No dia 28 de outubro, a banda Monkey Majik irá lançar o seu décimo segundo single, o triple a-side “Nijiiro no Sakana / Open Happiness / MONSTER”. Este é o segundo lançamento do grupo este ano (o primeiro foi o single “Aishiteru”, lançado em junho deste ano).

As três músicas deste triple a-side serão utilizadas em mídias diferentes: A música “Nijiiro no Sakana” está sendo usada no comercial da marca de carro IMPREZA, da SUBARU; “Open Happiness” é a música tema de uma campanha mundial da Coca-Cola chamada “Happiness Factory 3″; e “MONSTER” foi escolhida para o mais novo comercial do chocolate “Pocky” da Glico.

Logo abaixo confira um deles, o CM do carro “IMPREZA”, onde “Nijiiro no Sakana” é utilizada:

Como eu não encontrei mais nenhum outro CM, vou postar aqui uma entrevista feita com o Monkey Majik a respeito do novo CM da Coca-Cola, “Happiness Factory 3″ (que é aquele famoso comercial que mostra todo o processo “mágico” de como a Coca-Cola é feita). No vídeo dá para ouviu alguns segundos da música “Open Happiness”:

.

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O único PV divulgado até agora foi o da música “MONSTER”. Achei a música muito legal e o PV, por mais que seja um pouco simples, também é muito bom. Mesmo sendo utilizado um único cenário nele, o clipe não ficou muito repetitivo e nem cansativo de se ver! Gostei bastante…

Nota: 3 / 5.

Até a próxima…

While we’re all chasing happiness, love, contentment and the perfect life, the personification of happiness manifests itself in many ways to us. Coke’s Happiness Factory was a brilliant concept … followed up by Open Happiness, kinda like open source.

My Recent FaceBook status:

to which a friend replied: “Who is your happiness vendor?”

While we’re all chasing happiness, love, contentment and the perfect life, the personification of happiness manifests itself in many ways to us. Coke’s Happiness Factory was a brilliant concept … followed up by Open Happiness, kinda like open source.

My Recent FaceBook status:

to which a friend replied: “Who is your happiness vendor?”

Vi siete mai chiesti cosa accade quando inseriamo monete nel distributore di bevande e selezioniamo la voce CocaCola?

No? Beh eccovi la risposta

Nel distributore troveremo un mondo parellelo… la Happiness Factory! Solo così possiamo assistere alla creazione della nostra bevanda preferita

Questo spot andò in onda un anno fa circa sulle tv internazionali totalizzando record di incassi e di pareri positivi.
La campagna inoltre non si limitava a mostrare lo spot in tv o su internet: infatti visitando il sito della CocaCola era possibile accedere ad un vero e proprio mondo virtuale che basa la propria esistenza sulla produzione di ogni singola bottiglia di Coca.

Per vedere gli altri filmati della campagna potete visitare il sito ufficiale della Psyop.

Of the 100 most mentioned brands on Twitter, the vast majority do not have corporate accounts. Imagine the influence that these brands could have if they were engaging in conversations with consumers via Twitter. They could answer questions, respond to reviews and, in general, gain insight into how their customers feel about their brands.

So I’m calling out some of the top 100 brands that SHOULD be on Twitter that aren’t… yet.

#4 Apple
I’ve seen the commercials. The Mac is supposed to be the cool guy. Since IBM is on Twitter @ibmevents, I’m going to have to say that Apple is a step behind on this one. I know I’d appreciate a little Twitter love when my iPod shows that sad iPod face…

#7 Microsoft
Those Zunes aren’t going to sell themselves.

#10 Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola spends millions on web site promotions like the CGI Happiness Factory, but they aren’t willing to sign up for a free Twitter account and assign a PR or marketing staff person with the task of monitoring the tweets related to their brand. I can’t imagine how many people are already talking about how they’re craving a Diet Coke right about now. Or maybe that’s just me!

#18 IKEA
There’s an entire (un-official) blog dedicated to do-it-yourself-ers that modify Ikea products for added efficiency. They could be talking about new product releases, decorating ideas or even helping people figure out how to turn a box full of parts into a new bookshelf!

#25 Skittles
The new Skittles web site is devoted to Web 2.0 with links to YouTube, Facebook and even Twitter. But the company doesn’t even have its own Twitter account? Lame. Well, lame and a completely incomplete launch.

#29 Lego
Anyone on Twitter that follows @GuyKawasaki (who doesn’t follow Guy?) will see all the crazy Lego creation links he posts. Wouldn’t it be phenomenal if Lego was also posting links to these creations?

#47 Subway
Wouldn’t you like to know what Jared is eating for lunch today? I sure would.

#75 Budweiser
Maybe because I’m from St. Louis and I’m still a little salty about the InBev takeover… but seriously! They could be posting about new commercials, where the clydesdales will be making appearances… I’m going to stop there. I guess I’ll have to settle for the alcohol-induced Texts from last night blog for now.

It’s always great when you read a really simple and inspiring creative brief that led to awesome work. This is an abbreviated version of an old Wieden & Kennedy  brief from ’05 that led to the famous ‘Happiness Factory’ campaign and the ‘Coke Side of Life’ tagline. I love its simplicity and pointy-ness (if that’s a word), emotive language as well as the fact it gave creatives numerous meaty departure points for idea generation. It nails a key consumer issue that’s built out of a obvious objective of restoring global sales.

ISSUE: Coke has become a forgotten friend

CHALLENGE: Remind people of what makes Coke special

BRAND IDEA: Coke is the genuine taste of happiness

SUPPORT:

Coke is delicious and refreshing.

It won’t restore the ozone layer or solve world peace.

But it will lift your spirits, especially when things aren’t going your way,

And you need a little taste of happiness.

This is when only a Coke will do.

TONE OF VOICE:

REAL & HONEST – one of a kind, refreshes your mind and body like no other

INTIMATE & PERSONAL – Coke is the ultimate connector – partake in simple life pleasures

FRIENDLIEST drink on earth

JOYFUL & UPLIFTING – Coke is the eternal optimist, a ‘can do’ attitude reminds us that a better tomorrow always awaits

Unfortunately Coke hasn’t really created an amazing global Coke campaign since this campaign. They need to return to this brief as much of their recent work is wallpaper.

Thanatos at the Happiness Factory

]]> http://luciebartlett.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/coca-cola-vs-pepsi-its-always-the-real-thing/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:55:11 +0000 luciebartlett http://luciebartlett.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/coca-cola-vs-pepsi-its-always-the-real-thing/

Marketing Week today issued a story revealing the latest brands to top Brand Finance’s Global 500 list of the world’s most valuable brands.

Wal-Mart topped the bill, if you’re interested, bumping incumbent Coca-Cola from the top spot, which the soft drinks giant had held since research began in 2007.

But it was the Coke vs. Pepsi battle that caught my eye:

It’s not all bad news for Coke, however. It is still the dominant beverage brand on the list. While Coca-Cola’s total enterprise value of $104.5bn (£71.2bn) is just 22% greater than that of Pepsi (which is 21st in the table), the Coke brand is 118% more valuable than its arch-rival.

What exactly makes a brand more ‘valuable’ than another is another post entirely, but the above should at least introduce you to the difference between a brand’s market or enterprise value (financially) and its commercial value in comparison to its rival(s).

But what this reminded me of in the main, was a fun little experiment that I have been meaning to post for a while, that I extracted from Rob Walker’s excellent work on the relationship between who people are and what they buy, Buying In. Walker was writing just last year, but for some time prior, traditional advertising methods were well on the way to being usurped by their younger digitally native upstart cousins in the social media space – invoking mass fear across the industry that brands and branding in the traditional sense no longer held the sway they once did.

So, taking the world’s biggest Superbrand (as it was then) and its arch rival, Pepsi, scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine put brand loyalty to the test amongst the disenchanted, anti-establishment student population. The results were, I thought quite remarkable.

First, they conducted the classic blind taste test – white-labelled, un-branded Pepsi vs. white-labelled, un-branded Coke. Unsurprisingly, given the very similar ingredients, the split was more or less half and half (with a slight slant in favour of Pepsi).

In the second round however, the subject had to choose between a labelled can (Pepsi for some, Coke for others) and an unlabelled one. Properly labelled, Pepsi again finished in a tie with its unknown competitor. But Coke on the other hand was by far the decisive favourite above its mystery rival.

And here’s the twist. In this second round, subjects were told that the unlabeled drink might be Pepsi or it might be Coke. In reality, the labeled drink was always  competing against itself. Thus, branded Coke totally trounced its unbranded self . Bizarre.

And when we look at the neurology behind it (courtesy of BrandChannel.com), we actually get scientific proof of brand impact. Ready? Here comes the science bit:

When Montague gave a taste of an unnamed soda to his volunteers he found that more people preferred Pepsi. On the scan images the ventral putamen, one of the brain’s reward centers, had a response that was five times stronger than for people who preferred Coke.

The shock came when Read repeated the experiment, this time telling volunteers which brand they were tasting. Nearly all the subjects then said they preferred the Coke. Moreover, different parts of the brain fired as well, especially the medial prefrontal cortex, an area associated with thinking and judging. Without a doubt the subjects were letting their experience of the Coke brand influence their preferences.

The work of Montague and other studies prove that branding goes far beyond images and memory recall. The medial prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain known to be involved in our sense of self. It fires in response to something — an image, name or concept — that resonates with who we are. Something clicks, and we are more likely to buy.

 Brand immunity? We’re not there yet.

And while we’re on the subject of the big red machine, take a look at their 2006 – most successful ever – advertising campaign, The Happiness Factory(click on the screenshot below to view). It’s fab. So fab, that they they are now rolling out a multi-player game version of the concept as an iPhone application – on top of the interactive sitealready online. Brilliant.

Loạt sản phẩm này nằm trong chiến dịch mang tên Happiness Factory vừa mới được Coca-Cola chính thức triển khai tại Việt Nam. Đây cũng là chiến dịch trọng điểm trong năm 2009 được Coca-Cola đầu tư lớn nhất về chi phí tổng thể, quy mô hoạt động và mức độ sáng tạo

Chiến dịch Happiness Factory nhằm thể hiện thế giới bên trong đầy sinh động và say mê của một chai Coca-Cola và truyền cảm hứng lạc quan đến người tiêu dùng, được triển khai dưới nhiều hoạt động sáng tạo, thú vị. Nhân dịp này, Coca-Cola cũng dành gần một triệu mẫu sản phẩm dùng thử cho người tiêu dùng tại các thành phố lớn như Hà Nội, Hồ Chí Minh và Cần Thơ.

azlogo theo 24h.com.vn

• Brand: Coca Cola
• Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, USA
• Source

Τρίτο ταινιάκι με θέμα το Happiness Factory για την Coca-Cola. Φυσικά και έχει χάσει πια την πρωτοτυπία, αλλά το ζητούμενο είναι η αναγνωρισημότητα. Μένω λοιπόν στην εξαιρετική παραγωγή της Nexus Productions που γεμίζει τα 45 δευτερόλεπτα της ταινίας με έναν ολόκληρο κόσμο από χαρακτήρες που γνωρίσαμε πριν από μερικά χρόνια. Αντίθετα για την επιμονή της διαφημιστικής Wieden + Kennedy στη σιγουριά του χαριτωμένου, δεν έχω καλά λόγια.

Happy ykk9 New year parties are fading into the recesses of our memories, here’s looking forward to a productive year ahead, with more laughter, smiles, humor, knowledge hunting, and innovation influence. The top of my anticipation list is: Gadgets, gadgets and more Gadgets.

Closer to real life, thoughts are abuzz with resolutions for the year ahead. Thoughts of goal setting, ambitions staring up the ladder of productivity and hard work.

I had lots of goals for 2008, but only ONE new year resolution. There was one thing I wanted to change: I wanted to stop drinking coca cola.
Outcome: FAIL!

Innovative look at coke?

Geek Coke

Why would one want to give up drinking coke? I love coke. It’s not just health conscientiousness. I used to crave the coke-mix-caffeine kick in the mornings. . . for breakfast. I HAD to have it. I’d rock up at the office at 7AM, singing, with my bottle of coke in hand. I’ve now replaced my coke consumption with Fruit juices and Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri’s (recipe pending) *yum*

We’re capable of developing addictions to anything. Food addictions, shopping addictions, television addictions and emotional addictions are an everyday occurrence in the lives of everyday people. Every addiction is fuelled by some exposure to it and conditioning acceptance.

Coca Cola adverts are pure genius!

The ‘Happiness Factory’ Adverts were brilliant;

Coke’s BRRR advert

It’s not often that a commercial works its way into the fabric of society and becomes a universally adopted catchphrase
- Read more

How much does advertising influence our consumerism? It’s a given, people don’t like to think outside the box, they want choices A B C, where you can simply PICK ONE!

With all eyes on 2009, forecasting the quests for innovation, challenge and change will seep into the crevices of our needs leaving our consumerism metaphorically naked waiting on new clothes and accessories. As product end users, how much of our lives, affinities and thoughts are influenced by greater forces?

It’s going to be Fun to watch the year ahead unfold.
Wishing all readers everything of the best for 2009.
May you grow in knowledge and ambition.

Knowing ourselves more deeply is one of lifes greatest adventures. The journey offers invaluable insights into how to live our truth and naturally brings a deeper sense of joy to our hearts.  

courtesy of artsartisans.com

Learning and understanding our strengths and weaknesses, we begin to love and accept ourselves more authentically, enabling the unique and precious soul that resides within to blossom and flourish.

We are all, each and every one of us, incredible souls. We all have the opportunity to shine brightly on our journey through life. We can all leave our planet a better place if we able to know ourselves and learn to love that person without conditions.  

One way to begin this process is via personality tests. Not all tests are great, in fact many on the Internet are just fluffed up blah blah, but recently I found one on a Kabbalah site thats results I found both intriguing, wholesome and helpful. 

Atzmi.com is a kabbalah site created by Rabbi Oimer Yisroel Furmanski.  He developed a step-by-step approach to teaching Kabbalah and Chassidic thought, and a testing device for personality analysis with an emphasis on personal growth and development that is the basis of the Atzmi system. 

‘In Hebrew, the word atzmi (written עצמי) has two separate but related meanings. In everyday speech, it means “me,” “my self,” “my very essence.” And this is what the Atzmi system is all about—who you are, and how you can improve and develop your true, essential inner self’ ‘  states the website.

Taking the test is simple and very easy to do and the results are really interesting.  If getting to know your  strengths and weaknesses why not give it a try. 

The Kabbalah centre in Tel aviv also offers courses in English for those interested in learning Kabbalah. The internationally renowned centre, located behind dizengoff square is open to all. Everyone is welcome. If you feel a little curious, then just pop in and pick up some brochures or speak to one of the volunteers, they are a really friendly and warm bunch of people.

Life is like a roller coaster ride.. ups and downs and ups and…

• Colourful Middle eastern Markets
• The All Female Handyman Team
• Scuba Diving Shipwrecks
• Eilat Sunshine 365 days a year
• Osho Mystic Rose
• Bethlehem Calls Come all ye faithful
• Israel Events Calendar
• Tel Aviv Cinema With English Subtitles
• The Perfect Getaway
• Reccommended Performances by Kibbutz Dance Company

“Money makes the world go around. A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound, that clinking clanking sound can make the world go round”, sang Liza Minelli & Joel Grey in Cabaret.
Money doesn’t necessarily make you happy, but maybe these Coca-Cola Happiness coins will put a smile on your face…

Coca-Cola Republic of Happiness Since 1886 – 120 Years of Positive Inspiration.

Coin starring the Kiss Puppy.

Tribute to John Pemberton, inventor of Coca-Cola.

Limited Edition of Happiness Coins for Coca-Cola’s Global Meeting 2006, Istanbul. Design by RockAndRoll Agency.

courtesy ericweisstein.com

The number of people searching for inspiration these days is astounding. Two posts I wrote recently that have resonated with a great number of people are ‘looking for meaning in your life’ and ‘the most inspiring movie this decade’ 

My personal search for inspirational material continues and while there is alot of commercial garbage about, I do come across some absolute gems from time to time.  Here is some of the most recent sites and info ive found that may interest you.   

Magazine: I have recently taken an annual prescription for is What is enlightenment? Delivered right to your door four times a year and costing $19.95, its a great read. A non profit magazine, its full with inspiring articles, great book reccomendations, details for courses around the globe and pages upon pages of inspiration.

Inspiring Movies: For those who enjoy being inspired via cinema, Ive found a wonderful website that delivers monthly inspirational movies to your door.  A great number of incredibly inspiring movies are created every year, however due to the movie monguels of holywood not believing that there is a big enough audience for these movies, they simply do not get to the big screen. The spiritual cinema circle gives the general public access to a fab selection of these wonderful movies.  For your info, here are some customer reviews for the website.

Movie Reviews: If you are looking for inspiring movies to watch, here are a few websites that review spiritual and inspiring movies. http://www.spiritual-short-stories.com/spiritual-movies.html and  http://www.spiritualteachers.org/moreinspiration.htm 

Inspirational Websites: Finding information thats both inspiring and helpful on the web can often mean wading through alot  of commercial rubbish before finding something thats genuinely beneficial. Directories can often help to focus your search a little more. Here’s a few Ive found that offer some interesting options. 

USA/CAN : http://www.spiritandsky.com/ &   http://www.findthedivine.com/ 

UK/IRELAND/SCOTLAND: http://www.triple-moon.co.uk/links.php 

AUSTRALIA:  http://www.spiritfind.net/category.pl?Cat=Spiritual_Paths&Dir=SpiritFind

 Until next time

much love mysticmiss

Unhappiness Factory: being unable to open the coca-cola bottle
i <3 coke

This is my favorite advert in advertising history.

Unhappiness Factory: being unable to open the coca-cola bottle
i <3 coke

This is my favorite advert in advertising history.

“Happiness Factory”, Coca-Cola’s multi-awarded TV spot by Psyop & Wieden+Kennedy tells the wonderful story of the journey of a Coca-Cola bottle through a vending machine. The stunning graphics, brilliant animation and emotional intensity make this “Coke Side of Life” commercial an instant classic.

The storyline shows a young man putting a coin into a Coca-Cola vending machine, which brings us into a world of fantasy behind the machine. We discover a great variety of the most spectacular 3D landscapes and a wondrous mix of cute and strange animated creatures. As the coin rolls down into a waterfall, a squadron of Chinoinks (a cross between a pig and Chinook helicopter) transports an empty bottle to the filling station. For the “Happiness Factory” workers, this is the start sign to exhibit a true labor or love. Everyone does the best they can to fill the bottle with happiness. Once finished, the bottle is kissed goodbye by the Love Puppies (some cute & fluffy white balls), while penguins scientists chill the bottle by shredding a snowman with a wood chopper. Once cooled, the Coca-Cola bottle is sent to the vendo’s exit door accompanied by a marching band, cheerleaders and fireworks.

Psyop’s storyboards and character sketches for the original “Happiness Factory” spot.

The Happiness Factory spot was so successful, that Coca-Cola asked animation experts Psyop to come up with a mini-movie. In the three-and-a-half-minute film the story follows the adventures of a Happiness Factory worker as he discovers that they run out of Coca-Cola. Be prepared for some drama, struggle & overwhelming action.

In a launch usually reserved for blockbuster movies, Coca-Cola rolled out the virtual red carpet for the premiere at the Coke Cinema in Second Life. This glamorous event was attended by hundreds of stars avatars, including Coca-Cola’s Sr. Vice President Marc Mathieu and punky pop star Avril Lavigne.

Wieden+Kennedy, the ad agency behind Coca-Cola’s “Coke Side of Life” capaigns, also created trailers, movie-inspired poster ads, wallpapers & other e-goodies and even this making of / mockumentary, which takes us behind the scenes of the Happiness Factory.

Atlanta is the Coca-Cola capital of the world. Visitors who manage to breach the city limits without knowing this will deduce it in no time—the brand’s calligraphic emblem is nearly as ubiquitous here as the Confederate battle flag was in South Carolina. And while we considered trolling for Americana in some of the smaller towns outside the city, we decided that the soft drink giant’s museum/amusement park, the World of Coca-Cola, might be able to provide a different, but just as insightful, lens into American culture.

In retrospect, we should have foreseen how strange the World of Coke was going to be as soon as we got there. The woman at the Atlanta visitor’s center said it was “definitely” worth the $15, but then again the visitor’s center smelled strongly of Coca-Cola, suggesting that she either used Coke-scented air freshener or had been taking slugs of the soda all day and filling the office with Coke-flavored belches—either of which would have disqualified her as an objective authority.

As we waited in line to hand over our $15, listening to muzak that sounded like a Yanni playing Disney soundtracks, I studied the shrine’s exterior. I couldn’t decide whether it looked like a 1960s restaurant or a 1960s rendering of what restaurants might look like in the future—silver all over and full of right angles, with tall windows and an angled lower roof that hung well over the edge of the exterior wall, serving as a canopy for the entrance. Acting as the building’s spire was a tall, translucent block, with a white Coke bottle hanging in its core like Han Solo in suspended animation.

We entered through metal detectors. In the lobby there was a glass waterfall, in front of which hung poster-sized photographs of people of different cultures and ethnicities enjoying Coca-Cola and its subsidiary beverages: an Asian man smiling at a counter and grasping what looked to me like a can of peach preserves; a group of South American kids smiling adorable, gummy smiles and clutching cans of Minute Maid; a fashionable European man with flowing blonde hair, taking a break from trance-dancing to stare sexily into the camera with his Power Play energy drink. Behind me, a visiting family was immortalizing its own Coke moment by posing in front of three giant bottles made from “materials from all over the world.”

“OK kids, now on ‘three’ I want you to say ‘Coca-Cola’!” said the cheerful employee holding the camera. “Ready? One, two…” I imagined how daft the photo would look with each family member rounding that “O” with their lips.

Before we were allowed to roam free in the World of Coke, we were herded into a room for an orientation session. The ceilings and walls of the room were black fabric blanketed almost entirely with old Coke advertisements—a blonde boy scout toting home a six-pack for the family, a gorgeous couple holding each other in one arm and a Coke in the other, a famous jazz musician reaching for a bottle (which is naturally assumed to be the source of his talent), and so on.

There was something ineffably wholesome about these decades-old drawings. They did not promise that drinking Coke would make one appear more sexually attractive, improve one’s social status, or cure some finicky ailment, and did not require special effects, slapstick comedy, or the endorsement of some animated spokesperson; the small, caramel-colored bottle and the slightly open-mouthed smile of whoever was holding it were enough. I imagine that advertising is as clear a window into culture as any other artifact or data set, because it reflects the values, attitudes, and ambitions of the people it targets. The America these old Coke ads reconstructed was milder and less complicated, where the simple pleasure of a bottle of bubbly brown liquid was enough to make folks content with the world.

The orientation was tedious and clearly geared toward families with young children. Our guide would point out that Coke products are “enjoyed” 1.4 billion times daily, accounting for nearly a quarter of the world population (though this inference does not control for the 350-pound software developers in Fort Worth who average six 20-ounce bottles per day). Regardless, we were instructed to say “Woooow” and “Oh my gosh!” at these facts, and also at the museum’s $2 million Norman Rockwell painting of a farm boy relaxing with a Coke in the shade of a tree. This lay insulated behind a pane of glass along with other treasures such as a Coke-themed bingo card and a pair of hideous logo-stamped beach pants.

Next, we were ushered into a theater and shown an animated “documentary,” called “Inside the Happiness Factory,” which purports to show what happens between the time you deposit change into a Coke vending machine and when the beverage lands in the drop box. This was especially informative to those who, like me, had assumed that this was a simple mechanical process involving an automated series of levers.

What actually happens is that the coins emerge into a vast, Middle-Earthean landscape, alerting an integrated team of small, colorful creatures with no eyes and initiating a fantastical process that could only have evolved from a Dr. Seuss fever dream: A fleet of bloated caterpillar larvae harnessed to helicopter blades airlift an empty bottle to a platform, where a sinister-looking cannon shoots it full of Coke. The full bottle is then transported to what looks like the North Pole, where it is flash-frozen by a high-powered cooling fan powered by dismembered snowman corpses. The final product is paraded down some sort of ethereal boulevard with much fanfare while the creatures rejoice like sailors returning victorious from the Pacific Theater. Then you get your Coke.

Interviews with those involved in the operation follow. Their comments are well-edited and somewhat droll, but what leaps out is the variety of accents among the various fairytale beings. The sample that was interviewed was no doubt selected to show the diversity of the workforce at the Happiness Factory, but it made me suspicious about this strange fantasy world to which Coke had apparently outsourced its labor. What exactly are the rights of the workers in this place, and had those rights been made clear to them? The process by which the Coke is prepared is dramatic, but also clearly dangerous. What sort of hazard pay are they getting out of this? What about health benefits? Also, some of the interviewees sounded like they couldn’t be much older than 15. The longer I watched, the more I was convinced that there was a dark side to this so-called Happiness Factory, and I made a mental note to e-mail Michael Moore when I got home.

When the movie let out, we were free to roam at last. Ben, Rachel and I went up to the second floor to the most popular attraction in the complex: the tasting room. The tasting room’s soda fountains gave visitors a chance to learn about foreign cultures by sampling the products that Coca-Cola had foisted upon them. I am not a big soda drinker, but fearing that I might appear uncultured, I tasted a few brands. Mexico’s Ciel Aquarius tasted like sweet tea. Peru’s Inca Kola tasted like club soda. China’s Smart Apple tasted like what you might get if you put a box of Mike and Ike in a juicer. Italy’s Beverly cola, flavored with grapefruit rinds, tasted like something you might take to keep diarrhea at bay. Honduras’s Delaware Punch, mercifully, tasted like nothing.

Once we were sufficiently nauseated, we went into another theater for a show that seemed designed for the express purpose of making us throw up. It was advertised as a “4-D” show, and it was only mid-show that we realized the fourth dimension was extreme physical discomfort. The movie was about why Coke tastes great, mostly set in a fictional laboratory run by an overenthusiastic man in a lab coat. Not the most exciting or motion-intensive subject matter, and yet the seats shook, jolted, spat water in our faces, and stabbed us in our spines—perks added to give kids a thrill and their parents heart attacks.

But it was the film they showed in the anteroom before the show that really drove home the running theme of the World of Coca-Cola. It was a film that takes place in the community of chemoreceptor cells that make up the human mouth. Crisis strikes when the mouth accidentally swallows a habanera pepper setting the mouth aflame. A cool wave of Coca-Cola saves the day, and just as the various social classes of nerves—the aristocratic nasal receptors, the blue-collar basic-taste buds, the new-age Umami hipsters—are about to come to blows over who most enables the mouth to enjoy that “sublime” Coke taste, the cerebellum intervenes and explains how enjoying Coke is a team effort, where all the senses are equally duped into thinking the chemical-laced beverage is something that should be inside the human body. Then the mouth drinks more Coke, and the cells have a dance party.

The lesson being that amid all the warring between nations, classes, and generations, a transcendent love of Coca-Cola is the one thing that all people—and anthropomorphic chemoreceptor cells—have in common. A hopeful message—except to those defective individuals who dislike Coke products, who are doomed to wander the earth alone, forever parched of human fellowship. We ruin it for everyone.    

Posted from Price Circle Road, Nashville, Tennessee.

Turning 40 brought its fair share of emotions. First the sense of disbelief.. Gosh really 40 ..how did that happen so quickly.. I dont feel like 40! Do I look 40, do I behave like a 40 year old..and so on and so on..

The next step was reflection.. remembering the years gone by, the adventures, the challenges and the ups and downs on the roller coaster ride of life.  Taking a little mental check to see if I was satisfied with what my life amounted to til now…a great gift to myself.

It was a really enjoyable process, meandering through the endless field of memories cultivated from 40 years on our glorious planet.  Many many forgotten faces, experiences, and feelings came back into the here and now…Very pleaseant.

A great trip down memory lane… and a wonderful way to begin creating a little blueprint for the next 40 years of fun. Seeing what still inspires you, what you  would still like to do/achieve/try/create & experience

In a few days I am 41. I am feeling great. I bought a bicycle and am loving the expereince of scooting  about the city. Its connects me to the eternal child within, gets the blood circulating, is super healthy and great for the environment AND is a wonderful way to nuture ones vitality. Discovering places in your neighbourhood  you didnt even know exist is a frequent joy on a bicycle. 

Want to be rid of the heavy feelings of forty-dom? Want to leave this feeling way behind you?  Want to feel and look younger, feel more vital, feel more alive than you have for years ?

Get a Bike ladies and gents I promise.. it will change you, change you from within. I cant reccomend it enough!!

Until next time

mysticmiss