Coca-Cola has always been a company mindful of
innovation. With heart-warming campaigns, easily recognized icons and
hard-to-forget commercials, its marketing department is one step ahead at
churning out memorable ideas. From animated polar bears to red trucks lit up in
tune with the Christmas spirit, from catchy party songs to children choirs,
they've tried everything to push the limits of what ads can do. As of late,
they've started changing what their vending machines can do, too. Take for instance the 007: Skyfall promotional campaign, where
people could get tickets if they managed to finish the mission in 70 seconds while the movie theme was played live, and then sing the same theme to the machine.
By far, the most impactful Coca-Cola videos are
the inspirational ones.
We have security camera love…
… sharing…
… and the numbers that really matter.
The latest chapter of this saga is the
Indian-Pakistani interactive vending machine, the so-called Small World
machine. These machines work in pairs, one being in India and the other on in
Pakistan, eliciting buyers to perform actions together so they can get their
drink.
If you haven't watched it, you should. It's a good video.
A beautiful video.
The state of affairs between India and Pakistan
is touchy. There’s suspicion and anger from both sides, deeply rooted in the
History of those nations, particularly since the partition of British India.
Not only military conflicts but also religious divergences and territorial
disputes have contributed to turn their relations into a very sensitive game of
chess.
I’m not going to claim I understand all the
implications surrounding the subject, but at the very least I can understand
how this ad works for an outsider. To us individuals, whose lives are not
directly impacted by the walls created by the conflict, watching two human
beings who are different enough to have been at war bond over a machine makes
us happy. It makes us think ‘Oh, it’s not that hard after all. We can build
that bridge’. It gives us hope. And we feed on hope to keep believing.
Of course, Coca-Cola is not trying to solve a
difficult problem between countries. Such thing would be impossible and utopic.
In reality, they do it, for the most part, because they know this ad makes them
look good. Ads that appeal to our emotional side tend to be more successful strategies
than ads directed at our intellect. Some people might even claim the company
only does what it does because they have an interest.
And why wouldn’t they? They’re a successful brand,
whose name and drink is recognized in the farthest corners of Earth. Keeping
that Earth together matters to the business, and so does people’s opinions. So
it’s only reasonable that they want people to think of Coca-Cola ads with tenderness,
believing the world can be a better place. Still, there’s a whole world of
things a company could do to get people’s attention without having to deal with
very hard political matters. The fact that they choose to, at least for me,
means something.
I don’t think a campaign needs to be selfless to have a deeper
meaning, and the fact stands that Coca-Cola chose to spend their money in this
manner.
We cannot forget that the people in that video are real
people. The campaign is real, more so to those people than to us bystanders. It can’t create an open door, but it is an open
window. The most important thing Coca-Cola is
showing is that there’s humanity everywhere. The Indian are human. The Pakistani are
human. Regardless of years of prejudice, deep down in every human existence is the wish to connect. Not only
they can recognize each other as humans but they can interact, test that
humanity, test that similarity to their brothers in origin. They can do all that behind a glass, behind anonymity and at
a safe distance. Safety gives birth to courage. Curiosity takes the place of discomfort. And from that curious observation, hopefully, will come some manner of compassion.
They say change starts small, and while such
small scale change is arguably no change at all, it’s proof that there’s a
will. Coca-Cola is letting us in the secret that there are things that are worth thinking about, even if only from time to time. That while we go about our sped-up lives, while disasters happen and people struggle, somewhere in a different place there's people trying to be better.
The fact that there’s someone out there showing us there’s beauty in this
cruel world is, at the very least enough to change me.
