Coke's 'Happiness Factory' Does Second Life Press Play

Brentter has the full story on Coke's Weiden + Kennedy-created Happiness Factory film which made its "global premiere" in Second Life yesterday. The three and a half minute film (oops, sorry. we're drinking the Kool-Aid here)...um...commercial follows the travails of a Coke factory worker who travels across Happiness Land in a quest to get the factory working again.

We passed on the story yesterday since anything remotely related to Second Life makes us laugh...uh...sorry. We should have said "take less seriously." After dumping millions into Second Life six to 12 months ago, didn't marketers conclude it was a waste of money? Call us callous but YouTube has greater reach than SL by far. Oh but, oops. The vid is on YouTube also...with a whopping 434 views. Hmm.

Reportedly, 100 avatar journalists along with Avril Lavigne showed up at the premiere which, let's see, adds up to a totalof 534 people who have seen this thing. OK, so it's also on the Coke site and on YouTube again a time or two but still. Given the amount of work that went into the creation of this movie/film/commercial/whatever, we're guessing it's going to be a long time before the ROI Powerpoint slide on this one begins to look good.

Oh but don't listen to us. It's our job to bitch about these things. Go watch it yourself and then let us know what you think.

UPDATE: Oh but wait! Weiden + Kennedy clarifies. They want us to make sure we share upcoming TV spots, which break in September, are just that: TV spots. Those spots will push people to the 3.5 minute movie/film/video which, as WK clarifies, isn't a commercial because it's 3.5 minutes long therefore it's not a TV spot but, rather, a mini-movie. Still with us on this?

Anyway, sure. It's not a commercial because commercials aren't longer than :30 or :60 or even :120. If they are, then they're movies. Or videos. Or virals. Or...damn, we have a headache! And to be clear, the Second Life was all Coke's doing so WK is free and clear of our SL rant. Unless, of course, they've recently done SL work which...oh who cares. This update is way too long already. We still love you, WK.