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Coca-Cola Small World Machines – Bringing India & Pakistan Together [Video]
Coca-Cola wants to help solve one of the thorniest political conflicts in the world. How? More Coca-Cola for everyone, of course.
The brand today launched the latest video in its “Open happiness” campaign. The three-minute spot from Leo Burnett showcases a pair of connected vending machines that Coke and the agency set up in India and Pakistan. Each vending machine featured a webcam and a giant touchscreen monitor. Passersby could grant free sodas to the people on the other side of the digital window—but only if both parties participated in a series of simple joint activities, like touching their hands to corresponding places on the screen, drawing concurrent peace signs, and dancing with each other.
Creatively, it’s a powerful piece, and very well executed. It also feels like a souped-up extension of the smartphone app that earned Coca-Cola the inaugural Mobile Grand Prix at Cannes last year—which let users buy unsuspecting strangers around the world cans of soda. While that campaign lacked the explicit political theme of this one, both are built around making a gesture of kindness to someone you don’t know, and are rooted in the global Kumbaya spirit of the brand’s classic Hilltop campaign from some 40 years ago.
The political element raises the stakes considerably, though. Cola diplomacy runs the risk of coming across as painfully naive by oversimplifying a complex issue that’s tangled up in a long history of imperialism, religious conflict and nuclear stand-off, to name a few factors. Coke frames this powder keg of a problem as, on some level, simply one of miscommunication—because that’s small enough that the brand can then frame itself as the solution. Sure, more understanding and common ground isn’t a bad thing, and Coke takes some pains to temper the portrayal of its own success, erring on the side of aspirational everyman/everywoman voiceover platitudes throughout the spot (e.g., “We are going to take minor steps so that we are going to solve bigger issues.”) But really, what the brand is taking minor steps toward is selling more sugar water in a way that isn’t explicitly about selling more sugar water, and has at least the veneer of a higher purpose.
That’s no surprise—the social-media zeitgeist holds that doing good is good for business. Yes, a warm-and-fuzzy video like this has some entertainment value, and it’s is certainly more palatable—and arguably more effective—than a hard-sell product spot. But doesn’t distilling a geopolitical conflict into short-form branded content do more harm than good by trivializing it?
Or if everyone just drank a Coke, would they really get along?
Coca-Cola Small World Machines – Bringing India & Pakistan Together from Coke Pakistan on Vimeo.
VIDEO: 3MU-TECH-05-19-2013
Google remains under fire in the UK over corporate tax avoidance issues. DirecTV, America’s largest satellite video provider, is one of several companies considering the purchase of online video website Hulu. It looks like Apple may be releasing a refurbished version of the MacBook Air next month! Plus you will never believe how many translations Google Translate does a day!
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VIDEO: 3 MINUTE UPDATE-TECH-05-17
Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, has a new startup he’s working on called Jelly. Guess which Smartphone has just taken the #3 spot in the world’s most popular phones? Plus the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone has had a very successful debut even though their 16GB storage is only half!
Bill Gates : Once Again The Richet Man On The Planet
He may only work part time, but Bill Gates has become the world’s richest man for a second time thanks to a nest egg of shrewd financial investments – and a little help from the Mexican government.
The software mogul snatched the title from Mexican mobile phone tycoon Carlos Slim yesterday after Bloomberg revealed his personal fortune had blossomed to an eye-watering $72.7billion.
On Thursday, the company’s stock price hit a five-year high. Slim’s wealth has fallen $2 billion this year as Mexico’s Congress passed a monopoly-busting telecom bill that threatens his company America Movil SAB’s commanding position in the market.
Since 2007, Gates and his wife Melinda have given more than $28 billion to charity. The couple plans to eventually give away 95% of their fortune.
The surge in Microsoft stock comes despite reportedly poor sales for Windows 8, the company’s latest operating system. In a recent interview, Gates said he expects the OS to build momentum over time and that iPad owners are frustrated by the lack of a keyboard and Microsoft Office functionality.
Gates, who has spent his life at the vanguard of computer innovation since he founded Microsoft in 1976, last wore the crown in 2007 but was usurped by Slim three years later.
The Bright, Genius Future of Rap Genius
Crowdsourced hip-hop lyrical annotation and analysis service Rap Genius is growing beyond its roots. Until just a few months ago, Rap Genius was a website seemingly happy to reside in relative obscurity. When tech venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced its funding of Rap Genius to the tune of $15 million in October 2012, interest in the site transcended hip-hop fans and scholars.
From Rap Lyrics to Current Events
Annotation and crowdsourcing are intrinsic factors of the Web 2.0 paradigm shift. It is easy to realize the sheer value and potential of enterprises such as Wikipedia in this regard. Other sites such as YouTube and Instagram excel at media aggregation, Reddit is a great platform for trending issues and Twitter seems to easily tie everything together in real-time.
The Rap Genius’ hip-hop lyrical database is certainly impressive and egalitarian; it archives lyrics from chart-busting behemoths such as Jay-Z and Lil Wayne to underground stars like Blackalicious and MF Doom. The crowdsourced annotations range from the obvious to the scholarly brilliant. Early tracks by Run DMC, for example, may not require much in the way of explanation, but it is always valuable to read nuggets of wisdom with regard to the zeitgeist when the track was recorded or a short biographical tidbit on the artists. The real value of Rap Genius can be gleaned by reading the annotations on the brilliant, yet cryptic, lyrics of Kool Keith and Jurassic 5. Want to know the geopolitical context and backgrounds in the songs of Rage Against the Machine? Check out Rap Genius.
News Genius is the latest venture from the Rap Genius crew, and it is a natural progression. News Genius keeps it old-school by allowing users to annotate, clarify, enlighten, and comment on breaking news. Just like Rap Genius relies on the strength of its user base when it comes to elucidating rap lyrics, News Genius has the potential of attracting newshounds who really know how to read between the lines.
Leaning on Star Power
Rap Genius has had no problem attracting attention from power players in the worlds of business, hip-hop and entertainment. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a fan, and his COO Sheryl Sandberg is a respected annotator. Actor Ashton Kuchter and rapper Nas are investors.
On the genius continuum, the company also plans to release an annotating service for documents that can be even more cryptic than lyrics by Afrika Bambaataa or the Wu-Tang Clan: Business and financial filings. Reading between the lines is a skill that respected analysts on Wall Street spend years honing; in the near future Enterprise Genius annotators may be able to decode the esoteric verbal output of Alan Greenspan and the reassuring stanzas of Ben Bernanke.
Guest post from Ryan Harris. Ryan is a part-time tech blogger, and a full-time copywriter with internetserviceproviders.com. Got any questions or requests for Ryan? Connect with him on Twitter: @harrisryan30.
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