I'm told this aired during the Superbowl over there in yamericky.
Definitely a strong message that playing online isn't a sociable thing to do (while drinking sugary drinks is?). I do like the detail that the giant WoW-esque orc is a lady, though.
It's curious to see how Coke's "opinion" changes according to the audience it's trying to sell to. Making a few broad-brush assumptions here, presumably (they think) super-bowl watchers are jocks ... who are traditionally the enemy of nerds, and nerds play avatar-games... so here it's anti-avatar. Meanwhile a few years ago over in China the message was very different.
a big cliché...
I've had many new "real" friends while playing Q3 online for 2 or 3 years.
We don't play Q3 anymore, since a while now, and... they are still friends (not just virtual ones).
Posted by: KaG | February 02, 2009 at 13:00
Well that's one interpretation I guess.
My take is that Coca Cola wanted to appear 'hip', remembered this and tacked a feelgood ending on it. I think they're trying to acknowledge that a change has happened rather than commenting on it purely negatively. Most of the people in the ad are (presumably) acting socially, just not with the main character. (I don't think their GTA ad from a couple of years back was 'anti-games' either.)
Posted by: Robin | February 02, 2009 at 13:45
You don't think it feels a bit more negative than other ads though? The song lyrics...
Posted by: Alice | February 02, 2009 at 14:02
The superhero avatar ignoring the lady struggling with the pushchair...
Posted by: Alice | February 02, 2009 at 14:03
I have to say, I completely disagree with your interpretation of the ad. First of all, it's not just jocks that watch the Super Bowl, it's practically everyone. People who couldn't possibly care less about sports watch it, because it's a huge social and pop culture event. So the target audience is pretty much everyone. Secondly, to me the commercial said that everyone is living in the virtual space these days...whether it's in a game or a social networking site, everyone has one kind of "other self" or other. We're all inhabiting our avatars so much that we rarely connect person-to-person anymore. Until he makes a connection with the Orc-girl (thanks to Coke, of course). I didn't see this as negative at all, quite the opposite.
Posted by: Susan | February 02, 2009 at 15:25
That's interesting. I wonder why it feels negative to me - maybe it's just the sad song then?!
Posted by: Alice | February 02, 2009 at 16:40
In real life those people don't go outside.
As for using a laptop in a cafe? Criminal. Who does that outside of fiction, San Francisco?
Posted by: Cunzy1 1 | February 02, 2009 at 16:58
In regards to the superhero avatar...
The theme of the advert seems to be "people aren't what they seem". So it was a superhero (forget the avatar bit) that was not helping the lady.
Posted by: Mr Tom | February 02, 2009 at 18:34
I'm not "hip" on games but it was a great feel good commercial!
Posted by: bill | February 02, 2009 at 18:56
I have 3 kids and they all loved it.
Posted by: mom | February 02, 2009 at 18:57
I agree with you Alice - to me the implication is all these people are too busy in their virtual worlds to notice all the great things around them
Posted by: Taymar | February 02, 2009 at 21:21
Alice has sharp eyes, it didn't seem anti-avatar when I first saw it, but then rewind and there's the CoH dude ignoring the lady with the baby struggling up the stairs, the PSP kid ignoring his dog, the businessman ogre bumping into our doofus hero, the Cooking Mama lady hardly paying attention to her son on the swing. To make things more confusing, though, the dude looks like a scrawny gamer himself. (At the end, I thought he was looking for another WoW player to group with.) Who is this supposed to appeal to?
Posted by: Hamlet Au | February 03, 2009 at 01:52
I don't think it's negative towards avatars at all. Remember Coke's GTA-themed ad not too long ago? I think they're appealing to gamers, not ridiculing them.
Posted by: Deg | February 03, 2009 at 19:35