A recent Atlantans reflections on Coca Cola

Yesterday, Domenic and I finally made a trek out to the newly opened Coca Cola museum in downtown Atlanta. (Specifically to see the Andy Warhol exhibit, which was small but awesome) Having lived in Georgia for many years I’d been to the old museum a fair few times. The new museum is really an updated, more streamlined version of the old museum in a more centralized and up-and-coming location (directly next to the new (super cool) aquarium). As a whole the attractions are all still the same. You get a “look back” into the history of both Coke as a product and Coke as a cultural entity. Then you walk through a sample coke production line and finally you pop out into the tasting center where you can sample Coke products from around the world (most notably Beverly, a foul beverage from Italy that facinated me as a kid and from what I saw yesterday still remains a favorite of hyper active, pre-teen field trippers.) What has changed is the perspective with which the museum now displays the influencial span of Coke history. The focus is finely tuned to reflect a few key themes. It seems like Coke is no longer concerned with finding clever ways to weave itself into the fabric of americana but is instead directing itself towards the individual. Perhaps this reflects the times…or the ever growing international scope of the Coca Cola empire but the days of “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” seems to be quaint little feathers in the cap of Cokes past. The new Coke campaign and the underlying theme of the new coke museum is based on the following commercial.

Brilliantly produced and creatively imagined the new campaign is called “the happiness factory.” The spot is definatly up to par for the one of the greatest and most respected marketing histories in the world, but it certainly represents a shift for the company (and a clever shift at that.) With this new commercial Coke has created a new and mysterious universe that is quite apart from our own. No longer playing a force of world unision the company has set up a new realm where the magical, happy forces of coke now reside distict and seperated from our world. I think it is intersting that Coke is no longer represented as a seamless part of our worlds “magic” but instead as a dissperate entity that works together to then influence our world in magical ways. Coke is no longer a classic peice of what defines us a civilization but instead as a place apart from ours that merits our persuit. The commecial takes Coke away from being aligned with what makes us happy people and redefines the product as being above us, a magical entity that works independantly to bring us happiness if we seek it. The commecial seems to say that if you put some coins into the machines then a whole universe of happiness will unite to bring you a product that represents the unification of their love, joy and admiration. Which in itself is also an intersting shift towards individualistic fulfillment over group unification. I noticed this at the museum as well when i sat in on the new 3D cinamatic adventure to find the “secret ingredient” of Coke. The ride takes you on a journey around the world to find what it is that makes coke the perfect balance of flavour only to drop you right back where you started to excitedly anounce that what makes Coke great is, indeed, you the individual consumer. What an interesting approach. Set up an incredible new world of “wonder, magic and happiness” (a world that most people would find appealing) and then put that world at the consumers fingertips (only a buck away) and position that world as if all of its wonderment can only be realized if the consumer acts accourdingly. This is why Coke is such a powerful company. This is really clever stuff.

So in conclusion here is a follow up film to the Happiness Factory via Youtube

And if you are reminecent of the old days here are a few of my favorite Coke commercials from the old perspective.