Coke Creates Virtual Vending Machine That Only Appears for Couples

Coca-Cola loves smart, bossy vending machines. It loves them so much, it helped turn them into an entire marketing category.

This year, the brand brought back its Valentine's Day edition, further escalating the arms race to develop manipulative beverage dispensers.

Actually a virtual vending machine projected on a wall, this iteration would only appear for couples, helping single people feel even worse about being alone. According to the case study video (which, of course, is the real point of activations like this one), the machine also personalized sodas by putting the couple's names on cans.

But the core concept is pretty much a rehash—back in 2012, another Valentine's Day Coke Machine only dispensed sodas to couples who would prove they were together by necking in front of it. So refusing to even show the new machine to solo passersby is really just an extra twist of the knife. Seriously, just look at the poor chump staring at the blank wall, at the end. No soda for you, lonely boy.