One of the giants of the advertising world, Coca-Cola is always turning out the latest and greatest when it comes to marketing. So with Christmas coming up, you’d think that they would have the predictable warm-and-fuzzy ad to make us all want to share a Coke this holiday season.
But this year, instead of adorable polar bears or a jolly Santa, Coke’s ad tells the unlikely story of a nerdy mall elf and his struggle to impress a girl.
The clip opens as Scott, the mall elf, brags to a cute girl at the mall about his 30-foot Christmas tree. However, he immediately regrets it- because she takes the bait and asks him to send a picture. Thinking he’s blown his chance, the depressed Scott rideshares with a Santa, who also shares a Coke with him, and helps him deliver some presents.
When he returns home, Scott finds a 30-foot tree in his yard, and the cute girl, who apparently found out about the tree from Santa on social media.
Coke created the video to announce the release of a special line of Christmas thank-you bottles, with cute taglines such as “Thank you for creating magic,” “Thank you for wrapping the gifts beautifully,” Thank you for spreading Christmas cheer,” and even “Thank you for singing out-of-tune carols.”
So what do you think about Coke’s incorporating modern technology of ridesharing and social media to create a silly sitcom vibe, instead of appealing to holiday traditions to tug at your heartstrings? Does it work, or it is just too goofy?
Either way, the ad is definitely better than this lame Pepsi Christmas ad featuring Icelandic hipsters with glowing surfboards.