Coca Cola vending machines have feelings too

To "spread the love’’ for Coca-Cola, a subsidiary agency from Singapore of Ogilvy & Mather located various drinking machines in the National University campus. Instead of using the famous logo, the machines were carrying only the inscription "Give me a hug."  The idea behind this execution is that machines are designed ‘’to feel’’ when they are embraced and, in return of this proof of affection, they deliver a Coca-Cola. If you still wonder, the answer is yes, these machines are built not to receive money, but only hugs.

I think the idea is really cool, because it is a great way of interacting with your audience and making them speak about you. Coca Cola showed throughout the years that it knows how to appeal to people’s emotions and turn them into engaged customers, as it’s amazing that people would really embrace a machine in order to get their drink. That’s what it means to become a love mark. Because, in the end, the vending machine needs just a hug. That’s what stays between the customer and the brand: a hug. Hug it and you’ll get a free Coke.  Referencing the core of affect, the advertisers from Coke said: “Happiness is contagious. The Coca-Cola Hug Machine is a simple idea to spread some happiness.”

But on the other hand, although the execution is part of the company’s global happiness campaign, some critics do not regard it as truly a way of sharing happiness. Some of them said that it could not be a clearer, more unintentional commentary on people’s feelings towards technology than this execution. They argued that maybe it would have been better if the company had given Cokes away to people who hugged each other, and not to reward people for hugging a (vending) machine.

A similar execution is this one from Unilever, which developed an ice-cream vending machine with built-in facial recognition software that dispensed ice creams to happy (faces) people.

Andra Androniciuc