
_ _
* “Dispepsi is an album by the band Negativland. It was released on July 29, 1997 by Seeland Records, Negativland’s record label. It is structured to be a statement against the major soft drink companies and contains many samples of advertisements therefrom.” (wikipedia)
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p.s. It would still be really interesting to hear from Psyops and/or Coke, but guess they are still busy burying their heads in the sand and stuffing their bank accounts.
pps. If your interested in these issues take a look at Humphrey McQeen’s engaging book on the meaning of Coke and corporations. linked above.
mumpeg, don’t go away mad…just go away.
I had never seen these commercials (I don’t watch much TV) and admire their creativity and style. Thanks for sharing them LS. I would think that even those who are against the end product could still appreciate artistic endeavors.