Pereira & O’Dell Celebrates Teen Friendship for Coca-Cola

By Erik Oster 

Back in April, Pereira & O’Dell launched its “Crossroads” campaign for Coca-Cola Latin America with a pair of lengthy online spots exploring themes easily related to by teens such as friendship and the damage caused by rumors while introducing the fistbump as the campaign’s visual metaphor of togetherness. Now the agency has rolled out what Adweek refers to as the campaign’s “crown jewel,” with “The Text.”

The ad, which examines the close friendship between two teen boys, does indeed seem to be a kind of centerpiece for the campaign, which explains why Coca-Cola and Pereira & O’Dell chose to release it well after “Crossroads” had established momentum. Directed by Dustin Lance Black (probably best known as the screenwriter behind Milk and J. Edgar), the spot takes its time in establishing the boys’ friendship, which viewers can imply is very close and goes back a long time. After establishing the relationship and hinting at secrets yet to be revealed, the spot reaches its dramatic climax when one of the boys goes to grab Cokes from the fridge while his friend sees a text on his phone from his boyfriend. The ad ends with the friends closer than ever, and engaging in the visual trademark of the campaign, the fistbump. While this moment seems a bit forced as a way to work in the gesture, as does working in going to the fridge for Cokes as the impetus for the spot’s climax, the ad does manage to believably portray the boy’s relationship and the way the dramatic moment unfolds is actually pretty believable.

Pereira & O’Dell’s previous spots for the campaign (which were also directed by Black) traded in teen melodrama, but “The Text” avoids seeming as over-the-top, and feels dramatic rather than melodramatic. While its lengthy runtime (it clocks in at over seven minutes) could probably have been cut a bit, the long buildup does work to establish the nuances of the boys’ relationship.

“‘The Text’ was perhaps the most personal for me to direct,” writer/director and LGBT activist Black told Adweek. “As an artist, I feel I have a responsibility to share the stories of who LGBT people truly are, in order to dispel any atmosphere of fear that might prevent LGBT people from sharing their lives openly.”

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Credits:

Client: Coca-Cola Latin America
IMC Director LATAM: Marta Fontcuberta
IMC Director: Ismael Pascual
Content Excellence Director: Diego Bracamontes
Coca–Cola IMC Senior Manager: Eduardo Ruiz
Coca–Cola IMC Manager: Layla del Razo
Coca–Cola IMC Junior Manager: Adriana Sahagun
Coca-Cola Trademark Brand Director: José Luis Basauri
Coca-Cola Brand Director: Unai Alvarez
Coca-Cola Brand Manager: Valeria Lopez

Coca-Cola Design Team
Global Design Director: Rapha Abreu
Vice President, Design: James Sommerville
Senior Global Design Director: Tom Farrel
Global Design Project Manager: Craig Stroud
Global Designers: Chrsitine Lee, Megan Libby
Senior Design Manager: Aidee Rodriguez

Agency: Pereira & O’Dell
Chief Creative Officer: P.J. Pereira
Executive Creative Director: Jaime Robinson
Creative Directors: Rob Lambrechts, Rafael Rizuto
Senior Art Director: Luke Acret
Senior Copywriter: Omid Amid
Senior Designer: Moses Kelany
Chief Strategy Officer: Ana Cortat
Strategist: Sara Lezama
Vice President, Production: Jeff Ferro

Senior Film Producer: Victoria Whitlow
Co-Director, Client Services: Henry Arlander
Account Director: Mona Gonzalez
Account Executive: Rose Valderrama
Trailer, Interactive Editor: Collin Kriner
Senior Production Designer: Aaron Rodriguez

Vice President, Distribution: Josh Brandau
Project Manager: Lauren Parker
Agency Marketing, Public Relations: Molly Parsley

Business Affairs Director: Russ Nadler

Visual Effects: Laundry!
Editing: Umlaut Films
Editor: Alex Rodríguez
Poster Designer: Erik Buckham
Illustrator, Retoucher: Adhemas Batista

Theme Music: One Direction, “Clouds”

Music Supervisor: Aminé Ramer
Original Score Composer: Grayson Sanders, Music Dealers

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