Ad of the Day: Coca-Cola

For the fifth installment of their much-loved advertising series, Coca-Cola, Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam and Psyop get even more supersized, setting a whole song-and-dance number inside the fantastical, exhilarated innards of the magical animated Coke vending machine. "The Great Happyfication," as the new spot is called, brings back characters familiar from the earlier ads, including Pete the "wham-bam-magic-man" narrator, Wendy the giddy cheerleader, and a trio of singing penguins—along with loads of anatomically distressing creatures, all of whom are bursting at the seams with carbonated glee. The video, which has been playing for visitors at Coke headquarters in Atlanta since June but rolls out today on YouTube and Facebook, offers five steps for achieving happiness—a kind of sugar-infused self-help guide based mostly around being good to others and not taking life too seriously. The second-most-famous five-note melody in advertising (after McDonald's) is more prominent than ever, and the whole spot has enough giddy charm to achieve its goal of infectious fun.

There are a few oddities. It's a little weird that the video still addresses its audience as though it's camped in a darkened theater in Atlanta. And you'll notice around the 3:24 mark that snowmen are still getting slaughtered en masse as part of the bottle-chilling process.

But otherwise the utopia is complete. "We wanted to make the happiest six and a half minutes in film," says Coke ad chief Jonathan Mildenhall. Short of the opening scene in Happy Feet, they might have done it.

CREDITS:

Client: Coca-Cola

Spot: "The Great Happyfication"

VP Global Advertising Strategy and Content Excellence: Jonathan Mildenhall

Global Communications Manager: David Campbell

Group Director Film and Music Production : Nick Felder

Creative Producer, Film & Music, Global Content Excellence: Rachel Holbrook

Creative Director World of Coca-Cola: Craig Lovin

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam

Executive Creative Director: Eric Quennoy, Mark Bernath

Creative Directors: Eric Quennoy, Mark Bernath

Art Director: Mathew Jerrett

Copywriter: Sean Vij

Broadcast Director: Erik Verheijen

Agency Producers: Olivier Klonhammer

Planner: Amanda Feve

Group Account Director: Andrew Kay

Account Director: Philip Jacobson

Account Manager: Ilkay Dibekoglu

Project Manager: Kate Blumer

Business Affairs: Karen Crossley

Production Companies: Psyop/Smuggler

Director: Psyop

Psyop Creative Directors: Todd Mueller, Kylie Matulick.

Executive Producer: Neysa Horsburgh

Producer: Amanda Miller

Assistant Producer: Chase Masterson

Animation Lead: Dan Vislocky

3D Lead: Kyle Cassidy

Compositing Leads: Danny Koenig, Jason Conradt

Editor: Brett Nicolletti

Sound Design: Henry Boy

Sound Designer: Bill Chesley

Executive producer: Kate Gibson

Audio Post: Grand Central Sound Studios

Sound Designer/Mixer: Raja Sehgal

Music Company: Human

Composers: Edmond Dunne, Timothy Moore,

Andrew Bloch, Morgan Visconti