Coca-Cola's clay dolls send gifts of love via AR

As is its wont, Coca-Cola is going all out for Chinese New Year in China. In addition to literally turning an entire city into an animated billboard (see video below), the brand has teamed up with Alipay to create an animated film (above), to give away millions of red packets, and to put its long-standing clay doll characters into action using augmented reality. 

The adorable doll duo (which has a long history with the brand), will be "enacting love gestures to deliver family love" on packaging, TV, print, outdoor, point-of-sale, and digital materials, according to McCann Shanghai. You can see a small snippet of this action at the end of the video above.

There's also a 30-second ad in which the dolls engineer family harmony by delivering a kung-fu kick. Preventing a Coke spill gives a younger cousin a chance to shine, thus putting an end to teasing by his older cousin. 

On January 19, the brand kicked off the season by painting the entirety of Qingdao's skyline in Coca-Cola-red LEDs.

Personally, Ad Nut isn't greatly enthused about the campaign. But then again, Ad Nut is definitely not the target audience. 

See more 2019 Chinese/Lunar New Year ad campaigns

It's an interesting contrast with the Pepsi work Ad Nut expressed dismay about yesterday (see "Want a little Pepsi in your CNY space epic? Neither does Ad Nut"). While Pepsi did something well outside the normal CNY fare (only to shoot itself in the foot with ham-fisted product placement), Coke is clearly content to stick to something people seem to like. No harm in that.

CREDITS

Coca-Cola Asia Pacific Account Head: Cia Hatzi
Coca-Cola Regional Executive Creative Director: Nora Manjit Executive Creative Director: Michael Li
Group Account Director: Felicia How Senior Account Manager: Sophie Zhu Account Executive: Eva Zhang Senior Art Director: Alair Qu Copywriter: Yitian Yang
Creative Planner: Jay Caplan Agency Producer: Alison Lin
TVC Production House: The Loft Films
TVC Post Production House: MPC Shanghai TVC Director: Pepe Puenzo
Packaging Design Production House: MPC Shanghai Partner: Alibaba Group
Media Agency: Dentsu Aegis Media Shanghai

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.